Josef Hoffmann for Stendig Bentwood Cane Dining Chairs, Set of Eight

$780List Price

Shop All Josef Hoffmann

Josef Hoffmann

The Austrian architect Josef Hoffmann was a central figure in the evolution of modern design, and a leader in an aesthetic movement born in Europe in the late 19th century that rejected florid, extravagant ornamentation in favor of a new emphasis on simplicity of line.

As a founder of the Vienna Secession — a union of artists and designers determined to upend Austria’s artistic conservatism — and later, a founder of the turn-of-the-century Wiener Werkstätte (in English: the Viennese Workshops), a design cooperative that produced superbly crafted furniture and housewares, Hoffmann was a pioneering practitioner of what would become a fundamental principle of modernism: that good design is a way of life.

Hoffmann came of age amidst a shift in the culture of the applied arts, as a conservative order that looked only to the past for inspiration was pushed aside. But what, exactly, would replace that order was in question — and Hoffmann’s career embodies the developing patterns of design’s new spirit. His architectural work reflects his time as a student of the Vienna architect Otto Wagner, who disdained excessive decoration and employed new materials such as steel girders and reinforced concrete to create buildings with airy, open interiors full of light.

As a designer of furniture and interiors, Hoffmann was consistently open-minded about the aesthetics he explored. He was an early adherent of the flowing, organic forms of the Art Nouveau design movement that began to flourish in the late 1880s — but by the opening of the Wiener Werkstätte in 1903, Hoffmann’s designs embraced the beauty of geometry in pieces that feature grids and angular forms.

Hoffmann’s greatest works reflect his ability to combine seemingly conflicting design visions into coherent wholes. His architectural masterpiece, the Stoclet Palace in Brussels, has an exterior that groups together simple geometric forms and spacious interiors marked by subtly naturalistic design details that lend rooms an air of charm and geniality.

Hoffmann’s signature furniture design is an adjustable lounge chair — the Sitzmaschine (1905) — that marries a curving frame with square and rectangular back- and side rests. This piece, like so many others by Hoffmann, reflects a groundbreaking, forward-thinking appreciation for the union of different looks and sources that marks the best of interior design in our own day. Moreover, items offered on 1stDibs — which range from enameled silver jewelry, to silver flower vase baskets and other decorative objects, to sofas, lighting pendants and sconces — testify to the astonishing breadth of Hoffman’s creative pursuits. He was truly a giant of design.

Shop All Stendig Co.

Stendig Co.

Stendig Co. played a pivotal role in introducing modern European furniture to the American market, thanks to the business acumen of founder Charles Stendig.

Around 1950, the Brooklyn, New York–born Stendig (1924–2024) worked for Raymor, a purveyor of modern china and accessories that is best known for distributing designer Russel Wright’s American Modern line of ceramics. While at Raymor, Stendig focused on the company’s less popular pieces that were made in Italy and Scandinavia, recognizing their potential for the American market. In 1955, he left the company and decided to establish Stendig Co.

That year, a chance encounter with a Finnish trade representative led him to furniture company Asko — one of the largest companies operating in Scandinavia. Asko invited him and Joseph Carreiro, a professor at the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts), to help refine their designs.

At Asko’s production facility in Finland, Stendig met several renowned Finnish designers such as Ilmari Tapiovaara, Tapio Wirkkala and Eero Aarnio, the iconic Ball chair creator. Stendig’s trip there was a success, and Stendig Co. began importing Finnish furniture to the United States.

In 1956, the first Stendig Co. showroom opened in Manhattan. A year later, during a trip to Zurich, Stendig came across a Bauhaus–inspired furniture store featuring pieces by Swiss designers Kurt Thut, Hans Eichenberger and Robert Haussmann, the store’s co-owner. Following a meeting with Haussmann, Stendig became the retailer’s exclusive U.S. distributor.

Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, Stendig Co. imported and sold furniture from influential European designers, including Swiss designer Bruno Rey, Italian architect and industrial designer Vico Magistretti and Hungarian-American architect and designer Marcel Breuer, creator of the Wassily lounge chair.

By the late 1960s, Stendig Co. moved its headquarters to an expansive space on Manhattan’s East Side and opened showrooms in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago, each home to the company’s striking collection of mid-century European armchairs, sofas, dining room chairs, coffee tables and other furnishings. Stendig’s founder was by then representing Italian manufacturers Poltronova and Gufram and bringing revolutionary works of Italian Radical design to American shores.

In 1971, Charles Stendig sold the company to Burlington Industries. He retired in 1976. Today Stendig’s European imports are coveted by interior designers and vintage furniture collectors, and he will be forever known as the man who introduced modern European design to the United States.

Find a range of vintage Stendig Co. furniture on 1stDibs.

Vintage 1930s Czech Bauhaus Dining Room Chairs

Materials

Cane, Bentwood

1930s Josef Hoffmann No. 811 Prague Bentwood Cane Dining Chairs – Set of 6

$4,995 / set

H 32.5 in W 17.75 in D 20.25 in

4 Black Bentwood Cane Josef Hoffman Prague 811 Armchairs for Stendig by Thonet

By Thonet, Stendig Co., Josef Hoffmann

Located in Topeka, KS

Iconic vintage Bauhaus black painted bentwood & cane Josef Hoffman Prague 811 armchairs imported by Stendig for Thonet, a set of 4. Beautiful condition, keeping in mind that these are vintage and not new so will have signs of use and wear even if it has been refinished or restored. Specifically, there have been a few small repairs in the caning of all chairs and one chair seat has been replaced completely. It has been replaced with sheet cane and not individually woven. Please see photos, zoom in for details, and see long description as they are part of the condition report. We attempt to portray any imperfections. Circa, Early to Mid-20th Century. Much like a fine wine or the Mona Lisa, some things just get better with age… That’s just a fact! Including these iconic vintage black painted bentwood & cane Josef Hoffman Prague 811 armchairs by Stendig for Thonet! Talk about the ability to withstand the hands of time!! This Josef Hoffman 811 chair was originally designed in 1925 but remains a current and fabulous design that is highly sought after today. This set of 4 is comprised of beautiful black painted bentwood frames bearing slender rounded arms, slightly flared legs, and marvelous natural cane seats AND backs!! SPECTACULAR!!! Can’t you just SEE these beauties surrounding your kitchen table, breakfast nook, game table, or simply used as extra seating in the family room? We certainly can! Just the right touch of Bauhaus magnificence to any room and they’re sure to complement your home with their classic, historical excellence, whatever your style whether its Bauhaus, Art Deco, Mid-Century Modern, or Modern!! Josef Hoffman was one of Austria's most important architects and designers and was central to the development of art and design in Vienna. He grew up with three sisters and was nicknamed Pepo. His father was the town mayor and a successful businessman. He was a founding member of the Vienna Secession, a radical anti-historicist movement, and together with Koloman Moser created the Wiener Werkstatte cooperative workshop. A highly individualistic architect and designer, Hoffmann's work combined the simplicity of craft production with a refined aesthetic ornament. Between 1901 and 1905, he designed four villas in Vienna and a sanatorium in Brussels that was called “Stoclet House”, for which he developed a “cubistic” language of form, with an emphasis on straight, unadorned lines. In 1905, he established the Kunstschau with painter Gustav Klimt and, two years later, founded the Deutscher Werkbund. Hoffmann worked well into his 80s, continuing to use the geometric motifs that influenced the art deco style of the 1920s. In 1928 his work appeared in the Art in Industry exhibition held at Macy’s in New York City, where it exerted a strong influence on American designer Donald Deskey. Hoffmann is one of the seminal figures in the modern decorative arts movement of the first half of the 20th century. Stendig was totally the brainchild and passion of Charles W. Stendig. You cannot write or talk about Stendig without explaining Charles. He was a pioneer of import goods in the mid-century. After serving in WWII as a paratrooper, he studied business with emphasis on international trade at NYU and City College of New York. Afterward first working for Raymor, another pioneering distribution company, for about two years, departing to start his own business: Stendig. He opened his first showroom in 1956 in midtown Manhattan. He is credited for sparking America’s interest in furniture from Finland, Switzerland, Italy, and Czechoslovakia. He imported from the likes of Thonet, Asko, and De Sede; and from iconic designers including Le Corbusier, Josef Hoffmann, Eero Aarnio, Tapio Wirkkala, Marcel Breuer, Jonathan De Pas, Donato D’Urbino, Paolo Lomazzi, Carlo Mollino, Carlo Scarpa, and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni to name just a few. By the late 1960’s, Stendig had showrooms in Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco with a large headquarters in NYC. They were exciting and good times but short lived. The business was a challenge and when an offer was made by Burlington Industries to purchase, Charles agreed. He stayed on till 1976 to oversee and then retired. I have searched the internet to no avail to find out if a Stendig division is still in operation. But I can only find the Stendig Calendar, the only calendar in MoMA’s collection, which was designed for Stendig by Mossimo Vignelli, still offered. But I am having a hard time deciding who is creating and offering it. I do know Burlington Industries was bankrupt by 2001, purchased in 2003, merged with Cone Mills in 2004 and subsequently into ITG or International Textile Group. But the Stendig name reins as an icon of high style mid-century offerings. Thonet was founded by Michael Thonet. Michael was born in 1796 and was apprenticed by his father to a cabinetmaker. Shortly after he married, Michael opened his one-man cabinetmaking shop creating furniture and cabinetry in the traditional manner by carving the needed parts and then joining them together. In 1830 he began experimenting with bending wood into curved shapes and thus began a successful furniture company that has remained continually in operation for nearly 200 years. Thonet’s early work was very Biedermeier in style and not made for the common man. Gradually his designs became more Art Nouveau. In 1951 his chairs for the Crystal Palace at the London World’s Fair won a prize medal and by the late 1950s he began to make his first “consumer” chair. In 1875, a year before Michael’s death, Thonet’s five factories made 620,000 chairs. Then in 1876 after his death the company became Gebruder Thonet. But all was not roses. In 1869 the Thonet patents lapsed and by 1893 there were 52 bentwood companies in Europe. However, Thonet persevered. They branched out. They merged. They added designs by Le Corbusier and Breuer and alternative materials such as tubular chrome in place of bentwood to their offerings. Business boomed and waned through the years and there was even a Thonet revival, so to speak, beginning in the 1940s on into the mid-20th century. Till today, in the 21st century, Thonet is still a furniture company to be reckoned with almost 200 years later. We are in love with this iconic set of 4 Prague 811 chairs...

Category

Early 20th Century Czech Bauhaus Armchairs

Materials

Cane, Bentwood, Paint

$3,687 Sale Price

40% Off

H 30.32 in W 20.48 in D 20.08 in

Set of Beech Dining Chairs by Josef Hoffmann for Jacob Josef Kohn

By Josef Hoffmann, Jacob Josef Kohn

Located in Budapest, HU

Set of Two Beech Dining Chairs by Josef Hoffmann for Jacob & Josef Kohn This refined set of two dining chairs was designed by Josef Hoffmann for the renowned Austrian firm Jacob & J...

Category