"The first Austrian bentwood furniture manufacturing company" --page [1]
Printed by the James Bayne Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan (colophon, page 116)
This rare volume is the 1911-1912 sales catalog for the bentwood furniture manufacturer Jacob & Josef Kohn of Vienna. Also known as J. & J. Kohn, the company which began production in 1870 became recognized for the simple clarity of their unpretentious, mass-produced work.The main competitor of Thonet, whose designs became ubiquitous as seating for cafes and gardens, Kohn revolutionized the furniture industry at the beginning of the twentieth century by introducing pieces designed by celebrated Wiener Werksatte architects/designers such as Joseph Hoffmann and Koloman Moser. These designs, conceived for multiple or mass production, focused on creating elegant bentwood furniture suitable for domestic interiors. From then on, bentwood furniture was no longer anonymous industrial product for the mass market, but became part of the modernist aesthetic.This catalog containing 109 pages of furniture designs including room suites by Joseph Hoffman is an extraordinary visual item documenting the role of Wiener Werkstatte designs in creating mass produced furniture for a new industrial age
Also available online.
Laid in: Price list for 1911-1912 Jacob & Josef Kohn catalog, dated August 14th, 1912, 14 pages, with the original printed paper cover.
Gift of Rick Barandes, 1994
Original color-printed tan paper binding with raised lettering
CHMRB copy 39088008153876 has bookplate: Smithsonian Libraries Adopt-a-Book program. Adopted by Susan G. Waxter in honor of Peter W. Waxter on October 29, 2018