Model No. 4 
Sessel Chair 
Entwurf und Ausführung Design and execution: Henry I. Seymour, New York, 
2. H. 19. Jh. 2nd half of the 19th Century; Buche, Eiche, massiv und gebogen, 
Geflecht Beech, oak, solid and bent, cane; MAK H 2982/ 1987; Schenkung 
Donation Alexander von Vegesack 
Schaukelstuhl Rocking Chair 
Entwurf und Ausführung Design and execution: Henry I. Seymour, New York, 
um ca. 1870; Nussbaum, Esche, Eiche, massiv und gebogen, Geflecht 
Walnut, ash, oak, solid and bent, cane; MAK H 2964/1987 
Chair Model No. 4 was first presented in 1850 
at the exhibition of the Lower Austrian Trade 
Association. The first delivery dates from the 
summer of 1 851: A Mr. Bartl ordered four 
dozen chairs and one dozen armchairs for the 
“Zur Königin von England” Hotel in Pest (Bu 
dapest). In the fall of the same year, Daum’s 
cafd was also furnished with Model No. 4 
chairs. 1 The aesthetically pleasing back motif 
of this model was also very populär with Eu 
ropean as well as non-European bentwood 
manufacturers at that time-especially in the 
USA: In addition to the “bold” rocking chair 
construction of an unknown manufacturer, in 
which the backrest motif is not connected to 
the rails in the lower area, this motif is also 
found in the furniture of Henry I. Seymour, who 
also used the same rear support construction 
as Gebrüder Thonet. 2 However, he chose a 
simpler seat and a different type of leg Con 
nection, which was obviously in keeping with 
American taste: “Rather than striving to con- 
fuse consumers with Thonet imitations, as did 
J. & J. Kohn and Fischei in Europe, manufac 
turers in the United States seem to have had 
a particularly American desire to domesticate 
these foreign designs.” 3 
1 This chronology differs from the presentation in Thonet's own 
Company history, according to which the Viennese Cafd Daum was 
the first establishment to be furnished with chair No. 4. 
Cf. Ulrich Löber, "Jakob Henrich, Schreinermeister aus Boppard," 
therein: Michael Thonet Jr's letter from 15 August 1851, in: Exhib.- 
Cat. Thonet, Biegen oder Brechen, Koblenz 1996, 38-42. 
2 Cf. Barry R. Harwood, “Two Early Thonet Imitators in the United 
States," in: Studies in the Decorative Arts, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Fall 1994), 
The University of Chicago Press, 92-113. 
3 Ibid., 105. 
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