Light 
Already during the production of the running 
chairs for Palais Liechtenstein, it had been 
Michael Thonet’s aim to produce chairs that 
were as light as possible and extremely stable 
at the same time. Even after the invention of 
bending solid wood, the Company repeatedly 
returned to this idea. Whether this was done 
for economic reasons in the hope of possibly 
saving money on materials or out of pure ex 
perimental joy, can hardly be answered today. 
An extremely light chair was designed at the 
end of the 19th Century, likely by August 
Thonet-at least he was involved in the making 
of the chair in Bystrice pod Hostynem in 1890: 
Chair No. 91 -also called lath chair-was the 
first piece of bentwood furniture in which the 
components had an oval cross-section. To 
stabilize this piece of furniture, which was 
somewhat fragile-looking due to its thin rails, 
there was on the one hand, a leg ring which 
was placed quite far down the legs 1 , and, on 
the other hand, two laths which crossed in the 
back and were screwed laterally to the seat 
frame, thus they took over the function of the 
braces in the classic models. All of the com 
ponents were connected with specially manu- 
factured screws. Lightweight chairs were re 
peatedly an issue in the 20th Century. Giö Ponti 
may have been one of the most famous de- 
signers of light chairs. After he had designed 
the “Leggera”-which was oriented on the tra- 
ditional Chiavari chairs-in 1951, he went on 
to top that with the “Superleggera" in 1957: 
By making the legs triangulär, he managed to 
reduce the weight even more without losing 
stabil ity. 
1 Only a few years later, in some of the Viennese avant-garde 
designs-for example in the models for the Cabaret Fledermaus- 
this leg ring becomes a u-shaped arch that rests on the floor. 
Sessel Nr. 699 Chair No. 699 „Superleggera“ 
Entwurf Design: Giovanni Ponti, Mailand Milan, 1956 
Ausführung Execution: Figli di Amedeo Cassina, Mailand Milan, 1956; 
Esche, Geflecht Ash, rush weave; MAK H 2138/1968 
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