At the beginning of the 1840s, Michael Thonet 
described the resiliency of the chairs and arm- 
chairs as one of the decisive advantages of his 
new laminated veneer technique-“qu’il presen 
ter ä une certaine elasticite, comme un ressort 
plus ou moins bände.” 1 The Contemporary ex- 
hibition reports on Thonet's furniture also re- 
peatedly pointed out “a pleasant resiliency in 
the back and armrests of the chairs.” 2 Due to 
the continuous development of this material 
technology, almost a hundred years later even 
cantilever seating furniture could be produced 
using laminated wood: With his laminated arm- 
chair No. 31, introduced in 1932, the architect 
and designer Alvar Aalto succeeded in doing 
what had until recently been believed to be 
possible only in tubulär Steel furniture. Like 
Michael Thonet did with his Boppard chairs, 
he used a side frame construction-only now 
without rear legs. The cantilever chair design- 
ed by Garth Chester in 1944, on the other 
hand, is not made of laminated wood but of a 
single molded and cut-in plywood panel mount- 
ed on two wooden rails. 3 Thus, the so-called 
‘‘Curvesse Chair” is the first cantilever chair 
made of plywood-a material which is really not 
known for its resiliency and is light but also 
rigid. In its one-piece Version with the cuts for 
the armrests, the “Curvesse Chair” is a formal 
reminder of Gerald Summers’ “BPAC” [Bent 
Plywood Arm Chair], created ten years earlier, 
as well as the chair designs by Han Pieck, both 
of which stand firmly on four legs. 
1 French patent application from 16 November 1841, in: Robin 
Rehm / Christoph Wagner (ed.), Designpatente der Moderne 
1840-1970, Berlin 2019, 418. 
2 H. Rößler, Verhandlungen des Gewerb-Vereins für das Groß 
herzogtum Hessen, Darmstadt 1843, 37. 
3 Cf. Douglas Lloyd Jenkins, 40 Legends of New Zealand Design, 
Auckland 2006, 31-33. 
Freischwingender Stuhl, Modell 31 
Cantilever Chair, Model 31 
Entwurf Design: Alvar Aalto, Helsinki, um ca. 1931 
Ausführung Execution: Oy Huonekalu-ja 
Rakennustyötehdas AB, Turku, um ca. 1935; Birke, 
massiv und schichtverleimt, Sperrholz Birch, solid 
and laminated, plywood; MAK H 2956/1987 
„Curvesse Chair“ 
Entwurf Design: Gamet Campbell „Garth“ Chester, 
Auckland, 1944 
Ausführung Execution: Garnet Campbell „Garth“ 
Chester, Auckland, um ca. 1950; Sperrholz, 
gebogen, Massivholz Plywood, bent, massive wood; 
Sammlung Collection Mantz