Postmundus 
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Sessel Chair 
Entwurf und Ausführung Design and execution: 
J. & J. Kohn, um ca. 1890; Buche, massiv 
gebogen, Geflecht Beech, solid bent, cane; 
Technisches Museum Wien Vienna 
> 
Sessel Nr. 24 Chair No. 24 
Entwurf Design: Gebrüder Thonet, 1875 
Ausführung Execution: Gebrüder Thonet, 
Koritschan Korycany, um ca. 1880; Buche, massiv 
gebogen, Geflecht Beech, solid bent, cane; 
Sammlung Collection Werner 
Düring a visit in 2008 to the Croatian Mundus 
factory, where, among other things, the bent- 
wood furniture for the English furniture störe 
Conran is made, the designer Martino Gamper 
was inspired to create some unusua! bent- 
wood creations with the title “Postmundus.” 
One of these furniture objects designed for 
the Conran Shop was launched again by the 
Milanese gallery Nilufar as a low volume series 
in 2012 and presented again at the Milan Fur 
niture Fair. The designer used five bentwood 
pieces for his design, namely those which usu- 
ally make up the No. 18 hairpin shaped back 
splat, but two of these pieces were also used 
as rear legs: As an homage to the classic 
Thonet chairs, Gamper’s construction initially 
reminds one of the model No. 24, introduced 
in the late 1870s, which uses two of the bent 
wood components that were used for the 
“Postmundus" chair as a decorative motif in 
its backrest. However, the Technical Museum 
in Vienna owns a model-probably by J. & J. 
Kohn-from the 1890s, which is not included 
in the catalogs, and which has an even greater 
formal similarity to Gamper’s design, because 
here too the use of a separate crest rail as a 
frame for the motif is omitted. This historic 
model is indeed structurally completely differ 
ent; The two outer hairpins are an extension 
of the rear legs and only the middle hairpin is 
applied as a purely ornamental motif. It is this 
decorative element from which the similarity 
with Gamper's model results from. 
: ...is 
II i 
277