Bending Veneers
Sessel Chair
Entwurf und Ausführung Design and execution: Samuel Gragg, Boston,
um oa. 1808; Esche, Nussbaum, massiv und gebogen Ash, walnut,
solid and bent; MAK H 2933/1988
Fauteuil Armohair
Entwurf Design: Jean-Joseph Chapuis, Brüssel Brussels, um ca. 1803
Ausführung Execution: Jean-Joseph Chapuis, Werkstatt Brüssel Workshop Brussels,
1804-10; Nussbaum, massiv und schichtverleimt, Bronze, Geflecht Walnut, solid
and laminated, bronze, cane; Roentgen-Museum Neuwied/Museumsstiftung Krüger
The seat and the backrest of the chair by
Samuel Gragg are made of solid bent strips
of ash wood. Little is known about Gragg’s
technique of bending the wood, and unfortu-
nately his patent from 1808 has not survived. 1
The armohair by Jean-Joseph Chapuis and the
chair by Michael Thonet, on the other hand,
are made of laminated wood. However, the
term “laminated” as a description is unspecific
since it subsumes different approaches with
the common aspect of bending and gluing
aligned wood veneers in the same grain di-
rection. Even before Michael Thonet’s experi-
ments with laminated veneers, it was custom-
ary to soften veneers or thin strips of wood
by exposure to water or steam, to bend them,
to glue them after drying, and to press them
in a suitable mold. This traditional process,
which Chapuis also used, was modified by
Thonet and significantly improved to produce
the individual components made of bentwood
faster and more efficiently. 2
1 Cf. Patricia Kane, “Samuel Gragg; ‘His bentwood fancy chairs',”
in: Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin, Autumn 1971, 26-37.
2 This is stated in the French patent application from 1 July 1841:
“[L]e bois qu'on veut rendre mou et flexible est jet6 dans un bain
de colle forte And in summary, a little later: “Ainsi la forme est
donnöe en m§me temps que le collage s'opöre, avantage d'autant
plus präcieux que la mollesse qu'elles ont acquise par le bain facilit6
extraordinairement le travail." This new method made it possible to
produce bentwood components faster and more efficiently than
before. “De cette sorte le travail est extrömement rapide, les chaises
sons toutes identiques de formes et dimensions.” Transcription of
the patent in: Robin Rehm / Christoph Wagner (eds.),
Designpatente der Moderne 1840-1970, Berlin 2019, 417-419.
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