Description
This is a very large lot from the estate of the original patent holder.
The chair is noted as being fabricated for and subsequently shown by Thonet. We are unsure if it was ever mass produced by Thonet but we can find no evidence that it was or any existing fully finished chairs making these two design prototype examples as possibly the only two remaining. One more from the estate was unfortunately destroyed before we made contact.
Paperwork refers to this chair by a number of names from early notes on. It is noted as Viola, Secon Fiddle, New Wave and QED. We are unsure what the final name determination was for the showing by Thonet.
The package is best elaborated via our pictures as the items included are too numerous to list. Suffice to say that you are essentially getting the designer/patent holders entire file on this chair which include blueprints, rough designs, cardboard patterns for the chair, slides of the prototypes, correspondence with Thonet, patent drawings and filings, Thonet contract example, the two prototype chairs of course and much more.
The chairs themselves are design prototypes and not finished chairs per. se. though we were a bit conservative with regards to tightening the pieces down which may help. Regardless, we are selling them as design prototypes built for design, prototyping and fabrication.
They have design adjustments between the two and we think the white one was the first of the two. The bolts on the darker one are probably the finished design and they are nice and smooth and fairly clean. The white chair has a spun fiberglass overlay and the darker one shows its base molded material when seen at the back.
Along with the two finished prototypes are two other molded pieces used during development, the seat and the back.
The surfaces of both chairs shows aging including some surface marks, small fissures in coating or fiberglass and other normal aging.
The two large photo sheets (2 copies of same images) appear to show at least a later prototype if not the one manufactured by Thonet. Additionally there are two medium and two regular small photographs of the chairs. The large photo sheets have a spot on one picture each where they were stuck together briefly. They are not sticky.
The negative for the large 6 photo sheet is also included.
There is a huge lot of various sketches and details (see envelope picture) on 8″ x 10″ or smaller sheets that are too numerous to picture all of them but we have shown a good sampling.
We estimate there are 35-40 usually large blueprint style pieces on various weight papers. Some on drafting light paper while others are on stiff more traditional drawing paper weight. Only a fraction of these are pictured though you can see by the cardboard tube top pictures how many there are. There are also about another 8-10 that are folded.
A copy of the unsigned Thornet contract is also included, it has no signatures of course but was the review copy prior to the signing. There is also correspondence copies from Thornet along with a letter from the fabricator.
There is a lot of the paper items including numerous sketches that we are unable to show due the the picture limitations but we have provided some group shots and shots of the folder and tubes that hold everything to give you an idea of the completeness and sheer scope of the package that basically shows the chair developing from early sketches to the finished prototypes.
This is very large and one of a kind package that spans many collecting areas. Do not hesitate if you are interested as you certainly will never get the opportunity again.
This is a local pick up only package mostly due to the sheer size of the chairs. Now the chairs do come apart but single pieces are still quite large. We will be happy to coordinate with a packing service if the buyer would like to have a service pack and ship this package but we will not crate or box it ourselves. Contact us if you wish to discuss your own methods or local pickup.
