J & J Kohn Vienna Secession Bench
Austria, C. 1910

Description:

A rare, brilliantly proportioned, Vienna Secession bentwood bench produced by the father and son duo, Jacob and Josef Kohn, circa 1910.
J. & J. Kohn of Vienna, Austria, was founded in 1849 as an interior design agency and a firm that made wooden elements for buildings. Around 1867, they began making furniture and quickly became one of the leading furniture makers in Austria-Hungary.

A factor which helped grow J. & J. Kohn’s prominence was their successful collaboration with the architect Josef Hoffmann who most probably designed this bench. Indeed, the bench is essentially a variation of the one Hoffmann designed for the Salon in his Kleines Landhaus for the 1908 Wiener Kunstschau, which was an attempt to create a universally available and affordable Gesamtkunstwerk -the use of industrially manufactured furniture being one way of reducing costs.

The bench is made of solid beech wood and retains its original warm-dark-brown stain finish. The seat is sprung, the backrest padded, and both these elements are upholstered. Underside stamped J. & J. Kohn.

Specifications:

Width: 123 cm
Height: 81.5 cm
Seat Height: 50 cm
Depth: 54 cm