Historical information

Bentwood furniture is a type of furniture made by bending wooden rods into the required shape after they have been heated with steam. Mundus bentwood chairs are among the most successful examples of early mass-produced furniture.
Mundus furniture was a manufacturing company, active in several places in the Austro Hungarian Empire, at the end of the 19th century and early 20th century. Factories seem to have existed in multiple locations, as the products carry diverse labels, such as "Budapest", "Borlova", "Czechoslovakia", etc. Some of the furniture was co-signed with "Jacob and Josef Kohn".
In 1914 Mundus merged with J. & J. Kohn, and in 1922 with Gebrüder Thonet the inventor of the bentwood chair.

Significance

The item is significant as it is an early example of mass-produced manufactured furniture from a company in Austria that pioneered this type of furniture around the turn of the 19th century. The item is now a collector's piece giving it additional significance.

Physical description

Bentwood Chair

Inscriptions & markings

Mundus Vienna Austria