Armchair for the Postal Savings Bank
Otto Wagner’s bentwood armchair with aluminium shoes, made for a modern banking hall.
Wagner designed everything in the Austrian Postal Savings Bank in Vienna, from the façade to the chairs. Aluminium was a new and costly material meant to show the bank as modern and hygienic. Examples are in the MAK, the bank building and MoMA.
Materials: Steam-bent stained beech, aluminium, plywood
Manufacture: Made by the bentwood firm Thonet; legs and seat edges protected with aluminium fittings.
The aluminium caps on the feet and the rivets on the arms – the same material as the building’s façade.
A single bent band forms back and arms.