JAN 2012 As Seen In 3Rings

In a recent post on Designer Pages Blog, "3Rings" Joseph Starr writes about the significance of the Archon chair. Although this chair is no longer part of the Thonet portfolio, the post clearly illustrates the chair's place in design history and the significance that Thonet has and continues to play on commercially designed furniture. Below is an excerpt. 

"Thonet’s Archon Patient and Visitor Chair Gives Hospitals and Doctors Offices a Good Dose of High Style

Of course, steam bending not only influenced production techniques, it also affected the prevailing aesthetic zeitgeist, as it gave designers a tool for creating elegantly serpentining shapes with wood. But the technique is typically reserved for luxurious home furnishings. That is to say, it was, before the innovations of designer Just Bernhard Meijer.

Meijer’s Archon Patient/Visitor Chair and Archon High Back Chair display an ingenious synthesis of pragmatism and excellent style. The pair of arm chairs features Thonet’s signature Beech Molded Plywood frames, a molded plywood back, and foam upholstered seats and backs.

The formula—which I might characterize as two parts utilitarian and one part aesthetic indulgence—manifests in a durable pair of chairs that are extremely attractive. And certainly, no one will object to that—neither doctors, nor patients, nor visitors."

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