Armchair (Primary Title)
George Jakob Hunzinger, American, born Germany, 1835–1898 (Artist)
George Hunzinger was born to a long line of German cabinetmakers. Having apprenticed in his hometown of Tuttlingen, he moved to Geneva, Switzerland, where he worked as a journeyman before joining the wave of German immigrants who arrived in America in the 1850s. Settling in Brooklyn, the entrepreneur worked briefly with cabinetmaker Auguste Pottier before opening a shop in 1860. The following year, he took out his first patent; five years later, he was offering “Folding, reclining, and extensions chairs.”
Metal mesh, covered in woven fabric and stretched over a geometric frame, distinguishes this chair from other examples of 19th-century “patent” furniture. The forward-looking emphasis on abstract form is matched by the modern use of interchangeable parts. Hunzinger’s designs were based not as much on aesthetic qualities as on structural ones. The 1876 patent for the woven-wire seating of this chair was characterized as an “improvement in chair Seats and Backs” for its substitution of industrial materials for natural ones. The chair’s almost-perfect condition is testament to the design’s durability. Still, innovation and variation did not come cheaply. A Hunzinger chair could cost $40 – this when steak was a nickel.
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