From cure chair to chaise longue: Medical treatment and the form of the modern recliner

Journal of Design History

Volumn 12, Issue 4, 1999, Pages 327-343

  Campbell, Margaret ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Aalto, Alvar; Chaise longue; Furniture; Modernism; Perriand, Charlotte; Tuberculosis

Indexed keywords

CLINICAL MEDICINE; DRUG THERAPY; ECONOMICS; EDUCATION; ETHNOLOGY; FURNITURE; HISTORY; HOSPITAL; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT; REVIEW; THERAPY; TUBERCULOSIS;

CLINICAL MEDICINE; DRUG THERAPY; HISTORY, 19TH CENTURY; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; HOSPITALS; INTERIOR DESIGN AND FURNISHINGS; THERAPEUTICS; TUBERCULOSIS;

EID: 27744461463     PISSN: 09524649     EISSN: 17417279     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/jdh/12.4.327     Document Type: Review

References (75)

1. Jacques Louis David, Madame Récamier, Musée National du Louvre, Paris, 1800.
2. This sleeping-chair is one of a pair at Ham House, Surrey. It is in gilt wood with contemporary upholstery and the winged back, designed to keep out the draughts, can be adjusted by ratchets.
3. RIBA Drawings Collection. See Jill Lever, Architects' Designs for Furniture, London, 1984, p. 42. Lever suggests that it may have been made either for the 3rd Duke of Devonshire or for Sir Thomas Hayles of Howlett in Kent.
4. Orlando Sabertash, The Art of Conversation, with Remarks on Fashion and Address, London, 1842, Ch. V, p. 148.
5. Siegfried Giedion, Mechanisation Takes Command, New York, 1948, p. 396
6. and Adrian Forty, Objects of Desire, London, 1986, pp. 91-2.
7. The catalogues for a series of exhibitions organized by Philips of Hitchin (Antiques) Limited, Patent Metamorphic Furniture 1780-1830 (1978), Travelling and Campaigning Furniture 1790-1850 (1984) and Furniture for Travel 1760-1830 (1987), include a number of interesting examples such as 'Butler's patent chair bed' (c.1805) by Thomas Butler, 13 and 14 Catherine Street, The Strand, London, a mahogany patent recumbent easy chair (c.1833) by Robert Daws, 17 Margaret Street, Cavendish Square, London illustrated in J. C. Loudon's Encyclopaedia (1833), and a mahogany invalid's chair (c.1835) by 'J. Alderman, Inventor, Patentee and Manufacturer, 16 Soho Square, London'.
8. Pat Kirkham, 'The London furniture trade', in Simon Jervis (ed.), Furniture History, Vol. XXIV, Leeds, 1988, pp. 127-8. In Chapter X, Kirkham gives a very detailed account of patents for invalid furniture including a reference to a 'sofa or machine for the ease of invalids and others', Patent No. 3744.
9. Thonet Frères had a display stand at the 1867 Paris Universal Exhibition. At the 1876 Centennial Exhibition, held in Philadelphia, Gebrüder Thonet (Vienna) exhibited their bentwood and cane rocking chair (c.1860).
10. The 1911 National Insurance Act was the first in which state intervention partially took over from voluntary effort. The Act included 'tuberculosis clauses' which were a result of the apparent success of German sanatoria and compulsory company insurance schemes in lowering the tuberculosis death-rate among young adults, i.e. labour resources. The state provided finance for free institutional treatment for the insured, for the dependants of the insured and the building of sanatoria and dispensaries
11. An excellent account of the social history of tuberculosis in twentieth-century Britain can be found in Linda Bryder, Below the Magic Mountain, Oxford, 1988.
12. The Luft-Liegekur was pioneered by the German physicians, Herman Brehmer and Peter Dettweiler in their private sanatoria at Göbersdorf in Silesia (1859) and Falkenstein near Frankfurt (1876). The open-air balconies were an established feature of these sanatoria and on these the patients could receive the beneficial effects of heliotherapy, tranquillity and the inhaling of the scent of pine, an early form of aromatherapy. Dettweiler stressed the importance of complete rest in the open air rather than the alternative method of treatment which was bed rest followed by graduated exercise. This was the basis for the treatment recommended by Professor Robert Philip at the Royal Victoria Hospital for Consumption, Edinburgh from 1899. A more spartan open-air regime was conducted by Otto Walther at Nordrach-in-Baden near Freiburg (1888). The 'Nordrach system' was also influential in the British sanatorium movement, as at Nordrach on Dee (1900) in Banchory near Aberdeen.
13. 'The King's Sanatorium' (1901-5) became the King Edward VII Hospital at Midhurst in Sussex while the Sanatorium Schatzalp (1899) is now the Berghotel Schatzalp in Davos, Switzerland.
14. In 1882, the German bacteriologist Robert Koch (1843-1910) isolated and identified the tubercule bacillus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and invented the tuberculin test for cattle.
15. In the sanatoria, the hours during which the patients were required to rest in the open air were indicated on display boards as part of the 'Rules of the Sanatorium' collectively referred to as 'The Cure'. At the Sanatorium Schatzalp these rest hours were daily 'between 2 & 4 o'clock'.
16. The phrase 'thirty years in the dark: thirty seconds in sunlight' was used to describe the survival period of the tubercule bacillus.
17. The eradication of dust was an important aspect of interior planning and furnishing from the 1890s. I explore this connection with dust in my forthcoming thesis, 'Architecture of hope: hope for a cure', 1999.
18. Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain, London, 1960 (1928)
19. and Somerset Maugham, The Sanatorium, London, 1947.
20. Tuberculosis patients could send these postcards to family and friends as visits were not encouraged nor, in many cases, economically possible.
21. It was images such as these that helped to emphasize the economic drain tuberculosis had on the potential labour resource throughout industrial Europe. Many working-class men, lacking the backing of medical diagnosis, were stigmatized as shirkers or work-shy. This is also how the word 'lounger' acquired its association with laziness.
22. F. R. Walters, Sanatoria for Consumptives in Various Parts of the World (France, Germany, Norway, Russia, Switzerland, the United States and the British Possessions). A Critical and Detailed Description together with an Exposition of the Open-air or Hygienic Treatment of Phthisis, London, 1905, 3rd edition, p. 304.
23. By 1869, Gebrüder Thonet were the largest of the manufacturers of bentwood furniture despite the non-renewal of their patent, which had been taken out in 1856. Their main rival, the Viennese furniture manufacturer, Jacob and Josef Kohn, was well established by 1870. By 1900, Kohn had matched the production capacity of the four thousand pieces a day by Gebrüder Thonet. Kohn then decided to concentrate on the domestic market whereas Gebrüder Thonet dominated what today would be termed the contract market. Yet it was J. & J. Kohn whom Josef Hoffmann chose to manufacture, as well as design, some of the furniture for the Westend Sanatorium at Purkersdorf near Vienna (1904) Unlike Kohn, Gebrüder Thonet was reluctant at first to use architects to design new models. But when they realized the impact a fresh approach could achieve, they employed Marcel Kammerer, a Viennese architect who had worked with the Secessionist architect, Otto Wagner. In 1917 Kohn merged with the Mundus consortium which in turn took over Thonet. The Kohn identity finally disappeared in 1930. See Simon Jervis, Furniture of c.1900 from the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 1986.
24. For further information about other Central European bentwood furniture manufacturers, see Jervis, Furniture History, op. cit., Vol. XXVIII, 1992, pp. 188-93.
25. This recliner is manufactured by the Davos family firm of Graf: Heinrich Graf, Talstr. 12, Davos-Platz, Switzerland.
26. Mann, op. cit., p. 67. I include this quotation because Mann's account of the International Sanatorium Bergdorf is based on a conflation of the Waldsanatorium (1910), where his wife Katia was treated for a lung complaint in 1912, and the International Sanatorium (1899). The archive photographs in the Davos Reference Library confirm the accuracy of these descriptions.
27. E. Cummings, 'The art of sitting out', Journal of Outdoor Life, New York, 1910.
28. Saranac Lake, in the Adirondack Mountains of upper New York State, was well known as a health retreat in the nineteenth century for wealthy consumptives. It became world-famous for the treatment of tuberculosis through the pioneering methods of Dr Edward Trudeau (1848-1915). In the 1940s, the drug isoniazid was developed at the Trudeau Research Institute and so began the initial research on the triple drug therapy which would, by the mid-1950s, replace the Luft-Liegekur.
29. The Trudeau Cottage Sanatorium was founded by Dr Edward Livingston Trudeau but there were many other tuberculosis sanatoria in this area. See Robert Taylor, Saranac: America's Magic Mountain, Boston, 1988.
30. In the United States the spelling of sanatorium was usually 'sanatarium'.
31. A similar couch used at the Trudeau Sanatarium had six adjustable positions for the reclining back. These couches are in the collections of the Adirondack Museum, Blue Mountain Lake, New York.
32. US Patent No. 116784. See Forty, op. cit., p. 92. These reclining chairs were also used by invalids, including those with pulmonary tuberculosis.
33. Craig A. Gilborn, Adirondack Furniture and the Rustic Tradition, New York, 1987.
34. One manufacturer is the Indian Ocean Trading Company, Balham Hill, London. See 1997 catalogue, p. 9.
35. The Darlington Shelter (1913), made by the North of England School Furnishing Company Ltd. (now Amdega Ltd.), was a revolving summer house, which was used by tuberculars. This type of open-air shelter was first used by Dr Karl Turban at his sanatorium in Davos (1902).
36. Inventar des neueren Schweizer Architektur 1850-1920: Davos, Bern, 1983, p. 351..
37. British Journal of Tuberculosis, vol. 9, 1913, p. 211.
38. The progressive design influence of the 1914 Deutsche Werkbund Exhibition held in Cologne inspired a group of British furniture-makers and designers to set up the Design and Industries Association. One of these designer/ manufacturers was Harry Peach of the Dryad Cane Works of Leicester. From 1922 to 1930, the DIA yearbooks regularly included photographs of Dryad cane furniture.
39. British Journal of Tuberculosis, vol. 10, 1916. This couch, and a similar metal-framed couch without wheels, was used in the solarium and artificial light treatment room installed in 1920. They were both designed by Dr Sidney Barwise, County MOH for Derbyshire. In 1920 this was proclaimed 'the cheapest sanatorium yet erected'.
40. A. T. Tucker Wise, 'Posture in the management of cases of pulmonary tuberculosis', British Journal of Tuberculosis, vol. 11, 1917, pp. 268-72.
41. British Journal of Tuberculosis, vol. 1, 1907. Their 'Equipoise Lounge Chair' was also fitted with footrest and arm-pads.
42. Christopher Wilk, Thonet Bentwood and Other Furniture, New York, 1980.
43. The Last Evening (Guildhall Art Gallery, London) was one of three modern life paintings exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1873. This was painted before he met Kathleen Newton, who became his mistress and lived with him for six years until her death from tuberculosis in 1882. The paintings, Mrs Newton Resting on a Chaise Longue (Musée Baron Martin, 1881-2) and Summer Evening (Musée d'Orsay, 1882), show her resting on a woven cane recliner which has a bent wicker frame and broad arm-rests, one with an extension ledge. Her pose suggests that her legs are supported on the extended seat section.
44. It was produced in such numbers that the promotional information stated that it could be viewed at several medical establishments in the Lancashire area ranging from general hospitals, children's homes and sanatoria.
45. In March 1907 the architect Edwin T. Hall, in a paper given to the Architectural Association entitled 'Sanatoria for consumptives', proposed cheaper pre-fabricated alternatives.
46. This rocking chair is still in production at Franz Wittmann KG, A-3492, Etsdorf am Kamp, Austria.
47. A commercial folder of 'Le Surrepos' c.1922 is in the archives of L'Esprit Nouveau, Fondation Le Corbusier, Paris.
48. It is now acknowledged as having been designed by Charlotte Perriand and Pierre Jeanneret (1927/8). Le Corbusier's version (LC4, 1928) was made under licence by the Swiss company Embru. This piece of furniture was the focus of a discussion on the issue of faux in contemporary design by Robert Prandin in his book In Defence of Design, Milan, 1991, p. 71. This indicated that, prior to 1927, when Charlotte Perriand joined Le Corbusier's studio, only casiers were identified as being original furniture designs by Le Corbusier. This is confirmed by the dates of the sketches previously referred to. By 1965, when the chaise longue LC4 was 're-edited' for inclusion in the range of Modern Design Classics, 'La Collezione "Cassino I Maestri" e oggi', which were produced by the Italian furniture manufacturer Cassina, Le Corbusier had died. Therefore, Charlotte Perriand was consulted about improvements and modifications to the original 1928 design, including methods of production, variations in materials and other changes to be made. It is this revised LC4 (1965) which resulted in the debate on the value of originality or re-edition, authentic or faux. The success of an exhibition, 'Charlotte Perriand: Modernist Pioneer', held at the Design Museum London (1996-7), helped to correct an erroneous and long-held view that the B306 chaise longue was designed by Le Corbusier for the Villa La Roche (1923).
49. See also Charlote Benton, 'From tubular steel to bamboo: Charlotte Perriand, the migrating chaise-longue and Japan', Journal of Design History, vol. 11, no. 1, 1998, pp. 31-58.
50. Rotelli Ettore & Patricia Scarzella, In Defence of Design, Milan, 1991, pp. 67-79.
51. There are two sketches for this chaise longue (early 1930s) in the Mies van der Rohe Archive, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Furniture and Furniture Drawings (616.74), p. 32.
52. Now termed a lounger, it is manufactured in Italy for Knoll International, upholstered in suede leather and costs approximately £4000 at current prices.
53. Only one of the 1924 chairs was made and this was destroyed. Two were made of the 1928-30 design by the Atelier Jean Prouvé in Nancy and these were exhibited at the Union des Artistes Modernes (1930). In 1997 this recliner was made as a re-edition by Tecta Lauenfurde, Germany.
54. Originally made by the Isokon Furniture Company, by John Alan Designs in the 1970s, and now by Windmill Furniture, Chiswick, London W4 1QU. Marcel Breuer was in partnership with F. R. S. Yorke while in London (1935-7) and was also design consultant to Jack Pritchard's Isokon Furniture Company. He designed all the furniture, including the Isokon reclining chair, for the flat of Mrs Dorothea Ventris at 47 Highpoint 1, Highgate, London in 1936. The long chair was described in the catalogue, Isokon Products, Reference pp/18/4/ 6/ in the Pritchard Archive, University of East Anglia
55. This chaise longue was first shown in the 1932 Swiss Werkbund's 'Neubuhl' housing development. It was manufactured by Embru and marketed by Wohnbedarf in 1933. This chaise longue was used by Leslie Martin and his wife Sadie Speight (also an architect) as a sun-lounger for terrace and sitting room in their converted gardener's cottage at Tring Park. See House and Garden, February 1953, p. 41.
56. Alvar Aalto was the architect for the Finnish Pavilion and he and Aino Aalto collaborated on the Artek exhibit.
57. It is now recognized that Aino Aalto, who was also an architect, contributed considerably to the design of the internal details, including furniture for the Paimio sanatorium; see, for instance, Rena Suominen-Kokkonen, 'Designing a room of one's own: the architect Aino Massio-Aalto and Artek', Scandinavian Journal of Design History, no. 7, 1997, pp. 29-40.
58. Another link was through the Swiss Wohnbedarf furniture company, owned by Siegfried Giedion, who supplied Aalto-designed furniture manufactured by Artek, and Breuer furniture designs. In turn, a photograph of the Finsbury Health Centre (1938) designed by Tecton which was included in Recent English Architecture, 1920-1940, London, 1947, Plate 20, showed Aalto-designed Artek furniture and light-fittings.
59. The Scroll chair is now made with a white as well as a black lacquered birch plywood seat.
60. This rest chair was not included in the Artek range for domestic use, as was the Scroll chair, but during the 1960s, a chaise longue of laminated birch plywood frame with black canvas webbing was added to the range.
61. See sales brochure on DS-142 Totzek 1 by De Sede, Switzerland.
62. This was a phrase attributed to Marcel Breuer. See Christopher Wilk, Marcel Breuer: Furniture and Interiors, London, 1981, p. 61.
63. See Nicholas Bullock & James Read, The Movement for Housing Reform in Germany and France 1840-1914, Cambridge, 1985, pp. 396-410.
64. If, as in Scotland, there was insufficient sunshine, artificial light therapy was used. Initially this was produced by carbon arc lamps which had been developed in Denmark in the 1890s. Later in the 1920s, 'Sunlight' treatment was given using ultra-violet lamps with the patient lying on a recliner or chaise longue.
65. A patent glazing 'Vita-Verglasung', which allowed ultra-violet radiation to pass through the glass, was used. See 'Sonnenstadt in der Kur', Turicum, 1/1995, February-March, p. 43. A similar type of lead-free (German) glass, 'Ultra-vite', was sold in Britain as 'Sunray glass' and manufactured by Pilkington Brothers of St Helens in Lancashire and had been used experimentally at London Zoo and the Botanical Gardens, Kew.
66. An NAPT film made in 1935, Stand up and Breathe, stressed the importance of sunshine and open-air activities but avoided mentioning tuberculosis.
67. Bryder, op. cit., p.155.
68. Catalogues for the exhibitions: Health and Hygiene (1928), Onward Edinburgh (1930), Health and Hygiene (1936). These exhibitions, held in the Waverley Market, Edinburgh also included tuberculosis exhibition stands.
69. See David Joel, The Adventure of British Furniture 1851-1951, London, 1953, pp. 116-17.
70. Marshall B. Lloyd (1858-1927) was a manufacturer of wicker prams from Menominee, Michigan, who invented a machine process for the weaving of wicker which was then attached to bentwood chair and table frames. After Hayward Wakefield & Co. bought out Lloyd, the original American designs and machinery were brought to England where Lloyd Loom Furniture was manufactured from 1922 to 1968. In 1986 the Lincolnshire furniture-makers David and Kim Breese restored two redundant looms and began production to the original 1930s specifications as Lloyd Loom Furniture Ltd., Spalding, Lines.
71. The term chaise longue was preferred, though day bed and recliner continued to be used and this indicated a shift from a medical to a domestic use.
72. See catalogue of the exhibition held at Oxford Polytechnic in 1979, Wells Coates: Architect and Designer 1895-1958, Oxford, 1979, pp. 52-3.
73. Ambrose Heal's first major order for furniture came as a result of an open competition for the Patients' Rooms at the King Edward VII Sanatorium, Midhurst, Sussex, 1901-5.
74. Illustrated in House and Garden, August 1952, pp. 66-71.
75. The furniture was made by Hayward Wakefield & Co. in American walnut.