Every metal’ furniture used in the work’s world can become a nice piece of furniture in your own home and add a real industrial vintage character.

Its story began during the 18th century. Privilege of the powerful, the metallic furniture became more democratic under the Second Empire and under the Industrial Revolution to join now the house. It became aristocratic stylish and popular at the same time.

The industrial aesthetics was born in 1851, when Sir Joseph Paxton, engineer and nursery gardener of Queen Victoria, designed and built in a few months the huge Crystal Palace, of cast iron and glass, for the world fair of London. The Eiffel Tower, built in 1889, is another embodiment.

The first industrial furniture is deliberately functional. They are made to fit for a particular function in the industry. It’s in France, in 1969, that the brand Prisunic had launched the first collection of steel furniture for the house.

We will wait until the 80’s to see the industrial style invade all New York lofts, and spread all over the world. The Amercian’s journalists Joan Kron and Suzanne Slesin, by publishing “High-tech” in 1978, revealed the industrial style in the house. Everybody seizes it. In the 90’s, Terence Conran register the “A” chair from Xavier Pauchard in the Habitat catalog. Then, the “Tubor” chair was republished, and not the only one, several industrial have decided to pursue their production: Tolix in Autun, Fermob in Thoissey.

They all tell the same story: when it was the time to sit and relax at Cafes’terraces, along the world fair, in the public gardens (Jardins du Luxembourg, Jardin des Tuileries and Palais Royal in Paris), or on the “Guinguettes des Bords de Marne”…

Finished, all the shiny metal, hunt them for antiques today for their patina, their scratches and their “knock” of fate, they will only have more charm. And marry them shamelessly with others design furniture or more antiques pieces.

Have a look at our new collection of Vintage Industrial Furniture!

New York, 1851, I.M. Singer & Company is created. Isaac Merritt Singer (1811-1875) is the inventor of the sewing machine. At first, all the items were manufactured in New York, Frederick Gilbert Bourne (1851-1919), head of the firm at the beginning of the 20^th century, built up the first worldwide company in spreading the brand all over the world by establishing some customer and distribution services in every countries, and also in building many different factories abroad.

Isaac Merritt Singer had invented the hire-purchase system in order to equip as many women as possible. “Owning a Singer was the ambition of many working women, who would buy them on credit, with a subscription. Many married women hoped to earn some extra money while taking care of their homes”.

The head office was settled down in the Singer Building (built by architect Ernest Flagg), where the World Trade Center was, now Ground Zero. This building was the tallest in the world from 1908 to 1909.

The Singer’s sewing machines success, in Great Britain leads the company to settled down and produce its own sewing machines in Glasgow in 1867.

Buoyed by its success, Singer took the initiative in 1910 by offering textile manufacturers “ready to use” factories and marketing specially adapted furniture: a stool with cast-iron base and original pine timber seat launched the range. In some of them, you can find under the stool the “Clover” drawing (it’s a secret!).

You can determine the real manufacture date according to their different feet.

Then, fifteen years later, fitted with a spring and a backrest, it had become an adjustable chair. Chairs and stools and cutting tables suitable for use with machinery would also be produced over the next half-century.

You can still find some vintage ones as they are very popular. Check what we have in stock today at La Boutique Vintage.

How amazing is this unsinkable chair. Did you ever dreamt of having such a nice industrial furniture in your living room?

First built in the USA in the 40’s (1944 in Hanover, Pennsylvania) by Emeco (Electric Machine and Equipment Company) for use on the American submarines and warships, to answer their specified contract “the chair had to be able to withstand torpedo blasts to the side of a destroyer”. And in fact Emeco’s founder in participation with Alcoa’s experts, Witton C and Dinges, have designed the 1006, an industrial chair so durable that it far exceeded the Navy’s specifications.

The Navy Chair has been in continuous production ever since. The Emeco chair embodies the perfect shape and material fusion.

It is a handmade item. Made of aluminium (so antimagnetic) very light but also very strong (can support more than 500kgs). The craftsmen take twelve parts being welded together, then being ground to create a seamless one-piece look. Finally, the chair is anodized for a durable finish. They need 4 hours to make it with around 50 movements and 77 steps Process.

This marine chair will go threw all oceans until the 70’s: during the cold war the sales stopped. And in 1998, Gregg Buchbinder acquires the Emeco Company and brings it a new corporate culture. He asked the French designer Philippe Starck to work with him. It is a success: the turnover gets a 300% rising and the staff triple!

After Philippe Starck many great designers have designed the “Navy 1006”, like Norman Foster, Frank Gehry, and Andree Putmann, they all signed a reedition.

Nowadays, “The Navy Chair” is still manufactured and the The aficionados give it the nickname of “Ten o six”.

You would like to find an original one?

Almost impossible! Even if most of wartime chairs are still in perfect condition, they are not easy to find, as they are military stock. They are sometimes sold as military surplus in the U.S., but are very rare…  And be careful, there’s a lot of counterfeits on the market as well…

What to do then? Why not trying to find some of the different designers like The “Hudson”, The “Heritage” or the “Icon” by Philippe Starck or the”Superlight” by Frank Gehry or the last one “Morgans” by Andree Putman. Hurry, some of them are already in museum!

Do you want one? Check what we have in stock today at La Boutique Vintage.

From 1913, the “Etablissements Nicolle”, based in Montreuil, France, were specialized in the manufacture of washers (the Belleville washer very well known). As they needed better metal stools for their workers, they designed the “Nicolle Stool” for their own use and for some of their neighbouring factories. So was born this iconic Industrial Furniture:  The “Nicolle Stool” in 1933, with its three stamped metal legs and a seat in the shape of a large washer.

Soon afterwards they added a backrest, which was compared after the war to the “tail of a whale”, creating the “Nicolle Chair”. The industrial stool later became stackable and a fourth leg was added to increase its stability (and because of safety standards at the time). Soon, it was bought and used in factories all over France. It was available in eight different heights, ranging from 45 cm to 80 cm, making it suitable for use with many kinds of machinery.

In 1954, the company “Etablissements Nicolle” designed two different models of industrial stool with adjustable screws: the 45/60 and the 60/80.

In the early 60s the company was sold to an American Group and the former foreman, Pierre Maurice Felix, started his own business. He resumed the manufacture of the “Nicolle” stool, the marketing of which was entrusted to Manutan. The dominance of Nicolle stools within French industry then continued. The all-metal designs were fitted with flat cork seats, and later also with wooden seats. However, a new law, requiring that swivel seats used for working at machinery should have five legged bases, signalled the death of the “Nicole Stool”.

Then, a Paris based antiques dealer, M. Jerome Lepert, specializing in 20^th century Industrial Design, noticed the Nicolle stool in the pages of an old catalogue, setting out in search of its manufacturer, he eventually discovered the moulds, stored in a shed. After having been sold by Monsieur Felix, the company had gone into receivership. M. Lepert put himself forward as the purchaser of this valuable piece of equipment and restarted production in 2008 in the former factory. The press was reconditioned, the stools restored and the first stools left the workshop.

Now brightly coloured, the Nicolle stool has been the star of interiors magazines and boutiques ever since. It is still manufactured as at the beginning. But you can nowadays only find it in 3 different heights:  45cm, 60 cm and 75cm.

Why not trying to find those vintage ones with their beautiful patina?

With their different heights you can really find some to fit in your interior, with a desk or in your kitchen, at your table or at your worktop for the highest. Why not put some Nicolle stools with some Tolix Chairs. What a beautiful combination!

Visit La Boutique Vintage to find a great collection of Vintage Industrial Stools.

Few dates:

-       1933: First production of the Nicolle stool by the “Etablissements Nicolle”

-       1940’s: From three to four feet

-       1945: The backrest “Tail of a whale” added to create the “Nicolle Chair”

-       1954: 2 different models with adjustable screw: the 45/60 and the 60/80

-       1960: First time in the Manutan magazine

-       1999: End of Manutan magazine

-       2013: Still manufactured

In the edge of the first war, it was created for the French post, also called “Tri Postal“.  This metal furniture was a clever system, designed to answer at best to the many times reproduced gestures and to the postures of the post-office employees in the sorting rooms. It can be considered like one of the first ergonomic furniture of the industrial era.

If we go back in its family tree, we can find two ancestors. Until 1850, they used to store the mail in wicker suitcases, and this mail was essentially made by stagecoach. But the industrial era, the arrival of the railroad and the succession of the rural mailman in most of the back countryside lead the post office to get organize and began to sort out the mail, which meant to supersede the wicker suitcases to wooden lockers. And this change has to be done in Europe quite as in the United States of America, where the Taylorism success to increase the productivity of the workers, in the first decades of the 20^th century, was going to introduce the idea of ergonomics.

So before the beginning of the First World War, the French post office becomes aware of the importance of the sorting operations. She began to study the gestures and postures of the workers, analysed their work behavior, and decomposed their movements, like the graphic designers are doing with their cartoons! Unfortunately, the approach remains empirical and few of these documents from that time were archived.

Those sorting desks were certainly not designed by chance…

The sorting work is hard and thankless. They are standing or sitting in front of the compartments, they select them of instinct, of a simple look, here comes their dexterity, the best of them can sort out till five hundred letters per hour!

The feet are working as pivots. The design of the desk, rectangle and orderly to have a vertical sort out, is supposed to offer an easy access to all compartments till the top one. But, according Mister Pascal Roman, scientist advisor at the Post Office Museum, “If the sort out work seems easy to anybody can read, its fast execution without any mistake makes the task more complex. After twenty letters, your thumb stands still or hinders the movements of the post office employee of which the amplitude has to remain nevertheless big.

Already, from 1912, some clerks had the idea of some circular desks, iron horseback or two pieces.”

We can find nowadays some vintage pieces, but be careful there are some replica (really bad ones…) on the market as well! Ask to find a vintage one!

At La boutique Vintage we regularly stock French Sorting Desks, visit us now.

Few dates:

-       Until 1850: Wicker suitcases

-       1914: Creation of the “circular” locker in wood

-       Between the two wars: appearance of the first metal furniture

-       1970: Lunch of the “CT40”, half moon, in plastic.

You can find some with only one door, two, three and even four doors. It depends the place you have. But just to let you know, most of time, the ones with one door are quite large, while the others are smaller.

They can be really useful in the house, and in any room. You can have one at the entrance, just to hide all your coats, hats, shoes etc… Or one in your bedroom as a closet, you can put your blankets, duvets or just to tidy some boxes and everything you want. In your child’s bedroom, you can use it as a closet, but also to tidy all your kid’s toys. You can have one in your laundry room, for hiding all detergent etc… and even for your vacuum cleaner and all accessories.

They are big but not so deep, so you can put them almost everywhere in your home.

And with their wonderful patina they give a real vintage/industrial character to any interior. Otherwise, you can choose one with its original paint to get the old feeling.

Why waiting, go and find yours online! You don’t find yours? Please ask, I will do my best to find the one you want!

It’s the story of a metallic chair recognized worldwide as one of the symbols of the French Industrial Design.

The Model A chair has become an icon of Industrial Aesthetics. It’s unfailing popularity since 1934 has enabled to enter the Collections of the Vitra Design Museum, MOMA and the Pompidou Center. This mythical chair, crafted of steel sheets, has been assured by «its fool-proof solidity, its unequalled lightness and its easy maintenance.

Everything started with the aim to answer to the needs of brewers. They were demanding clients and represented the largest share of the Pauchards’ turnover. The need were huge as In 1930, in France you could find 1 café for 50 people, in 1950 there was still 1 café for 120 people.

“Making space profitable, putting as many drinks as possible on the tables and optimizing the back and forth journeys of the waiters; turning café terraces into profitable business was the challenge of my family” Xavier Pauchard.

Pauchard finds the right answer. The pedestal table’s edged top could accommodate four glasses of beer and their mats, four coffees, plus an ashtray and bill saucer. The cast iron base was hidden under the table; the chairs were stackable and café terraces suddenly became a lot more profitable!

TOLIX was born.

All merit goes to Xavier Pauchard (1880-1948) who was a pioneer of galvanisation in France. Shortly after World War 1, based in Autun, Burgundy, he found himself (a visionary and inventive entrepreneur) in charge of a flourishing manufacture of galvanised sheet-metal domestic items, which at the time, embodied household comfort. It was in 1927 that he registered the trademark TOLIX, at the same time converting to the «production of chairs, armchairs, stools and metal furniture».
The different models (rustproof, robust and stackable) conceived by Xavier Pauchard found their place directly inside factories, offices and hospitals, as well as outside, on cafe terraces and in public parks. Embarked aboard the ship, Normandie, in 1935, these chairs also filled the aisles of the 1937 Exposition Internationale –Arts et Techniques. Furniture for children was created in 1935 under the mark of « La Mouette ». At the end of the 50’s, with the succession of his son, Jean, Tolix and it’s 80 workers produced about 60 000 units annually. This prosperous company remained in the same family until 2004. Then a woman, Chantal Andriot took back the company with the designers François Dingjian et Eloi Chafaï alias Normal Studio to assist her in the artistic direction. Today this enterprise is endowed with the latest technology which accompanies it’s numerous inherited manual processes and equipement.

Tolix Chair Model A

Its first version doesn’t present any stiffener (from 1930). The stiffeners for the feet appear in 1938, the ones for the “palmette”  (back chair) with a shape as a “U” upside down, appear in the 60s. These successive adaptations were used to decrease the cost of the chair. It also had, like all others items, the same reinforcement crosspiece “X” under seat. The seating is plain with only 7 little holes. The brand Tolix is embossed on the back of the chair (it appeared very lately) and can attest the original or not, and date the others which don’t have any brand on them.

Fantastic Tolix A Chair with a lovely patina (stripped out)

Gorgeous Vintage Tolix A Chair with great colors!

Tolix Chair Model B 

The “Model B” presents a back more round and the feet are thinner than the A chair. Otherwise it’s the same as the “Model A”.

Beautiful Yellow Tolix B Chair with a perfect patina!

Tolix Armchair “C”

The armchair “C” presents almost all the same characteristics of the “A” chair. But has two simultaneous bending tubes for its armrests. A work still done by craftsmen today. It also has reinforcement on both sides. A lovely stylish look, perfect in every room of you home!

Those Tolix Armchair C are just stunning! Look at this patina!

Tolix Stool “H”

It is a “A” chair without its back technically. It has a stamped basis, convex feet provide with stiffeners (but not in the quite first editions, that it’s thus necessary to hunt for antiques!). As it is stackable, you can buy as much as you need, they won’t take too much space and will look so nice!

Great Tolix Stools H so stackable, no need to hide!

Tolix Chair Model A 56

Jean Pauchard (son of Xavier Pauchard) is the designer of the Tolix “Type A56” chair. Twenty-five of these chairs could be stacked together and still measure less than 2.3 m (7 ft 6 in.) in height. This chair was created in response to remarks made by café owners about the Tolix Model C and D chairs, which they thought were too bulky, reducing the space for tables and resulting in a drop in customers.

”I just added an extra backrest section to the Model A chair, and, as it was 1956, I named it A56”. Jean Pauchard.

Tolix A56 Armchair is really The perfect armchair!

 Tolix Chair Model FT5

The Tolix armchair “Model FT5” is half a chair, half an armchair, the feet are round, like tubes, not like all other types and the seating has small strips instead of being plain. They look really great in a garden!

Fluid lines, just a beautiful armchair is this Tolix FT5!

Tolix Chair Model T4

This one was created in the 40’s. It is straighter than the others and the seat is also with small strips. This model is close to the FT5 armchair, but just in a chair. It looks beautiful in a garden with its original paint, but also great in any contemporary, country home or any interior style when it’s completely stripped out.

Those Tolix T4 would look amazing even in a kitchen!

Tolix Chair Model “D”

The Tolix “Model D” is the same as the A56 but it has reinforcement on both sides and the sit is plain with 8 little holes in half a circle. It also has two simultaneous bending tubes for its armrests like the Armchair “C”. It gives it a look very strong. It is also heavier than the A56. It would fit perfectly in any interior as a dinning chair or even a desk chair! Buy it now and it will last for ever!

This Tolix D Armchair is fantastic, but couldn’t find any nice vintage pic! If you have one, please send it to me!

To discover more about Tolix:

• http://www.tolix.fr/en
  
• http://www.designboom.com/design/eight-designers-reinterpret-xavier-pauchard-tolix-chaise-a-chair-07-31-2015/
• http://www.independent.co.uk/property/interiors/the-secret-history-of-the-tolix-chair-2245307.html
• http://www.homesandantiques.com/feature/antiques/furniture/resurgence-tolix-chair
• http://www.homedit.com/tolix-chairs/
• La Boutique Vintage Shop

During the Industrial Revolution the designer doesn’t exist. They must produce more with less time and find out some new technologies.

The function dominate on the shape and all products are build in the aim of profitability and productivity.

The first example of design according some historians, would be the”Bistrot” chair from the Thonet Brothers (Austrian) 1859. It would have been the first item produce in series but designed to be functional and aesthetics.

Then in the US , the Ford T from Henry Ford, was built from 1908 in series (more than 15 millions items in 17 years). It proposes a unique model with different options at an affordable price, thanks to the manufacturing with the Taylorism management.

In 1932, the Anglepoise lightning was created by Georges Carwardine for Herbert Terry & Sons. Nowadays, we can still find some vintage Anglepoise lightning in offices and it is named as Architect Lightning!

Find some lovely Industrial Style Furniture at La boutique Vintage

They are so useful in your home, you almost have to get one!

More pictures:

They are circa 1940-1950

Their dimensions are usually: Width: 60 cm / Depth: 50 cm / Height: 192 cm

They are stripped out and treated against rust.They sometimes are painted inside.

And they still have dents throughout producing an authentic vintage appearance to this industrial update look.

Those lockers would be perfect used in any home, allowing some place for coats, balls, sport equipment, or blankets or any other storage in the kitchen, in a study, in a room or in a conservatory.

Those are really fabulous bit of furniture and would look great in any traditional or contemporary home.

And to add a perfect vintage industrial look, why not also buying a stunning coffee table!

This one is made with wood and old metal drawers, it really gives a Vintage Industrial Character to any room.

Dimensions: Width: 91 cm / Depth: 61 cm / Height: 35 cm

Or choose one like that:

Made with metal and all riveted, it is gorgeous!

It would fit perfectly in your living room or conservatory!

Have also a look at those Industrial Furniture:

Metal Roneo Desk

Industrial Metal Cabinet with sliding doors

Industrial Display Cabinet

You can find lots of different Industrial Furniture to introduce in your home.

Check our fantastic Vintage Industrial Collection at La Boutique Vintage

This lovely Vintage Industrial Tallboy Pigeon Hole Cabinet is gorgeous. I wish I could keep it in my kitchen or even in my bedroom!

Perfect item to put some clothes, some hats,gloves, perfume, shoes, sport items, kitchen items…

Dimensions: width: 92 cm, height: 182 cm, depth 31 cm.

This one comes from North England and was just stripped out, protected against rust and varnished. It keeps its industry feeling with a vintage touch, a wonderful piece!

Find some more others stunning Industrial Furniture at La Boutique Vintage