Why Textile Superstar Nani Marquina Treasures This Thrown-Out Chair
An authentic Thonet chair found by her father is a daily reminder of durability and resistance.
An authentic Thonet chair found by her father is a daily reminder of durability and resistance.
My father found this Thonet chair thrown out with the trash in 1987. Being an architect and designer himself, he knew it was authentic and wanted to rescue it from the ignorance of its previous owner. He placed it on top of a glass base and illuminated it in our studio like an artwork.
Rafael Marquina, Nani Marquina’s father and the rescuer of this Thonet chair, was an accomplished Catalan architect and designer who was best known for his nondrip oil cruet. The younger Marquina keeps the chair, still unrepaired, in her Barcelona studio.
Photo: Gunnar Knechtel
It is a very low chair that was commonly used by weavers. The point of displaying it as he did was not to show off the chair, but to value what others discard. There is a lesson of durability and resistance to be found in its dangling threads and scratched wood.
Since the Thonet chair’s debut, design has changed a lot, but it remains true that good pieces will never change. Innately, I try to find a way to create pieces that can stand the test of time, too.
