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Hi,
The chairs are produced by Gervan, a small producer of seating furniture in Ingelmunster/Belgium. Company no longer exists. As I recall from the talk by locals, the wife of the owner left him and joined a competitor in a neighbouring city (Izegem) and started up Durlet, a Belgian seating company famous for it's leather production, wich is still going strong.
Gervan originated from 'vlassers', farmers wich produced for the linnen-industry in West of Flanders. As crisis arrose they had to change their game and went on to make furniture, chairs to be specific.They started with heavy, solid-looking frames in oak, typical for a flemish style of furniture, known as 'Breughel' (after the painter), but changed to scandinavian looking pieces in the late fifties.Each chair or even suite was made by the same craftsman: sawing the wood, planing it, shaping it and joining.It was still a small factory then, more like a workshop.
Your chairs are a model from that period, wich were very popular back in the day. The designers were anonymous and never credited (not even back then). I assume these were local people, even known Belgian designers, but as they had to work in a scandinavian style (instead of their own) their name never stuck to these designs.
A decade later Gervan grew into a firm with a greater consiousness, both designwise as to their own image.They took on one designer Rik Def. (if I recall correctly) to look over both these fields and they began to make modern pieces, often with striking forms. As the industry took moren & more competition from germany and later on asia, Gervan struggled.Like many Belgian firms (small, medium-sized or even large corporations) they went bust and filed bankruptcy, I believe in the late 90's or early 2000's.
The model your showing is is well-balanced and the quality of the wood is striking. It has always surprised me a small firm like Gervan, wich a decade before almost were 'farmers' could produce such a good-looking, solid design.
Treasure it!
maar ik vang algemeen op dat Hans Olsen slecht in de markt ligt (de Belgische markt dus). Ik heb een prachtige modulaire bank van Olsen voor Bramin (met gewoven rieten zittingen) en kreeg al van verschillende handelaars te horen dat ik die maar moeilijk verkocht zou krijgen (mocht ik die aanbieden), terwijl er internationaal wel wat waarde aan gehecht wordt.
Ik vermoed dat je zetels het internationaal ook beter zouden doen (worden af en toe via de Radar hier verkocht ook geloof ik, maar dan 'toegeschreven' aan Olsen).
Mocht je interesse hebben, ik heb de bijpassende salontafel.
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