I picked up a set of these chairs here in Texas recently. Stamped "Made in Germany - Western" on frames under seats. I found a few online attributed to Erno Fabry but all were unmarked, and I haven't found an ad or catalog reference to confirm. I'd never heard of Fabry so did a little research. Born Erno Fay Friedman in 1906 in what's now Košice, Slovakia, he studied design at Czech Technical University in Prague. He emigrated to the US in 1938 and served in the US Army in WW2, and changed his name to Fabry. After the war he opened an office in Dallas and designed for Neiman Marcus and A. Brandt among others. He moved to NYC in 1950 and established Fabry Associates Inc. on 53rd Street, which closed in 1971.
Side question: does anyone know how you would reweave the cane on the backrests, since the holes don't go through?
Funny how the examples for sale online list them as walnut when they are clearly not.
Cane appears to be hand-woven with individual strands maybe pegged into their holes? It would be a trick applying the binder cane if that's the case, however. Repairing it seems like it would be a lot of finicky work. Either way, I've never seen that pattern before, though I like it on those chairs. Digging that upholstery fabric, too. It's almost as good as a date stamp!
@tktoo2 Thanks for the response. Here's a detail shot of the caning. Do you fish the cane into one hole and pull it out of the one next to it maybe? And what do you think the wood is - beech?
Threading the cane through an adjacent hole is the traditional method ...if you can access the verso (or other side). Unless there is a separate frame that I'm not seeing, I haven't the slightest as to how this was done.
It's hard to tell in the closeup, but the images online look like stained beech to me. I do think I see telltale medullary rays typical to beech on the lower part of the back post in your last photo, though. One doesn't find those as visibly prominent in walnut.
Interesting chairs.
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