Thonet S64 (Cesca) chair question  

I scored 7 Thonet S64 chairs last weekend. The chrome frames are in brilliant condition. The arms are black lacquered, but there is significant wear, due to improper stacking of chairs...gouges galore. These will need to be refinished, which is a no-brainer.

The upholstery is a cheesy maroon velour which really needs to be replaced. It's not torn or stained, but there is a wear pattern in the seat area in all of the chairs in the shape of the frame of the seat. I realized this wear pattern is there because there is no wooden seat...just the frame with foam/padding inside of it. So it's almost like a sling chair.

The Thonet labels and such are still on the underside of the seat, attached to the black screen covering the bottoms of the seats.

My question is, were these chairs ever made without hard seats, or did somebody decide to take out the seats and reupholster them? If the latter, why on earth would you take out the seat (in other words, the SUPPORT)? The backs of the chairs have the wooden frame with supports. Of course, one might also ask "why maroon velour", but I won't even go there.

I'm debating on getting these reupholstered, but I'm trying to decide if I'm going to have to make the seats from scratch to provide the proper support to keep that square wear pattern from happening on the new upholstery. I find it hard to believe that they came like this originally, but I also am mystified at why someone would go through the trouble of removing the seats.

Also, if you were to reupholster, what would you use? Black leather? Some kind of knoll fabric? Anything but maroon velour.

fm