Architect Josef Hoffmann designed progressive bentwood furniture forms that could be mass-produced for a wide audience. He designed this chair for the dining room of the Purkersdorf Sanatorium, a fashionable spa outside Vienna. By 1906, the firm J & J Kohn was marketing it as part of a suite that included an armchair, settee, and table. While the Wiener Werkstätte (of which Hoffmann was a founding member) adopted the handcrafted principles of the Arts and Crafts movement, Hoffmann also embraced the advantages of machine production.