In last night’s dream I was walking outside an old country house and stepped onto a Thonet chair to reach an open window.  The chair, which had been left out in the elements, was worn and warped.  It gave way and sent me crashing to the ground below.

The chair, one of the first to be mass-produced, consists of just five elements.  It’s such a simple, ubiquitous design yet it remains incredibly evocative.  It’s sort of crafty, sort of modern, sort of ordinary, and (although Michael Thonet was Austrian) very French.  I’m still trying to understand its place in my dream.  Is it the platonic idea of chair?