For ten years now we have been seeking out original pieces of furniture and design in order to restore them and make them available to the general public. In recent years we’ve also begun producing our own replicas of items we don’t want to see disappear into the annals of history. To celebrate our tenth birthday, we gave ourselves a little gift in the form of three newly resurrected icons of Czechoslovak design, and we christened them all in the incredible Villa Winternitz.
Celebrating 10 years of Nanovo in Winternitz Villa, Photo by Dita Havránková
The design celebration of our dreams
We wanted to have all the things we love at our party, and so we filled Adolf Loos’s famous functionalist villa with some timeless pieces of design, their creators, and you, our loyal customers. Together, on 27 September 2022, we christened the three (old) new products – armchairs designed by Viliam Chlebo, cabinets designed by Jiří Jiroutek, and a floor lamp produced by ÚLUV.
Christening of the ÚLUV lamp with Zuzana Lednicka and Aleš Najbrt, Photo by Dita Havránková
Armchairs from the New Stage of the National Theatre
The T2407 armchairs, originally created by Slovak designer Viliam Chlebo, impressed architect Karel Prager so much that he decided to include them among the prestigious furnishings of the brutalist New Stage of the National Theatre when he was designing it in 1980. To this end, Prager and Chlebo modified the chairs, which had originally been created a year earlier, replacing the canvas upholstery with leather. In 1980, the T2407 was awarded the Gold Medal for Design at a consumer goods exhibition in Brno, and it received the award for Outstanding Product of the Year at a trade fair in Prague the same year.
Christening of T2407 chairs with Viliam Chlebo and Doc. ing. arch. Radomíra Sedláková, CSc., photo by Dita Havránková
The frame of the armchair is made from chrome tubing, and the seat and back, available in green and brown versions, were custom made with Italian leather in a Czech upholstery workshop. We worked on these replicas for two years, directly with Viliam Chlebo, and the highest quality craftsmanship was maintained in their production. As part of our tenth birthday celebration, the chairs were christened in Villa Winternitz by the designer himself and Dr. Radomíra Sedláková.
A week after our birthday celebration, the chairs won second place at Designblok 2022 in the Best Furniture category.
Limited edition test series of U-450 cabinets by Jiří Jiroutek
The legendary Universal furniture series was created in 1958 by designer Jiří Jiroutek for the Czechoslovak national enterprise Interier Praha. In contrast to some of the author’s better-known models, the test series of atypical cabinets U-453 and U-452 were in production for only two years. Therefore, only a small number of them were ever produced, and their existence was almost forgotten.
Limited edition of atypical cabinets Jiroutek U-452 and U-453, Photo by Dita Havránková
The cabinets were made entirely by hand in the Czech Republic in close cooperation with the designer Jiří Jiroutek. They are made of solid spruce with an oak veneer and finished with a semi-matte lacquer. The reissue was christened by Ivana Veselková at the celebration.
New reissue of iconic ÚLUV lamps
This floor lamp from the 1960s was originally produced by the company ÚLUV (The Centre for Folk Art Production), which was formed in 1948 through the merger of several brands, including the well-known Krásná Jizba. These lamps are getting harder to find these days, and we didn’t want this design to disappear, so we produced a limited reissue of 10 units.
Floor lamp ÚLUV, photo by Dita Havránková
The lamp is completely handmade in the Czech Republic from cherry wood and blown glass. It consists of a wooden tripod with a light socket built into the centre and an oval-shaped milk glass shade that creates a pleasantly diffused light. The lamp was christened in Villa Winternitz by Zuzana Lednická and Aleš Najbrt from the Najbrt graphic design studio.
See you in ten years!
We would like to thank all those who took part in our celebration of design, and we hope that ten years from now we will see you all again, in a place with a similar spirit, and that we will have rescued many more pieces that do honour to Czechoslovak design. If you’d like to relive the atmosphere of the birthday party, you can do so with this one-minute video.
