The World Of Exteriors™ Lectures Series

Sitting Pretty: An Illustrated History of the Garden Seat

Although weather’s destruction leaves few early examples of the garden furniture, a history of colorful stories and people unfolds through historic paintings, photographs, and catalogues.  John Danzer presents a historic timeline with trends in materials, technology and stylistic influences, beginning with the Medieval Turf Seat and following the evolution right up to the “McYellow” recycled plastic benches for McDonald’s.  John Danzer will examine how furniture works within the landscape and how to make appropriate choices.  Images from gardens around the world help tell the story. A small portion of the presentation will include highlights of Reinventing The Garden Seat, a 10-year retrospective of his firm, Munder-Skiles, held in 2000 at the New York School of Interior Design.

About John Danzer

Perhaps no person has thought more deeply about extending good design to the outside of the American home – into its surroundings – than John Danzer, president and owner of Munder-Skiles, a firm specializing in the production of new and historic designs of garden furniture and ornament.  Ten years ago, he abandoned his Wall Street career to concentrate full time on a lifelong affinity for garden decoration, researching here and abroad.  He then began to lecture on its disappeared history, pulling images from his extensive library of reference books, catalogues, and collection of 9,000 slides, taken from gardens and settings all over the world.  John Danzer has been a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, and has lectured on Garden Furniture at the Cooper-Hewitt (now the National Design Museum), The Museum of Garden History in London, Sotheby’s, the New York Botanic Garden, the Parrish Art Museum, the St. Louis Antiques Show, and the Dallas Museum of Art.  He regularly addresses decorative arts, design, and horticultural groups across the country.

In 1993, Munder-Skiles published its first brochure of 16 pieces of furniture, licensed from historic house museums or replicated from originals John Danzer bought while living in Europe.  Today, Munder-Skiles offers more than 80 designs of the finest quality garden furniture and objects, from dining tables to garden torches, in both metal and wood.  In 1994, the firm won the 1994 Roscoe Award for the best designed American chair – the first time ever a garden seat has been so honored.  The firm operates a Madison Avenue showroom in New York City.