Knockdown furniture is simply furniture that can be taken to pieces, we more commonly call it flatpack.
Hands up all those who think it was invented by Ikea in the 1950s. WRONG!
In fact the Roman invading armies used it extensively, especially for the comfort of senior officers.
Nomadic tribes in Central asia utilised it for ease of relocation of their villages in searching for new pastures for their herds. Is a tent just a flatpack house?
The expansion of the British Empire throughout Africa, India and as far as Afghanistan was the driver for the refinement of this type of furniture.
Ross & Co, established in 1790 in Dublin, were great innovators, their style became known as Campaign Furniture due to it's extensive use by the British Armed forces.
Likewise the French Cabinet makers have supplied furniture in 'knockdown' form for several centuries for ease of delivery and installation. Otherwise how do you imagine they got those massive wardrobes up those winding stone staircases - simple - flatpack them and dowel them together in the bedroom.
The first mass produced piece of flatpack was a kit-set chair manufactured by Michael Thonet in Austria. In 1859 he produced his bentwood chair 'No. 14' , the classic French Café chair which is still being exported globally to this day.
You can put 36 of them into a one cubic meter box!! If you have visited Europe chances are you've sat on at least one of them.
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