This chair in pure Art Deco style comes from the Palace Hotel, one of the grand hotels of the thermal spa at Mondorf-les-Bains. The four-storey hotel, was the largest in Luxembourg at the time of its inauguration in 1926. It revitalized spa tourism by attracting an upmarket clientèle which, however, thinned out during the economic crisis of the 1930s. Between May and September 1945, the Palace Hotel served as a prison camp where the US Army interned 86 high-ranking Nazi dignitaries, including Hermann Göring, until the Nuremberg trials. The hotel’s furniture was entirely replaced at this time. The Palace Hotel was bought by the Luxembourg government after World War II and demolished in the 1980s to make room for the new spa resort facilities.

Although we do not know who made this chair – which was probably part of the furnishings for one of the hotel lounges – it is nevertheless typical for the 1920s, an era marked by a certain international atmosphere that was fated to be shattered by the 1929 economic crisis. Art Deco, which combined precious materials with simple forms and décor subordinated to function, was in tune with the tastes of the international clientèle that the Mondorf Spa was hoping to attract.