These days, the high-design sofas one finds in web catalogs have pretentious names such as chaise, or loveseat. Back in the early 20th century, a sofa’s name was a cryptic number, as if were an industrial part from a plumbing catalog rather than a domestic object. Naming things with numbers is an act of courage, a deliberate attempt to explain that the substance is in the object, not in the name. I found the picture of 3628S in a dusty album at Bamboo & Rattan Works Inc., after I was explained that the bamboo supplier that I know once had a flourishing furniture business that manufactured and distributed rattan furniture. There was not any more information about 3628S than a few pictures and the pictures of a few other rattan furniture pieces that were part of the company furniture catalog in the early 20th century. Interpreting an object from a faded black and white photograph is rather risky, perhaps irresponsible. I do not know the dimensions of the piece, or any of its physical or formal characteristics other than what I can infer from the image. I do not know how it was really made. But I am willing to be sanguine about it and trust my intuition: I find the 3628S’s elegance attractive; I like the simplicity of its forms and the way they are a result of the choice of materials and methods used in producing it. I find the 3628S very contemporary.
