For over two decades, the Vitra Design Museum has been making miniature replicas of milestones in furniture design. The Miniatures Collection encapsulates the entire history of industrial furniture design - moving from Historicism and Art Nouveau to the New Objectivity of Bauhaus and Radical Design, and from Postmodernism all the way up to the present day. Exactly one sixth of the size of the historical originals, the chairs are all true to scale and precisely recreate the smallest details of construction, material and color. The high standard of authenticity even extends to the natural grain of the wood, the reproduction of screws and the elaborate handicraft techniques involved. This has made the miniatures into popular collector's items as well as ideal illustrative material for universities, design schools and architects.

Industrialization, with its new manufacturing techniques and materials began to supplant the traditional turner's and woodcarver's crafts in furniture-making. Long before Michael Thonet's first experiments with bent wood the use of iron had led to important innovations in this field. As early as 1736 an armaments manufacturer established by tsar Peter the Great started to produce large quantities of furniture made of cast iron.

Karl Friedrich Schinkel, a Prussian master builder, also used the cast iron process to rationalize furniture production. It was Schinkel's architectural work in particular which earned him the reputation of one of the major exponents of German classicism, but his work as a furniture designer was also of great significance. His elegant interpretations of the classics produced designs of formal austerity for all kinds of different purposes. Schinkel's designs included not only wooden furniture but also, at the beginning of the 19th century, large numbers of iron trestle tables, garden furniture and other items of furniture.

Each Vitra miniature is true to the original in construction and materials, and reduced in size on a scale of 1:6. Each miniature is packaged in a wooden box, accompanied by an informational booklet. Production notes: Each of the delicate objects are made by hand; on average, each miniature requires five hours of careful manual work. Ongoing quality control ensures that every miniature corresponds to its larger original in terms of finishing, details and materials.