Type Privately held company Headquarters Vienna, Austria Founder Josef Pauly | Genre Family Business Area served Global locations Founded 1838 | |
Industry Furniture / Luxury goods Products High-end Mattress / beds, bedding, accessories | ||
J. Pauly & Sohn now known as Pauly Beds is one of the oldest bedding companies in the world, and the only one that supplied beds to the Austrian Hungarian Empire during several generations.
Josef Pauly established a company in Vienna, in 1838 when he received the license to make beds and mattresses by Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria. The name of the company was J. Pauly & Sohn. In 1878 Pauly received an Imperial and Royal Warrant of Appointment as a Purveyor to the Imperial and Royal Court of Emperor Franz Joseph I and his wife Empress Elisabeth of Austria, known as Sissi.
An Imperial and Royal Purveyor (k.u.k. Hoflieferant) was, in Austria-Hungary, a trader of products or services who had a special permit, by imperial privilege, to deliver its goods or services to the court in Vienna. This privilege allowed the suppliers to advertise publicly and exempted them from tax. The company received the title only if it was a leader in its industry in quality. The title was therefore a seal of approval of “highest” class, the highest honor that a business could get back then.
History
Handcrafting beds and mattresses is a traditional industry in Austria. In the 18th century there were ten masters in this profession. During the ruling time of King Leopold I the permission to work in this profession was done through privileges and a strict control over the Union. The same masters also handcrafted suitcases and saddles because many expensive materials used in the production were the same: horsetail hair, wool, cotton and leather. Already at that time, the Austrian industry, specially the bed and mattresses of Vienna, enjoyed a significant reputation, hence exported to Greece, Turkey and several countries in the Middle East.
On the 19th century, there was an increase on client's demands for more luxurious products in this sector, hence the reason why, during the Universal Exhibition of 1873 in Vienna, the entrepreneurs of this industry, specially the local ones, had the possibility to present their products to a selected and international audience. It was during that exhibition when Josef Pauly was awarded the first Golden Cross for Industrial Merit. The second one was awarded at the Universal Exhibition in Barcelona 1888 . That same year the company celebrated its 50-year anniversary and Josef Pauly appeared in a publication from Vienna honoring distinguished Business magnates (formally industrialists).
By 1891, the company had received ten awards including the Medal of "Amission" in Brussels in 1876.
According to a 1903 publication, J. Pauly & Sohn was considered "one of the oldest and most respected companies in the bedding industry" as, at the time of publication, "it had been 31 years since Pauly had obtained the honorary title of K.& K Purveyor of the Empire and was successfully delivering beds and furniture internationally".
J. Pauly & Sohn handcrafted the first down duvets in Austria. They made beds and relax areas for all home interiors and exteriors: bedrooms, mirror living rooms, green houses and patios. They offered complete furnishing, children beds, baby cribs, travel beds and a large variety of bed linen, headboards and products for sleep. In their mattresses and furniture they used materials such as horsetail hair (a material diffusing humidity used at that time in saddles and carriages seats), cotton, wool, springs and silk.
Josef Pauly was succeeded by his son, also named Josef Pauly. By 1900 the Pauly family had been handcrafting beds for four generations. Nevertheless, the First World War, the fall of the monarchy in 1918, the Great Depression and eventually the Second World War created constant challenges for the company. The last family owner was Dorothea Henning before the company was acquired by an investor group.