Michael Thonet

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Michael Thonet in his later years

The "Chair nr. 14" known as "Konsumstuhl Nr. 14" from 1859

Michael Thonet (July 2, 1796 — March 3, 1871) was a German-Austrian furniture maker and industrialist best known as the inventor of bentwood furniture and as a pioneer of furniture design.

Thonet was the son of master tanner Franz Anton Thonet of Boppard. Following a carpenter's apprenticeship, Thonet set himself up as an independent cabinetmaker in 1819. A year later, he married Anna Grahs, with whom he had seven sons and six daughters. Only four of the sons, however, survived early childhood.

In the 1830s, Thonet began trying to make furniture out of glued and bent wooden slats. His first success was the Bopparder Schichtholzstuhl (Boppard layerwood chair) in 1836. Thonet gained substantial independence by acquiring the Michelsmühle, the glue factory that made the glue for this process, in 1837. However, his attempts to patent the technology failed in Germany (1840) as well as in Great Britain, France and Russia (1841).

At the Koblenz trade fair of 1841, Thonet met Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, who was enthusiastic about Thonet's furniture and invited him to the Vienna court. In the next year, Thonet was able to present his furniture, and his chairs in particular, to the Imperial Family.

As the Boppard establishment got into financial difficulties, Thonet sold it and emigrated to Vienna with his family. There, he worked with his sons on the interior decoration of the Palais Liechtenstein for the Carl Leistler establishment.

In 1849 he again founded an establishment of his own, the Gebrüder Thonet. In 1850 he produced his Nr 1 chair. The World's Fair in London 1851 saw him receive the bronze medal for his Vienna bentwood chairs. This was his international breakthrough. At the next World's Fair in Paris 1855, he was awarded the silver medal as he continued to improve his production methods. In 1856 he was able to open up a new factory in Koryčany, Moravia. It included extended beech woods of great significance to his enterprise.

The 1859 chair Nr. 14 - better known as Konsumstuhl Nr. 14, coffee shop chair no. 14 - is still called the "chair of chairs" with some 30 million produced up until 1930. It yielded a gold medal for Thonet's enterprise at the 1867 Paris World's Fair.

As Michael Thonet died 1871 in Vienna, the Fa. Gebrüder Thonet had sales locations across Europe as well as Chicago and New York. Today, a museum in the factory in Frankenberg, Hesse showcases the firm's history and the Thonet design.

[edit] Bibliography

Albrecht Bangert: Thonet Möbel. Bugholz-Klassiker von 1830-1930. Heyne, München 1997, ISBN 3-453-13047-2
Hans H. Buchwald: Form from Process. The Thonet chair. Carpenter Center for the Visual arts, Cambridge Mass. 1967
Danko, Peter. Thoughts on Thonet - "Fine Woodworking" January/February 1985: 112-114.
Del Ducca, Giuseppe. Michael Thonet. 9 November 1999. [1] (11/9/99)
"Galerie Thonet." Galerie Thonet. 8 November 1999. [2] (11/8/99)
Andrea Gleininger: Der Kaffeehausstuhl Nr. 14 von Michael Thonet. Birkhäuser, Frankfurt/M. 1998, ISBN 3-7643-6832-2
Heinz Kähne: Möbel aus gebogenem Holz. Ein Blick in die Sammlung der Stadt Boppard. Boppard 2000
Heinz Kähne: Thonet Bugholz-Klassiker. Eine Einführung in die Schönheit und Vielfalt der Thonet-Möbel. Rhein-Mosel Verlag, Briedel 1999, ISBN 3-929745-70-4
Labelart WebPage design. Thonet Vienna-Chair No. 14. 9 November 1999. [3]
Brigitte Schmutzler: Eine unglaubliche Geschichte. Michael Thonet und seine Stühle. Landesmuseum, Koblenz 1996, ISBN 3-925915-55-9
Reider, William. Antiques: Bentwood Furniture. Architectural Digest August 1996: 106-111.
Thonet. American Craft December 1990: 42-45.
Thonet. Gebrüder Thonet GmbH. (11/9/99)