Lexi Mancuso

December 9th, 2016

Phil Kidd
Survey of Period Styles

Michael Thonet
Michael Thonet was an innovative furniture maker born in the small town of Boppard am

Rheim, Germany in 1796. His contributions to furniture making and carpentry surpass the typical

designer. The effects of his designs and patents are still seen in furniture design today. Thonet

was discovered by Prince Richard Metternich at a craft fair Koblenz. Metternich invited him to

work in his castle, urging him to relocate to Vienna to work on the Neo-rococo interiors of the

Liechtenstein Palace.

Thonet is responsible for discovering the process of bending wood into desired shapes. It

is believed he began his work in furniture in 1819, specializing in parquetry. From there, in 1830,

he moved on to begin experimenting with new cabinet making techniques. During this

experimentation, he developed a system of steaming four to five veneers and gluing them

together to make a larger flexible piece of wood. He would glue several of these together and

place the piece in a jig to dry. This allowed a great level of flexibility in design, but was pain

staking and intense, requiring great care. This process also limited the directions he could bend a

single piece of wood in. By 1836, Thonet had begun to make chairs entirely out of bent veneer.

He continued to experiment with his process by cutting veneers that has already been set in

another direction, and bending them again. Throughout this process, he spent time experimenting

with different sizes of the veneers to see what was the most flexible yet stable. On July 10th,

1856, Thonet was granted a patent for his solid wood bending process.
 As his enterprise began to expand, Thonet encountered a particular problem. His pieces

were being shipped around the globe, including to the Americas. His furniture had never been

tested in climates different from Europes, so it was unsure if they would withstand the weater of

other parts of the world. Once shipped to the Americas, this fear became a reality. The glue used

in his veneering process could not withstand the humidity and heat of more tropical climates, it

would dissolve and the furniture would fall apart. Thonet was sent back to his workshop to

experiment and find a solution to this problem. After a period of trial and error, Thonet began to

reinforce the wood with a metal strap. The wood and metal pieces would be bent together into

the same form. The metal strap would stretch marginally, forcing the fibers of the wood to

compress and hold their shape. This new step in the production process made his furniture more

marketable while giving additional strength.

Unique to the Thonets pieces were how they fit together. The jigs used to create his

furniture were so accurate that pieces became interchangeable. Hundreds of the same chair could

be made, and all of the legs would fit on to every single base. This streamlined the production

process and made repairs easier, therefor making his furniture more desirable.

Thonet's biggest achievement was in 1859 where he broke through to industrial

production with the creation of his No. 14 chair. This chair, later called the "Vienna Coffee

House Chair," is the most classic and notable work of Thonet, and set the tone for design of that

period. The No. 14 chair was revolutionary not only in its design, but in it's production and sales.

This chair was built in pieces, then shipped together as components, much like the furniture sales

giant IKEA does today.

 The chair surrounded the special issues in furniture making, and what everyone looked

for: lightweight, easy to move, made with little waste, comfortable, and aesthetically pleasing.

Pieces for the No. 14 chair were soaked with steam, placed in a mold, then dried by the

evaporation of the steam, making the wood hard again. By being able to bend the pieces into any

desired shape, Thonet realized that the back and the back legs did not have to be separate pieces,

they could be bent from the same piece of beech. In addition, he was able to make the seat by

using one piece of wood, unlike the traditional four pieces required to make a square seat. No. 14

was made with only six pieces of wood, and ten screws, a feat unheard of for the time. These

chairs could be shipped faster, more easily, and took up less space in shipping due to their

deconstructed nature. One possibly unexpected design feature is how Thonet chairs age. With

time, the glue and wood softens. While one may fear this would make the chair unstable and

damaged, it actually assisted in the stability by allowing for a little give, also making the chair

more comfortable.

In the same year, 1859, the first Thonet catalog was published. By this time, Thonet had

partnered with his sons, and began to spread his furniture empire to neighboring countries and

South America. He chose to build a production factory in a small town of Koritschan, in the

Czech Republic.

The nature of Michael Thonets process dictated the nature of his furniture. Most other

carpenters planned their designs around hiding the joints or making them ornate, Thonet was able
to produce almost any form he could shape wood into. The bent wood process also allowed him

to almost completely abandon traditional joints in his furniture. This allowed his designs to be

open and flowing instead of heavy and angular.

Thonets impact on furniture design is yet to be surpassed in the eyes of many. He

revolutionized production and assembly of furniture through his innovations and ideas. Still

today, his furniture and ideas can been seen anywhere from an art museum to an office.

http://www.thonet.com.au/history/
http://en.thonet.de/about-us/thonet-the-story/the-thonet-principle.html
http://www.technologystudent.com/prddes1/thonet1.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/arts/10iht-design10.1.17621906.html
https://dearchiworld.wordpress.com/2014/10/14/no-14-chair-michael-thonet/
http://www.914.qc.ca/thonet.html

Thonet, Michael. Britannica Biographies, 3/1/2012