Michael Thonet (1796–1871) was a German-Austrian cabinetmaker who pioneered the use of bentwood in furniture.
Early Years
Thonet was born just a few miles up the Rhine River from the workshop of renowned cabinetmaker David Roentgen. Count Metternich, Austria’s chancellor, invited him to Vienna in 1841 after seeing Thonet’s furniture on tour to Germany. He marketed his furniture to the imperial court and the nobility. Still, his main ambition was to reach a larger market with mass manufacture.
Established Workshop
By 1856, he had established his workshop in the Moravian forests, complete with machinery and architecture, near a source of beechwood for his bentwood furniture. He was the most forward-thinking German furniture maker and designer of the nineteenth century.
Bentwood Technology
His bentwood chair-making technology yielded low prices, durability, lightness, and flexibility, as well as the elimination of hand-carved joints and, most importantly, decoration. Thonet began bending wood by glueing veneers together to construct portions of furniture, then devising a new procedure in which solid lengths of beechwood were steamed or boiled in water and glue, allowing lengthy pieces to be bent to make chair frames, some in unique designs.
In 1841, he patented his bentwood procedure in France, the United Kingdom, and Belgium and showed bentwood chairs in Coblenz. The folding theatre seat was designed in 1888 by Gebriider Thonet, which Thonet’s sons then produced.
Chair no.4
Chair No. 4 has been produced in 50 million copies and may be found in cafés worldwide. Thonet’s B9 chair (made of six pieces of bentwood with caning for the seat) was Le Corbusier’s favourite, and he frequently used it in his interiors.
Thonet’s French branch was established in 1929 to make Modern chromium-plated tubular steel furniture, including Marcel Breuer’s designs and those of Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, and Charlotte Perriand. When this subsidiary closed, Bruno Weill took over as director. He moved the entire tubular steel furniture manufacture to Frankenberg, Germany.
Gilbert Rohde designed bent tubular metal chairs for Thonet in America in 1932. The company is still going strong today, with new designers and older models being reissued.
Sources
Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing. https://amzn.to/3ElmSlL
Design Store
Books| History of Furniture Design
Star Trek: Designing the Final Frontier: How Midcentury Modernism Shaped Our View of the Future
1930s Fashion Sourcebook: The Definitive Sourcebook (Fashion Sourcebooks)
An Illustrated Guide to Furniture History
Great Escapes USA: The Hotel Book
1000 Chairs
Design of the 20th Century
1940s Fashion Sourcebook: The Definitive Sourcebook (Fashion Sourcebooks)
San Francisco: Portrait of a City / Portrat einer Stadt / Portrait d'une ville
1920s Fashion Sourcebook (Fashion Sourcebooks)
1000 Lights
History of Interior Design and Furniture: From Ancient Egypt to Nineteenth-Century Europe
Los Angeles. Portrait of a City (Multilingual Edition)
Charles Rennie Mackintosh: 1868-1928
Chairs: 1,000 Masterpieces of Modern Design, 1800 to the Present
Illustrated History of Furniture: Furniture Design from The Ancient Times To The 19th Century: 256 original illustrations
100 Ideas that Changed Design
The History of Furniture: Twenty-Five Centuries of Style and Design in the Western Tradition
Ultimate Collector Motorcycles
Decorative Art 60s
Scandinavian Design
The Bauhaus: 1919-1933: Reform and Avant-garde
Latin American Art Since 1900 (Third) (World of Art)
Furniture: A Concise History (World of Art)
What About Love? CD
More Furniture Designers
-
Aldo Rossi (1931 – 1997), Italian designer and architect
Aldo Rossi (1931 – 1997) was an Italian architect. He was born and professionally active in Milan. He is considered by many to be the greatest Italian architect of the second half of the 20th century. His life as an architect began with Gardella and Zanuso. Read More →
-
Danish Design Legacy: Lars Mathiesen’s Artistic Journey
Experience Lars Mathiesen’s enchanting Café Table, a harmonious fusion of modern design and classic aesthetics. Explore the captivating allure of this collaborative creation with Fritz Hansen.Read More →
-
Rodolfo Dordoni (b.1954) Italian Architect and Designer
he was artistic director of Cappellini International Interiors and in charge of corporate image and communications; from 1982, he was consultant designer for several firms on pavilions, shops, and exhibition stands.Read More →
-
OMK Design and Rodney Kinsman RDI
OMK Design is a British design group. It was established in 1966 by Rodney Kinsman, Jerzy Olejnik, Bryan Morrison. They all trained at the London Central School of Arts and Crafts. The group produced its furniture, including its 1969 T5 chair.Read More →
-
Bruno Paul (1874 – 1968), German Architect and Designer
Bruno Paul (1874 – 1968) was a German architect, cabinetmaker, designer, and teacher. He was born in Seifhennersdorf. He studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule, Dresden, from 1886 and painting at the Akademie fur Kunst, Munich, under Paul Hocker and Wilhelm von Diez, from 1894. Read More →
-
Max Ernst Haefeli (1901-1976) – Swiss architect and designer
Max Ernst Haefeli (1901-1976) was a Swiss architect and designer born in Zurich. He worked in the Otto Bartning studio in Berlin between 1923-24.Read More →
-
Massimo Morozzi (b. 1941) The Visionary Pioneer of Italian Design
He created Archizoom Associati in 1968 with Andrea Branzi, Gilberto Corretti, and Paolo Deganello, which developed industrial and architectural designs and urban planning and was a notable Italian architecture practice until 1972. Read More →
-
Mattia Bonetti (b. 1953) Blurring Boundaries between Art and Design
Bonetti worked as a stylist and photographer before becoming a furniture designer. He began creating furniture in 1979. Every piece he creates starts with a freehand sketch that is subsequently constructed. Read More →
-
Pucci De Rossi (1947 – 2013), Italian furniture designer and artist
Pucci de Rossi was an Italian designer born in Verona and trained with American sculptor H.B. Walker. Pucci de Rossi (1947-2013) is an unusual designer and artist. Jewellery, furniture, sculpture, painting: his works, visually striking and functional, refer to Arte Povera and the neo-baroque work of the Memphis studio. Read More →
-
Hans J. Wegner Danish Furniture Designer
Organic Functionality, a modernist school emphasising Functionality, is a term used to define his style. With contributions by Poul Henningsen, Alvar Aalto, and Arne Jacobsen, this school of thought originated predominantly in Scandinavian countries.Read More →
-
Geoffrey Harcourt (b.1935) British Furniture Designer
Between 1960-61, he worked at Latham, Tyler and Jensen, Chicago, and with Jacob Jensen in Copenhagen; in 1961, opened his studio in London, specialising in furniture design; from 1962; began designing seating for Artifort, the Netherlands, who produced more than 20 models of his furniture designsRead More →
-
Atika (1987 – 1999) – Czech Design Group
Formed in 1987, Atika was aligned with the Anti-Design orientation of Archizoom, Alchimia, and Memphis in Italy. One of its goals was to support Post-Modernism, seeking an outlet for experimentation and new means of expression. Its expressive language used signs of symbolic meanings that referred to nature, society, and urban destruction. Read More →
-
Pedestal Table inspired by 🏛️ classical architecture
A pedestable table is originally the base support of a column, in classical architecture. A pedestal in furniture may have one of four definitions: Read More →
-
Franco Deboni (b.1950) Italian architect and glassware designer
He worked for various firms in Italy and Yugoslavia. He received a patent for a bookcase-component system. Clients included Ferro & Lazzarini (glassware) and Italianline. He was best known for his lighting in glass and a mushroom-shaped table lamp in marble; became a member of ADI (Associazione per il Disegno Industriale); was author of Venini…
-
The Alhambra Table Fountain: A Majestic Shrine of Elegance and History
Alhambra Table Fountain is a centrepiece in the form of a Moorish pavillion having a domed roof decorated with champleve enamelling and resting on a leafy base. The piece is in the style of the Alhambra, Granada, and is intended to represent a shrine covering a water-hole. On the base and encircling the edifice are…
-
Peter Raacke (b.1928) German metalworker and designer
Hessische Metallwerke commissioned Raacke to produce metal cutlery, kitchen equipment, and cookware, most notably his “Mono-a” line (v-33), with silverware available in stainless steel and sterling silver.Read More →
-
Sakura Adachi: A Fusion of Concept and Craftsmanship in Design
Sakura Adachi is a highly acclaimed designer known for her unique fusion of conceptual thinking and expert craftsmanship. Born in Japan and educated in London, she established herself in Milan, collaborating with renowned design studios. Adachi gained international recognition at the Copenhagen International Furniture Fair and went on to establish her own design studio. Her…
-
Charles Eames (1907 – 1978) American designer, filmmaker and architect
Charles Eames and his Wife, Ray best known for their contributions to architecture and furniture design, industrial design. READ MORERead More →
-
George Nelson (1907 – 1986) American voice on design
George Nelson (1907 – 1986) was an American industrial designer. His Storagewall shelf system, which he made in 1945, changed the way offices worked. The Marshmallow sofa from the 1950s is one of his best-known pieces.Read More →
-
Peter Shire (b.1947) American artist and designer
Shire was invited to join Ettore Sottsass’s Memphis project in 1981. He produced quirky, geometrically oriented furniture in Pop Art huRead More →
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.