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Michael Thonet

born on 02.07.1796 in Boppard, Germany - died on 03.03.1871 in Vienna
German carpenter and industrialist. He ranks among the most famous pioneers of furniture design.

The beginnings

Bentwood chairs by Michael Thonet, circa 1850

Thonet was the son of the tanner Franz Anton Thonet from Boppard. After having been trained as carpenter Michael Thonet went into business for himself in the year 1819.
After having been active as autonomous carpenter for a year Thonet married Anna Grahs. The couple had seven sons (though two of them died in infancy already). There were 6 daughters, too, who also did not survive.

From 1830 Thonet started experiences referring to fabrication of furniture made of glued as well as of bent wooden parts.
In the year 1836 there was first success caused by presentation of the so-said  "Boppard Layered Bentwood Chair".  The glue required by this working method was produced by the "Boppard Michel's mill". Thonet became more independent of economic exigencies by acquisition of this glue manufactory in the year 1837. However, Thonet's attempts to protect his method of bentwood fabrication by filing a patent application weren't successful in Prussia (1840) as well as in United Kingdom, France and Russia (1841).

Fortunately, Thonet met in the year 1841 in the context of the Koblenz Industrial Exhibition an enthusiastic fan of Thonet furniture, the Austrian State Chancellor Prince Klemens Wenzel Lothar von Metternich, who invited him to Vienna.   Thonet accepted;  subsequently he was able to present his furniture pieces the following year already - especially the chairs - to the Imperial House of Vienna.

Michael Thonet

Chair design of 1859

Thonet's original firm label

Cenotaph at Viennese Central Cemetery

Climax of production in Vienna

After having been faced with a financial crisis of Boppard manufactory Thonet sold his firm and moved - accompanied by his family - to Vienna.
From 1843 to 1846 Thonet worked in cooperation with his sons in the order of  firm / manufactory Carl Leistler
on the interior decoration of the  Palais Liechtenstein  in Vienna.

In 1849 he again founded an establishment of his own, the Gebrüder Thonet's firm.
In 1850 he produced his chair called   Nr.  (number)  1.
In the context of  the World's Fair in London 1851  Thonet achieved the bronze medal for his Viennese bentwood chairs.
The success of 1851 was Michael Thonet's international breakthrough.

Thonet gained the silver medal during the following  World Exhibition: 1855 / Paris.
Subsequently methods of bentwood production were constantly improved / a further manufactory was opened in 1856, having been situated at Koritschan, Moravia:  The site was surrounded by extended beech woods having been of great significance to Thonet's bentwood production.

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

Michael Thonet died in Vienna at age of 75, on 3rd March 1871.  In this year - 1871 - the firm Gebrueder Thonet had sales locations in Barcelona, Brussels, Bukarest, Chicago, Frankfurt am Main, Graz, Hamburg, London, Madrid, Marseille, Moskow, New York, Naples, Odessa, Paris, Prague, Rome and Saint Petersburg.
A museum in the factory in  Frankenberg / Hesse  showcases the firm's history and the Thonet design.

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