Everyone knows the Viennese chair - either at a dinner party, at a piano concert at home, or at the best Moscow coffee houses - all of these places are particularly remarkable for one important, elegant, and therefore no less vital detail: the Viennese chair. This is the "chair of chairs", with over 50 million pieces produced over the 160 years of its existence.

Before it was named Viennese, the chair was officially called Thonet No.14, the same as Chanel No.5.

However, increasing demand encouraged manufacturers to develop mass production methods that relied on new technologies and new commercial markets. By 1859, Michael Thonet's company had successfully developed a chair made from just six bent parts, ten screws and two washers. Affordable and quick to make, lightweight and durable, easy to dismantle and ship, «No. 14 Armless Chair» - often known by its German name, Konsumstuhl - quickly became one of the most successful industrial products of the nineteenth century. It was the chair that later became known as the Viennese chair.

There is a legend according to which Michael Thonet (the creator of the chair) threw his creation off the Eiffel Tower. When the chair came off the pavement, not only it survived, but also it was not even damaged. In fact, it proved to be as unkillable as the old Nokia phone models.

Why Viennese?

In May 1849, Michael Thonet set up a workshop at 396 Hauptstraße in Vienna, where he designed a model chair. The back of this chair consisted of a single piece of metal bended in a loop. The model was originally called the "Schwarzenberg Chair" and was used to furnish the Schwarzenberg Palace.

The next order was from the Daum café in the centre of Vienna. This model was called the 'Daum café chair' and marked the company’s change from retail sales to wholesale sales.

By the end of 1850s, the Tonnet Brothers launched the fourteenth chair - the simplest and most flawless one. The chair consisted of just six parts. It was easy to install with screws and without glue. It was this model that became successful – it became so popular and widespread that the company had to quickly arrange the supply of furniture in a compact form - almost like IKEA nowadays does.

The logistics organized perfectly: the box, in which three dozen dismantled chairs were packed, took up a volume of just 1 m3. In this way, Viennese chairs were also delivered to Russian shops: it is important to note that ‘Thonet Brothers’ was an official supplier to the Royal Russian Court.

The production of the Viennese chair has not been stopped since its invention, but the serial number of the model has been changed. The model is now being produced as No. 214.

Wood is always used as the basic material, but the species can be changed: beechwood, nutwood. The seat is made of beechwood.

About the creator

Michael Thonet was born on 2 July 1796 in Boppard, a town in south-west Germany. He studied carpentry and cabinetmaking and opened a furniture workshop in the 1820s. In the 1830s, Tonet began his experiments with lightweight and mobile furniture. Thonet began to make furniture from glued board. His first success was in 1836, when he made a chair of laminated wood (Bopparder Schichtholzstuhl.

The furniture maker gained significant independence in 1837. He bought the glue factory Michelsmühle. He had already used that glue in his experiments. But his attempts to patent the glued wooden furniture technology failed in Germany (1840) and later in Great Britain, France and Russia (1841). However, the invention of tough wood, which could be bent into curved shapes under steam pressure, was much more important. This allowed Thonet to create a completely new, and at the same time light, durable and comfortable furniture, which was fully on-trend.

In the 1840s, the furniture maker had to close his workshop in his home town, move to Vienna and open the new workshop there in 1849. In Vienna, Michael Thonet received a patent “to bend any type of wood, even the most brittle, into the desired forms and curves by chemical and mechanical means”.

At the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, he received a bronze medal for Viennese bentwood chairs, which became an absolute success and international breakthrough. At the next world exhibition, the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1855, he won a silver medal. Finally at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1878 the Tonnet Brothers won a gold medal.

Michael Thonet's creations are not only the Viennese chair, but also other models, which set standards for many designers and architects. Several of his models have become examples of design history: the rocking chair No.. 1 of 1860, models No.18 and No. 56, elegant armchair no. 209 with curved armrests, which Le Corbusier adored, as well as the No.247 chair model by Otto Wagner, the so-called “postal savings chair”. It was the year 1912 when Thonet produced and sold around two million pieces worldwide.

The most extensive collection of Tonet products belongs to Vienna's Museum of Decorative Arts, about which we have written previously.

The Thonet company.

In 1857, Michael Thonet's sons started building the first Thonet furniture factory in Koryčany in Moravia by the name of Gebrüder Thonet. Over the next few years, five more factories were established in Central Europe. In 1861, a bentwood furniture factory was set up in Bystrzyca. Today, it is the oldest active furniture factory in the world.

In 1889, seventh and final factory was built in Franĸenberg, Germany. After the First and Second World Wars, only this factory belonged to the family. Up to the present day, Thonet's head office is located here. There is also a museum, where the history and design of Thonet is presented.

Michael Thonet died in Vienna in 1871. The company Gebrüder Thonet was divided into a German and an Austrian company (Thonet Vienna). Up to the present day, the two companies are independent.