Thonet furniture at the top of the popularity of the 20th century

Thonet Michael (1796 - 1871) was the son of Franz Anton Thonet, a tanner from Boppard, near Koblence in the western part of Germany (then part of the revolutionary France).He taught a carpenter and established a workshop in the birthplace. Since 1819 he has been an independent carpenter.he married Anna Grahs, with whom he had seven sons and six daughters. Only four of the sons, however, survived early childhood. Michael was a visionary, and with his idea of ​​modern living he tried to succeed in the area of ​​bent furniture (especially beechwood).

Thonet began trying to make furniture out of glued and bent wooden slats. His first success was theBoppard layerwood chair. Thonet's major breakthrough was his success in bending beechwood in hot water. This allowed him to design a brand new, elegant, light, durable and comfortable furniture of chic and curved shapes that strongly relied on fashion. This deviated from the heavy carved patterns of the past. 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. In 1850 he produced his Nr 1 chair. The Great Exhibition 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, Exposition Universelle 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. Its extensive beech woods were of great significance to his enterprise. Chair Nr. 14 - better known as Konsumstuhl Nr. 14, coffee shop chair no. 14 - is still called the "chair of chairs" with some 50 million produced and is still produced under the TON brand. In my opinion, Thonet is the most famous and most productive maker of furniture of all time.In our offer we have some interesting pieces for sale including the most famous rocking chair, which in 1867 won the gold medal at the Paris fair and became an icon of the history of design.

With the motto "It's an Art to Know"

David Fiala

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