Bentwood chair
Michael Thonet (1796-1871)
Category
Furniture
Date
1870 - 1900
Materials
Beech, cane
Measurements
91.5 cm (H); 42.5 cm (W)
Place of origin
Austria
Order this imageCollection
Calke Abbey, Derbyshire
NT 286981.1
Summary
One of a pair of beech bentwood chairs, by Thonet, Austria, probably late 19th century.Each with a double hooped back and cane seat, raised on splayed legs joined by a ring stretcher.Bearing a Thonet manufactory label to the seat rail.
Full description
Michael Thonet (1796-1871) was born in Boppard, Prussia, and trained as a traditional cabinet-maker. In the 1830s, as an alternative to the laborious technique of carving, he began bending wood to create furniture. In 1855 Thonet made a key technological breakthrough; after years of bending laminated wood, he discovered that by attaching a metal strip along its length, solid wood could be bent in a similar way. This eliminated the costly lamination process and earned patents guaranteeing a virtual monopoly on production. In 1857 Thonet built a new factory in Koritschan in the Moravian Forests with a ready supply of beech wood, plenty of cheap labour and access to important rail links. The firm went on to mass-produce ‘bentwood’ furniture in unprecedented numbers, manufacturing up to 1.8 million pieces a year by 1912. James Weedon (March 2020)
Provenance
Calke Abbey and contents transferred to the National Trust by the Treasury in lieu of CTT in 1985 with an endowment provided by the NHMF.
Makers and roles
Michael Thonet (1796-1871), manufacturer