Thonet chair no. 14 (steam-bent beech)
Silla Thonet n.º 14 (madera de haya curvada al vapor)
- Date
- 1859 · confidence high
- Place
- Vienna, Austria
- Credited to
- Michael Thonet
- People
- 👤 Michael Thonet1796–1871
- Field
- Tools
What it is
A chair of six steam-bent beech pieces, ten screws and two nuts that disassembles and ships in flat crates. It was one of the first mass-produced furniture items and sold tens of millions.
Thonet had been bending wood with steam in Boppard since the 1830s; model no. 14 is the one that became an emblem, with some 50 million sold by 1930.
What it led to
- mass-produced, low-cost furniture
- Viennese cafés and public rooms furnished in bulk
- flat-pack knock-down furniture such as IKEA's