Michael Thonet

Michael Thonet ( born July 2, 1796 in Boppard, † March 3, 1871 in Vienna ) was a German carpenter and founder of Gebrüder Thonet bentwood furniture factory in Vienna. Thonet is regarded worldwide as a pioneer in furniture production and furniture design.

Biography

Thonet was the son of the tanner Franz Anton Thonet, who came as his ancestors from Andernach and 1796 moved to Boppard. After an apprenticeship in carpentry Thonet in 1819 started his own business as a construction and furniture maker. A year later he married Anna Grahs. With her he had seven sons, of whom two died, however, already in infancy. His six daughters did not survive the toddler years.

Thonet's work was appreciated, and its products also found in the neighboring towns on the Rhine and Moselle area buyers throughout. From the beginning he was concerned about quality and innovation. In 1830 Thonet began with trying to manufacture of glued and bent wooden slats furniture. In 1836 he had a first success with the Boppard laminated wooden chair. The need for this procedure provided the glue Michel mill from Boppard. Attempts to his process to make 1840 a ​​patent in Prussia and in 1841 in Great Britain, France and Russia failed.

On the Koblenz Industrial Exhibition in 1841, Thonet made ​​the acquaintance of Prince Klemens Wenzel Lothar von Metternich, who was impressed by Thonet furniture. He reportedly told Thonet: "In Boppard, you will always be a poor man. Come to Vienna. " He invited a Thonet to the court of Vienna. This accepted and could imagine the very next year, his furniture, especially his chairs, the imperial residence.

When operating in Boppard fell into a financial crisis, his property was seized and auctioned off. Thonet and his family emigrated in 1842 to Vienna. Beginning, he returned there only cheap chairs for the furniture retailer Clemens list which found a ready market. On whose recommendation he contacted the English architect PHDesvignes, who recommended him to the workshop Leistler. In the years 1843-1846 Thonet worked together with his sons for the operation of Carl Leistler to the interior of the city Palais Liechtenstein.

In 1849 he ventured to independence again and established his own workshop, which he translated into a social contract to his sons as future owner in 1853. But in the company Gebrüder Thonet he retained the supreme direction until his death. In 1850 he created his chair No. 1 The Great Exhibition - the London Industrial Exhibition 1851 - got Thonet bentwood chairs for his Vienna bronze medal and also managed so that his international breakthrough. At the next major international exhibition, the Paris World Exhibition in 1855, he had already achieved a silver medal. He constantly improved its production methods and was able in 1856 to open a new factory in Koritschan, Moravia. It included extensive beech forests, which were of great importance for the fabrication.

The chair developed in 1859 No. 14 - better known as consumer Chair No. 14 - is still regarded as chair of all chairs; to 1930, about 50 million units were produced and sold by him. The company Gebrüder Thonet achieved with this design at the Paris World Exposition in 1867 a gold medal.

On January 10, 1862 his wife died. Thonet buried himself even more into his work and was instrumental also involved in the sequence of all business start-ups and new developments. According to statements made by visitors and staff, he often stayed in his work suit on the premises on which occasionally led to confusion. In anecdotes is reported that he always referred to the question of the company's management visitors to his sons, without themselves being detected.

Emperor Franz Joseph I awarded Michael Thonet with the Golden Cross of Merit with the crown and the Knight's Cross of the Franz Joseph Order.

Towards the end of 1870, Thonet moved during the inspection of a forest in Hungary to a cold, from which he never recovered. At the age of 75 years, Michael Thonet died on 3 March 1871 in Vienna. At this time, the company maintained Gebrüder Thonet outlets in Barcelona, ​​Brussels, Bucharest, Chicago, Frankfurt, Graz, Hamburg, London, Madrid, Marseille, Moscow, New York, Naples, Odessa, Paris, Prague, Rome and St. Petersburg as well as numerous works, especially in Central and Eastern Europe.

Its first burial was in the St. Marx Cemetery in Vienna. 1888 Thonet was reburied in the family vault in the Central Cemetery in Vienna.

After the death of Michael Thonet, the company and the Bentwood continued to grow. It was the merit of Thonet to have created a new and significant industry. Around 1900, operated in Austria -Hungary and outside 52 companies in more than 60 factories producing furniture made ​​of bent wood. In Austria - Hungary alone this industry claimed the regular forestry utilization of 150,000 ha beech woodlands. More than 140,000 bentwood chairs have been exported to all parts of the world, and about 30,000 people were on this acquisition area of ​​employment.

In 1953, the Thonetgasse was named after him in the 22nd district of Vienna Danube city.

Work

1819 saw the establishment of a one-man operation, which was by its quality work widely known soon. The first systematic experiments were carried out using new processing techniques. 1830 was followed by successful form tests with veneer layers and boiled in glue sticks. 1841 was followed by patent applications in France, England and Belgium for the bentwood technique. Thonet took part in the exhibition of experimental work in Koblenz. The State Chancellor Prince Metternich, who himself comes from Koblenz, became aware of Thonet and encouraged him to relocate to Vienna.

In 1842 he undertook a journey to Vienna, where he obtained a patent of kuk Court Chamber of Vienna: "Every even on chemical- mechanical means to bend the genre most brittle wood into any shape and welding justifications " financial setbacks due to the expensive, foreign patents applied for in 1841. . Thonet took part in the " General Industry Exhibition " in Mainz and employed in his workshop 20-25 workers. After the relocation of the family to Vienna began a collaboration with the Viennese furniture dealer Clemens List. The production of cheaper chairs resulted in good sales. 1843 was the beginning of the collaboration with the English architect PH Desvignes.

1843-1846 followed the décor with parquet of the Palais Liechtenstein, led the workshop of Karl Leistler on a design by PH Desvignes. 1849 was the end of the work for Leistler. Thonet started his own business in Vienna together with his sons. His patron PH Desvignes supported him for two years with regular weekly cash advances. The café thumb on the carbon market in Vienna ordered the chair No. 4 mahogany. By 1876 the inn was furnished with this proverbial Viennese coffeehouse chair until it was replaced with the now mature 1876 Series Type No. 14. The hotel "Zur Queen of England " in Pest ( Buda - Pest ) ordered 400 chairs made ​​of light ash wood.

The chair No. 4 was issued in 1850 " Lower Austrian trade association" and aroused general interest. Thonet -fed 1851 world exhibition in London at the Crystal Palace by Joseph Paxton and received an award with the great bronze medal - the highest honor for industrial products. PH Desvignes bought artwork on display for his country seat in Lewisham in London. After his death in 1883 the family Thonet this again repurchased by the family Desvignes.

Michael Thonet in 1852 applied for a patent for his five sons " to the wood by cutting and re- gluing together to give any bend and shape in different directions ", which was extended to 28 July 1864. The first sales office was opened in Strauchgasse, at the Palais Monte Nuovo (Vienna). 1853 reasons of space, the relocation to the string associated with Gumpendorf Mollardmühle. The Thonet company employed 42 workers ( nine carpenter, a turner, eight Fournier cutter (manual mode ), two Leimer, eight Raspler, two dressers, ten Polisher and two together screwdriver ). The tubular braids were made in homework. The first steam engine with 4 hp was used in the production and first deliveries went abroad. On November 1, 1853 Michael Thonet transferred the business to his five sons: Francis, Michael, August, Joseph and Jacob Thonet.

In 1854 a feed of the unofficial world exhibition in Munich. In 1855 he participated in the World Exhibition in Paris ( with inexpensive " Consummöbeln " ) part and got first export orders for France and South America. 1856 was awarded Thonet and his sons Austrian citizenship. It was followed by the grant of the patent " on the making of chairs and table legs made ​​of bent wood, the bending is done by exposure to water vapor or boiling liquids. " This remained until 10 December 1869 in force on what day it was closed due to voluntary renunciation. The company erected a building of the branch factory in Koritschan for the production of semi-finished products, which were assembled in Vienna in the main building.

1857 came first finished products from the plant in Koritschan for the production of screw- off items of furniture for export in tropical countries. 1858, the Vienna factory in Mollardgasse was dissolved. 1859 began production with the help of new steel rails, which allowed a precise bending solid wood rods. The Chair No. 14 was added to the program and produced in the factory in Koritschan. He became the meistfabrizierten model, until 1930 there were 50 million pieces.

In 1860, Thonet patented a hub wheel with spokes, which, although a great deal of attention, but no financial success had granted. It was interesting for the military. But both Prussia and England and France expressed are the royalties and pretend to have designed such a wheel. The first rocking chair made ​​of bent wood was produced in Koritschan. He became a great commercial success and replaced the heavy metal from models that were previously without much success on the market. In 1860 the factory employed about 300 workers and Koritschan produced daily about 200 chairs and furniture pieces.

The company Gebrüder Thonet graduated in 1861 from the owner of the shop at Holle ( North Railway Station Hullein ) located at the Bistrita rule Hostein, Ernst Freiherr von Laudon, a multi-year wood supply agreement and built in 1861, the factory Bistrita. 1862 was followed by a participation in the World Exhibition in London in large series designed models, which became a huge sales success. It came to the establishment of a branch in London, 16 Ludgate Hill. Thonet's wife Anna, with whom he had been married since 1820, died this year.

1865 was the construction of a plant in Great Ugrócz, which was commissioned in 1866. Was established in 1867 with a factory sawmill in Hallenkau in Wsetin. In 1869, a volunteer waiver of the privilege (patent) of 1856 " on the making of chairs and table legs made ​​of bent wood, the bending is done by the action of water vapor or boiling liquids. " 1871 Michael Thonet died from the effects of a cold.

The chair No. 4 was recorded in 1873 in the " additionelle division in the history of the inventions of the international exhibition in Vienna ". 1880, the biggest factory in Novo- Radomsk was founded in Russian Poland. 1889 followed by the establishment of a factory in Frankenberg in Hesse, which is the parent company today. The Gebrüder Thonet employed about 6,000 workers, who produce about 4000 pieces of furniture on the day in 1900. 1918 saw the establishment of the Thonet AG. After the defeat in the First World War, competition came from America and Russia. In 1923 a merger with competitor Mundus ( Kohn ), was secured by the an endangered supremacy on the world market. A factory in Czechoslovakia delivered monthly about 20,000 chairs to England. 1929-1930 was followed by the establishment of a tubular steel furniture production in Frankenberg.

1945 broke the international Thonet empire. The foreign firms seats went their own ways. In the formerly smallest work in the Hessian Frankenberg, production was resumed and operated to this day. There is also the company museum. Another museum is located in Friedberg ( Styria), where 1963-2006 " Thonet Vienna " had a production site.

Importance

Although the bentwood furniture is not a Viennese invention, the bentwood chair outside Austria but is also frequently referred to briefly as " Viennese chair". The technique of bending steamed wood is already in use in the Middle Ages. Thonet began his working life as a carpenter explored the possibilities of bent wood. As a result, Michael Thonet busy with a craft economical implementation masterpiece of late Biedermeier furniture shapes and dedicated to perfection and the industrial use of this idea. This he accomplished by means of glued in layers, curved veneer flitches. The principles of his work included a material-specific form-finding, tool and industrial producibility. But it was his 1842 completion of the mediation of Prince Metternich moved to Vienna opened him the larger market of the Austrian Empire. But it was not initially the wide audience that recognized the value of his furniture, but at first primarily an expert elite.

In a consistent further development of the wood bending technology in 1852, he succeeds for a patent on the bending layer glued wood in several directions, and finally in 1856, such a massive on bending wood log. The furniture Thonet " always despite the mass production one that stems from truth to materials and crafts aesthetics (on ) that never allowed a form that contradicted the wood in its structure and its technical conditionality. " Exhibit ( Bangert, p 10) The prototypes were constantly being improved before they went into millions of series production.

The superb performance of Thonet is adjacent to the development of the wood bending technology mainly in its ability to put these into separate, a wide range of customers accessible and formally convincing by their self -evident, timeless products. Its resulting from a fascination with a processing technique aesthetics assigns the seating that time new directions.

The MAK Vienna has a large collection of furniture and presents permanent exhibition provides an overview over a hundred years Thonet'scher production as well as that of competing firms (eg, the Kohn brothers and Danhauser'schen furniture factory ) from the thirties of the 19th century to the thirties of the 20th century.

Bentwood

While the traditional carpenter won a vibration by sawing, planing or carving from solid block, Thonet tried to achieve this early on by bending, ie by deformation of the rigid timber. The advantages of this method are the cost reduction, reproducibility by trained assistants, industrial mass production, material savings ( no wood waste ), short production time, low weight ( transport, assembly, export), low selling price ( " Consummöbel " ), durability ( screw nachziehbar, sturdy construction ), elasticity, dimensional beauty ( elegant swings, clarity ) and originality ( recognizability, novelty ).

The modern approach Thonet found little echo among his contemporaries, who preferred an ornamental overloaded and technically complex style. In Vienna alone, about 2,400 carpentry shops were busy, to satisfy the historicist time taste, which became known as the " Makart style " around 1850.

Thonet was consistent in the use of new technical and economic opportunities. His success, a beech dowel to bend so that it is neither tears nor compressed excessively, goes back to studying and experimenting. Only this was possible industrial production. Early attempts with laminated veneer strips were suitable not nearly as good as the exported models and prototypes to prove. A 1851 at the World Exhibition in London shown little table was completely made ​​up of eight layers of veneer that have been cut into eight strips also, so that a package of 64 bars was that after they were boiled in glue, let any turn and wander. However, this method proved to be uneconomical because it is labor intensive and requires great technical skill. In addition, the glue-laminated wood is sensitive to moisture, and thus not suitable for export in warm humid countries.

The bending of solid rods causes problems, because the wood is loaded on the outer side to train, and can tear it, on the other hand, internal pressure will be charged and is thus compressed, causing the wood fibers break and can also bend. Early attempts to boil the wood in hot glue bath, did not bring the required smoothness of the material. It was not until several hours steaming with the much hotter steam made ​​the wood so flexible that it could force made ​​of cast iron with great strength in bending templates and after drying also kept its shape. The necessary equipment and molds were created in our own workshops.

An intricate and self-designed templates lathes the bent blanks were finally milled around, and in a way that they are areas of thickened and narrowed, depending on the structural necessity or creative intent. For screw-mounting the milled individual pieces were still pre-drilled before they went into the final treatment.

In the experiments, the wood of beech proved to be particularly suitable. It was flexible and stable, also available in Europe in large quantities. In this case, the age of the tree did not matter for later use.

Industrial furniture production

Thonet began as a carpenter with a one-man operation and managed together with his sons, after all, a business empire with offices and factories in all sorts of countries, the temporary 6,000 people offered work. The company founder has not only proved to be a skilled craftsman and creative inventor but also a successful and far-sighted businessman who has left with great diligence a consistent life's work.

On the advice of Prince Metternich Thonet moved its location to Austria: "In Boppard, you will always be a poor man, you go to Vienna ". There he found by the recommendations of its pioneering advocate contacts who were convinced of his innovations. Within a few years expanded the internationally operating company.

The favorable siting of his later work shortened the transport routes of wood and lowered labor costs by Teach unskilled workers. Since 1849, all Thonetstühle be equipped with a fire sign. In factories in Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary and Russia over 865,000 bentwood chairs per year were produced.

As Thonet died, there were the following factories:

• Factory Koritschan (1856 ) with the branches Buchlowitz, Butschowitz and Stfilek.
• Factory Bistrita (1861 ) with the branches Holleschau, Keltsch, Vschechowitz, Drevohostitz and Pohlitz.
• Factory direct wholesale Ugrócz (1865 ) with the branches Oszlány, Privitz, Skeczan, small Ugrócz, Koláczna, beard, Zsambrokreth, Chinoran and the steam saw Zsittva ( Zay - Ugrócz ), and finally
• The factory Hallenkau (1868 ) with the branch Wsetin.

It also passed its own sales houses in Vienna, Budapest, Brno, Berlin, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Paris and London.

The exhibitions, which followed the first World Exhibition in London of 1851 had brought Michael Thonet also honors and recognitions, such as the Knight's Cross of the Order of Franz Joseph beside the golden crosses of merit with the crown and the Mexican Guadeloupe Medal.

Until 1871, the company Gebrüder Thonet has received numerous awards:

(Source: Commemorative of Gebrüder Thonet 1896 )

Chair No. 4

Café Daum was the first public venue that was equipped since 1849 complete with chairs by Thonet. The chair type 4 has since the classic Viennese coffee house chair with a bent from a single piece backrest. The historical significance of this decision by Mrs thumb is demonstrated that Thonet 24 years later at the International World Fair in 1873 one of these chairs exhibited to demonstrate the earlier method of production.

The early intention to manufacture luxury furniture, as they were still shown at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, soon proved to be impractical. The most sensible use of the novel bentwood technique resulted in easily transportable, lightweight and yet sturdy, this stylish coffee house chairs. They are found on many old pictures again, so for example in the famous literary café Griensteidl, or furnished by Adolf Loos Café Museum.

Chair No. 14

" In an effort to find the article by introducing cheaper Consumsorten a larger spread and make it generally available, the factory Koritschan has created those model in 1859, which became as chair No. 14 of Hauptconsumartikel the Thonet industry and remained is. " ( memorial volume of 1896). This simple chair founded the world-famous Thonet. The " Chair No. 14 ", now Model 214, is considered the traditional chair for coffee houses in Vienna and is the most produced seating in the world, also one of the most successful industrial products ever. By 1930, the chair was sold 50 million times. He embodies all the advantages of the new bentwood: beauty of form, functionality, material savings, affordability and durability. The chair was delivered to the set principle in items as a flat package in all the world and assembled on site. The connection of the bent parts was carried out by fitting and not as usual with glue.

The chair whose back is simply formed by two curved wooden rods, consists of a minimal number of parts - namely six - plus 10 screws and two nuts. Michael Thonet reduced form and material until no further improvement was possible to produce it with the least production cost.