Gebrüder Thonet
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Gebrüder Thonet or the Thonet Brothers was a European furniture manufacturer. It continues as a German company (Thonet GmbH), Austrian (Thonet Vienna) and Czech (TON).


History

Gebrüder Thonet were particularly known for their manufacture of
bentwood Bentwood objects are those made by wetting wood (either by soaking or by steaming), then bending it and letting it harden into curved shapes and patterns. In furniture making this method is often used in the production of rocking chairs, cafe ...
furniture, for which they had developed the first industrial-scale production processes. These replaced previous individual craft skills with an investment in machinery that allowed any worker to produce accurate and repeatable bent components. Although steam bending was long established for pieces such as the
Windsor chair A Windsor chair is a chair built with a solid wooden seat into which the chair-back and legs are round- tenoned, or pushed into drilled holes, in contrast to standard chairs (whose back legs and back uprights are continuous). The seats of Windsor ...
, these older pieces had used the bending of a raw
billet A billet is a living-quarters to which a soldier is assigned to sleep. Historically, a billet was a private dwelling that was required to accept the soldier. Soldiers are generally billeted in barracks or garrisons when not on combat duty, alth ...
that would then be shaped to size afterwards. Thonet's more precise process allowed timber to be machined with a surface finish as raw stock (usually as thick circular dowel), steam bent to shape, then used as a component almost immediately, without further machining other than to trim the ends. The company was founded by
Michael Thonet Michael Thonet (2 July 1796, Boppard – 3 March 1871, Vienna) was a German-Austrian cabinet maker, known for the invention of bentwood furniture. Career Thonet was the son of the master tanner Franz Anton Thonet of Boppard. Following a ca ...
in Vienna by transferring the company Thonet to his sons under the new name Gebrüder Thonet in 1853. In 1856 the brothers expanded with a furniture factory in Koryčany and in the next years, five more Central European production sites were established in
Bystřice pod Hostýnem Bystřice pod Hostýnem (; german: Bistritz am Hostein) is a town in Kroměříž District in the Zlín Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 8,000 inhabitants. Administrative parts Villages of Bílavsko, Hlinsko pod Hostýnem, Rychlov and S ...
(1861), Veľké Uherce (1866),
Vsetín Vsetín () is a town in the Zlín Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 25,000 inhabitants. Originally a small town, Vsetín has become an important centre of industrial, economic, cultural and sports life during the 20th century. Administ ...
(1867), Halenkov (1867) and
Radomsko Radomsko is a city in southern Poland with 44,700 inhabitants (2021). It is situated on the Radomka river in the Łódź Voivodeship (since 1999), having previously been in Piotrków Voivodeship, Piotrków Trybunalski Voivodeship (1975–1998). ...
(1880).Thonet – a pioneer of furniture history
Thonet Press Release, January 2015
Their best known piece was the
No. 14 chair The No. 14 chair is the most famous chair made by the Thonet chair company. Also known as the 'bistro chair', it was designed by Michael Thonet and introduced in 1859, becoming the world's first mass-produced item of furniture. It is made using ...
, the iconic chair of Parisian cafes. The company Gebrüder Thonet merged with Mundus AG in 1921 to become the world's largest furniture manufacturer. The buyback of the shares in the Thonet Mundus AG by the Thonet family followed in 1938. In the aftermath of World War II, Thonet lost all of its production facilities in the Eastern Bloc states through expropriation, and the sales office at Viennas Stephansplatz had been destroyed during the war. From 1945 to 1953, Georg Thonet, the great grandson of company founder, Michael Thonet, rebuilt the completely destroyed facilities in
Frankenberg, Hesse Frankenberg an der Eder is a town in Waldeck-Frankenberg district, Hesse, Germany. The mountain at a Ford (crossing), ford over the Eder (Fulda), Eder north of the Burgwald range was for a long time a fortified place, playing an especially importa ...
, in the north of
Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Dar ...
, where Thonet GmbH's head office and production facilities remain until today. Economic success returned quickly and the company sought the cooperation of outstanding designers. The list of designers who have worked with Thonet over the past 60 years is long and filled with top caliber names:
Egon Eiermann Egon Eiermann (29 September 1904 – 20 July 1970) was one of Germany's most prominent architects in the second half of the 20th century. He was also a furniture designer. From 1947, he was Professor for architecture at the Technical University ...
,
Verner Panton Verner Panton (13 February 1926 – 5 September 1998) is considered one of Denmark's most influential 20th-century furniture and interior designers. During his career, he created innovative and futuristic designs in a variety of materials, especi ...
, Eddie Harlis, Hanno von Gustedt, Rudolf Glatzel, Pierre Paulin, Gerd Lange, Hartmut Lohmeyer, Ulrich Böhme and Wulf Schneider, Alfredo Häberli, Christophe Marchand,
Lord Norman Foster Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or a ...
, Delphin Design, Glen Oliver Löw, James Irvine,
Piero Lissoni Piero Lissoni (born July 23, 1956, in Seregno) is an Italian architect and designer, known for his contemporary furniture design. In 1986, Lissoni and Nicoletta Canesi founded the interdisciplinary studio Lissoni & Partners in Milan (Italy), foc ...
,
Stefan Diez Stefan Diez (born 1971 in Freising) is a German industrial designer whose Munich-based studio, DIEZ OFFICE, develops furniture, accessories, and exhibition designs. Early life and education Born in 1971 in Freising, Germany, to a family of ...
, Lievore Altherr Molina, Lepper Schmidt Sommerlade,
Hadi Teherani Hadi Teherani (born 2 February 1954) is an Iranian-German architect and designer who lives in Hamburg, Germany. Biography Hadi Teherani was born in Tehran, Iran, and moved to Germany with his family when he was 6 years old. He did his school in ...
, Läufer + Keichel. Moreover, the company's own design team regularly adds new designs to Thonet's portfolio. In 1976 Gebrüder Thonet was divided into a German (Gebrüder Thonet) and an Austrian company (Thonet Vienna). The two companies are independent of each other.


Thonet today

In 2006 Gebrüder Thonet becomes Thonet GmbH. Today, Thorsten Muck runs the company with its head offices and production facilities in Frankenberg/Eder (Germany). Michael Thonet's direct descendants in the fifth and sixth generation remain involved in the company's business as associates and sales partners. The collection still comprises famous bentwood furniture, tubular steel classics from the Bauhaus era, and current designs by famous contemporary architects and designers.


Museums and exhibitions

In 1989 a museum was opened in Frankenberg, which is located on the company premises and shows historical exhibits on 700 square meters of exhibition space. The Museum of Applied Arts Vienna has a large furniture collection and shows in its permanent exhibition an overview of one hundred years of Thonet production as well as that of the Kohn brothers and the furniture factory Danhauser. The Hofmobiliendepot (Imperial Furniture Collection) in Vienna also shows selected objects from Thonet, including the graceful Michael Thonet running chair from 1843/48 for the Vienna Stadtpalais Liechtenstein. On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the Thonet company, the Museum of Applied Arts Vienna (MAK Vienna) will present a comprehensive exhibition (autumn 2019).


Bibliography

* Renzi/Thillmann, sedie a dondolo Thonet – Thonet rocking chairs, Silvana Editoriale, Milano 2006, * Lara, Natascha/Thillmann, Wolfgang, Bugholzmöbel in Südamerika – Bentwood furniture in South America – Muebles de madera curvada, La Paz 2008 * Thillmann, Wolfgang/ Willscheid, Bernd, MöbelDesign – Roentgen, Thonet und die Moderne, Roentgen Museum Neuwied, Neuwied 2011, * Official Website of Thonet GmbH: http://www.thonet.de * Basic press portfolio of Thonet Gmb


Types

File:Thonet chairs Wien museum Karlplatz.jpg, Thonet chairs Wien museum Karlplatz File:Thonet-exhibition 58.JPG, Thonet-exhibition File:Thonet-Stuhl 17 makffm 14583.jpg, Thonet
rocking chair A rocking chair or rocker is a type of chair with two curved bands (also known as rockers) attached to the bottom of the legs, connecting the legs on each side to each other. The rockers contact the floor at only two points, giving the occupant ...
File:Thonet-exhibition 56.JPG, Armchair by Thonet


Literature

* Üner, Stefan: Gebrüder Thonet, in: ''Wagner, Hoffmann, Loos und das Möbeldesign der Wiener Moderne. Künstler, Auftraggeber, Produzenten'', ed. by Eva B. Ottillinger, Exhib. Cat. Hofmobiliendepot, Vienna, 20 March – 7 October 2018, p. 149–152, . * Albrecht Bangert: ''Thonet Möbel. Bugholz-Klassiker von 1830 bis 1930''. Heyne, München 1997, . * Hans H. Buchwald: ''Form from Process. The Thonet chair''. Carpenter Center for the Visual arts, Cambridge Mass. 1967. * Reinhard Engel, Marta Halpert: ''Luxus aus Wien II.'' Czernin Verlag, Wien 2002, . * Andrea Gleininger: ''Der Kaffeehausstuhl Nr. 14 von Michael Thonet''. Birkhäuser, Frankfurt/M. 1998, . * Heinz Kähne: ''Möbel aus gebogenem Holz. Ein Blick in die Sammlung der Stadt Boppard.'' Boppard 2000. * Heinz Kähne: ''Thonet Bugholz-Klassiker. Eine Einführung in die Schönheit und Vielfalt der Thonet-Möbel.'' Rhein-Mosel Verlag, Briedel 1999, . * Heinz Kähne: ''Die Thonets in Boppard''. Sutton Verlag, Erfurt 2008, . * Brigitte Schmutzler: ''Eine unglaubliche Geschichte. Michael Thonet und seine Stühle''. Landesmuseum, Koblenz 1996, . * Sembach, Leuthäuser, Gössel: ''Möbeldesign im 19. Jahrhundert'', Benedikt Taschen GmbH, Köln 1990, . * Eva B. Ottilinger (Hrsg.): '' Gebrüder Thonet- Möbel aus gebogenem Holz'', Böhlau Verlag, Wien Köln Weimar 2003, . * Renz, Wolfgang Thillmann, sedie a dondolo Thonet – Thonet rocking chairs, Silvana Editoriale, Milano 2006, . * Natascha Lara, Wolfgang Thillmann, Bugholzmöbel in Südamerika – Bentwood furniture in South America – Muebles de madera curvada, La Paz 2008. * Wolfgang Thillmann, Bernd Willscheid, MöbelDesign – Roentgen, Thonet und die Moderne, Roentgen Museum Neuwied, Neuwied 2011, . * Alexander von Vegesack, "Mass Production Chair Man", 1 December 1996, The Independent


References


External links


English language website


Wolfgang Thillmann, the world's largest private collection of Thonet and bentwood furniture {{DEFAULTSORT:Thonet, Gebrueder Furniture companies of Austria Furniture companies of Germany Companies based in Hesse History of furniture Purveyors to the Imperial and Royal Court