Chair, Thonet 18

This chair, probably used as office furniture in the Dominion Museum, is an example of Thonet’s innovative mass-produced ‘bentwood’ chair. Since the late nineteenth century Bentwood chairs have been an extremely popular and enduring form of all-purpose seating, and they are still commonly used in cafes and restaurants today. The Thonet family are considered ‘pioneers of both furniture design and manufacture’ (Victoria and Albert Museum, n.d.).

In 1830 cabinet-maker Michael Thonet began experimenting with a technique that used steam to heat laminated wood and made it soft enough to bend. In 1855 Thonet discovered that by attaching a metal strip to a length of solid wood he could apply the same technique so no longer needed to laminate the wood, eliminating a costly process. Thonet built a new factory in Koritchan (then part of Austro-Hungary) in 1857 and a range of bentwood chairs went in to mass production. The manufacture of each part of the chair was broken down into individual tasks, and the elements were designed so that Thonet could create many models from as few different parts as possible.

The chairs were cheap, comfortable and attractive, and by 1913 the Thonet company, run by Michael’s five sons after his death, was producing more than 1.8 million chairs a year. Thonet’s Model No. 14, first launched in 1859, is thought to have seated more people than any other chair in history (Rawsthorn 2008). The No. 18 is also one of the company's definitive styles. It was first exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851 and remains a popular choice for cafes and restaurants to this day.  

In New Zealand bentwood chairs had become standard all-purpose seating by the end of the nineteenth century, which explains why they were chosen as office furniture for the Dominion Museum in the early twentieth century. The influence and popularity of Thonet’s early designs endured, and a Thonet chair was included in the 1952 Art and Design exhibition in Auckland as an example of modular design and an antecedent of modernism.

References:

• Olsen, Justine. 2019. The Invisible hand. Auckland War Memorial Museum - Tāmaki Paenga Hira website. https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/discover/research/crafting-aotearoa/the-invisible-hand
• Petersen, Anna K.C. 2001. New Zealanders at Home: A Cultural History of Domestic Interiors 1814-1914. Dunedin: University of Otago Press. 
• Rawsthorn, Alice. 2008. No. 14: The chair that has seated millions. The New York Times. November 7, 2008. https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/arts/10iht-design10.1.17621906.html
• Thonet and Company New Zealand. n.d. The Thonet Tradition. https://thonet.co.nz/the-thonet-tradition
• Thonet and Company New Zealand. n.d. No. 18 Bentwood Café Chair. https://thonet.co.nz/no-18-bentwood-cafe-chair
• Victoria and Albert Museum. 2015. Thonet 18. Collections database. http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1325271/thonet-18-chair-thonet/
• Victoria and Albert Museum. n.d. Thonet and Sons. http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/thonet-and-sons/