214 / 214 M Chair

No chair in the history of furniture design has been sold so long and so successfully in its original form as the Thonet 214. The so-called Coffee House Chair influenced an entire era and brought the then Austrian, now German furniture manufacturer Thonet international fame. The company's founder, Michael Thonet, was himself the designer of the timeless classic whose emergence was made possible by the perfected technique of bending solid wood. Thonet experimented at that time until he could form wood by means of hot steam and thus produce the back and legs of the chair. The process remains unchanged today and is responsible for the characteristic appearance and the Thonet 214. The Thonet bentwood chair quickly became one of the most popular seating solutions in the Viennese coffee houses of the early 20th century - and beyond Vienna's noble walls: thanks to the reduced number of components and the fact the chairs could be dismantled 36 Thonet chairs could be stowed in a 1 square meter crate and thus dispatched globally. Which they were. In huge numbers. The final assembly took place locally, a novelty at the time and a concept which allowed the proliferation of the designer chair to almost every continent. Thus the Thonet 214 is still regarded as a genuine pioneer of industrial design. The classic version with its cane seat has now been joined by another - the Thonet 214 M which is equipped with a seat made of curved, smooth plywood. As the first bentwood chair in furniture history the Thonet chair exudes an unmistakable flair, yet at the same time perfectly compliments any contemporary room setting.