Michael Thonet

Michael Thonet (1796–1871) was born in Boppard am Rhein, Prussia, and trained as a traditional cabinet-maker. In the 1830s, as an alternative to the laborious technique of carving, he began bending wood to create furniture.

The road to success was not an easy one. Following bankruptcy and aged nearly 50, Thonet was forced to move to Vienna with his wife and five sons. It took nearly another decade to finally establish the family business, Gebrüder Thonet, in 1853.

The firm went on to mass-produce ‘bentwood’ furniture in unprecedented numbers, manufacturing up to 1.8 million pieces a year by 1912.