Wiener GTV Design Thonet - N 1 chair

Supple, light, and elegant. This chair, designed in 1849, uses the new technique of steam bent beech wood, and clearly shows the philosophy aimed at simplifying the components to enable mass production. The seat is made from cane.

Michael Thonet

Michael Thonet (Boppard 1796 – Vienna 1871) trained as a cabinetmaker, specialising in geometric marquetry. A furniture designer and producer, in 1830 he began to experiment with using bent wood to make chairs, and in 1841 succeeded in filing a patent for a new process treating strips of beech with steam or boiling them in water and glue with minimal costs to provide an innovative, very light, flexible and durable material. In 1849 he moved to Vienna, opened a factory that manufactured chairs, coffee tables, clothes racks, etc., marked by their simple and linear design, with immediate and long-lasting success. Thonet opened new factories in Moravia and in Hungary to increase production and opened sales showrooms in the main European and American cities.

Wiener GTV Design Thonet

Michael Thonet (1796-1871) and his five children were the most successful manufacturers of furniture in the Industrial Age. Gebrüder Thonet Vienna GmbH (GTV) has develop edits work in a successful blend of the traditional and the modern, of continuity and renewal, with a new production program that begins by re-editing a series of Gebrüder Thonet classics. At the same time, GTV stands for contemporary furnishing. Advanced production techniques are applied to innovative designs and uses of materials, to create highly sought-after, multipurpose furnishing items. Truly original, up-to-date solutions that integrate well with the more classic products of its catalogue, now reworked.Items such as chair No. 14, of which more than 50 million were made between 1850 and 1930, have gone down in history for their fine design and manufacturing quality, and yet still today excite and attract new generations. GTV always succeeds in finding the perfect combination of tradition and innovation, assisted by continuous research into new, clear-cut, versatile designs.The tangible and intangible intrinsic value of the GTV collection is expressed in the Wiener GTV Design brand, engraved on a coin embedded in the structure of each single piece: a precious detail that certifies authenticity, originality and quality in stable balance between manufacturing and high-level craftsmanship. Inspiring this unique detail was the coin with the image of the brand that was historically spent internally within Thonet production facilities throughout Europe.