This week we fly to Vienna, around 1859.
Biedermeier and French Neo-Classical furniture are the prevailing styles of the time.
Simple, elegant, dark, sometimes carved cabinets found their place in all middle and high-society houses.
But a sort of revolution is finding its way through an ambitious and determined cabinetmaker,
Mr. Michael Thonet (to be pronounced Tone-eT" with a hard beginning and ending t).
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Thonet's
essential breakthrough was his success in having light, strong wood
bent into curved, graceful shapes by forming the wood in hot steam.
A technology, known as bentwood, that took years to perfect.
bent into curved, graceful shapes by forming the wood in hot steam.
A technology, known as bentwood, that took years to perfect.
This enabled him to design entirely novel, elegant, lightweight, durable
and comfortable furniture,
which appealed strongly to fashion
- a complete departure from the heavy, carved designs of the past -
- a complete departure from the heavy, carved designs of the past -
and
whose aesthetic and functional appeal remains to this day.
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| amm + pinjacolada + the style files + remodelista |
Ever since, the Thonet chairs, No. 14 on top, have become a design classic,
declined in several colours to enter even modern and contemporary interiors.
Few 19th-century icon furniture pieces stood the test of time.
But Thonet gave life to something so new,
that even the design revolutions of the following century
couldn't stop its success.
declined in several colours to enter even modern and contemporary interiors.
Few 19th-century icon furniture pieces stood the test of time.
But Thonet gave life to something so new,
that even the design revolutions of the following century
couldn't stop its success.
 |
| laure joliet + designboom + flodeau + at home in love |
Do you have a Thonet chair at home? Would you like to have one?
I certainly will one day, and in the meantime
have a lovely day ♥