Gebrüder Thonet

Background

Gebrüder Thonet is the Vienna firm that Michael Thonet transferred to his sons in 1853. Thonet's designer page names the sons Franz, Michael Jr., August, Josef and Jakob, who joined the company that year and took it over together after their father's death in 1871.

Signature Style

According to Thonet, the brothers developed new machinery and operating procedures and presented countless advancements and new furniture concepts. Wikipedia adds that the firm built the first industrial-scale production processes for bentwood furniture, replacing individual craft skills with machinery that let any worker produce accurate, repeatable bent parts.

Notable Works

• 209 bentwood chair (dated 1900 on Thonet's product page)
• 204 barstool, shown as the 204 RH on the designer page (dated 1880 on the 204 MH product page)

Legacy

Around the turn of the 19th century the third generation (Karl, Julius, Theodor, Alfred, Victor and Richard) designed many further pieces. Wikipedia records that the firm opened a factory in Koryčany in 1856 and that three firms descended from it remain active, in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic.