Chair, designed and manufactured by Thonet Brothers (Gebrüder Thonet), 1890 – 1920, Vienna, Austria. Museum no. W.5-1969. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
(Left to right:) Model no. 1, armchair, designed and manufactured by Thonet Brothers (Gebrüder Thonet), about 1859, Vienna, Austria. Museum no. W.30-2011. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London; 'Thonet 18', chair, designed and manufactured by Thonet Brothers (Gebrüder Thonet), about 1876, Vienna, Austria. Museum no. W.4-2017. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Chair, designed and manufactured by Thonet Brothers (Gebrüder Thonet), 1890 – 1920, Vienna, Austria. Museum no. W.5-1969. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The Thonets were now ready for mass production. In 1857, they built a new factory in Koritschan in the Moravian forests (modern-day Koryčany in the Czech Republic) with a ready supply of beech wood, plenty of cheap labour and access to important rail links. The design of Thonet furniture directly reflected its 'production line' manufacturing process. The making of each element was broken down into a series of individual tasks. Men did the steaming and bending, women the less arduous sanding, finishing and caning.
(Left to right:) Bending wood in a Thonet factory, about 1920, Gebrüder Thonet, via Wikimedia Commons; Sanding wood in a Thonet factory, about 1910, Gebrüder Thonet, via Wikimedia Commons
The firm's key design principle was to manufacture as many chair models as possible from as few parts as possible. These parts were then packed in boxes, for ease of shipping, and assembled elsewhere by the distributors or retailers. In this way, Thonet was able to increase production from 10,000 chairs per year in 1857 to 1,810,000 by 1913.
Chair, model no. 14, designed and manufactured by Thonet Brothers (Gebrüder Thonet), about 1887 – 1900, Vienna, Austria. Museum no. W.10:1 to 8-2012. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
(Left to right:) Chair, model no. 14, designed and manufactured by Thonet Brothers (Gebrüder Thonet), about 1887 – 1900, Vienna, Austria. Museum no. W.10:1 to 8-2012. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Chair, model no. 14, designed and manufactured by Thonet Brothers (Gebrüder Thonet), about 1859, Vienna, Austria. Museum no. W.31-2011. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Gebrüder Thonet was a family affair with father and sons closely controlling every last detail of production. They also understood that mass production required a mass market. Starting in the 1850s, the firm exhibited at many international fairs and established a global reputation. In 1851, Thonet took part in the Great Exhibition in the Crystal Palace, London and exhibited two armchairs, six side chairs, four tables, and two additional pieces described as 'what nots'. Although describing the chairs as "curious", the jury awarded them a prize medal.
The Thonets built a worldwide network of retail outlets and, from 1859, published multi-lingual catalogues showing every model, individually numbered, to facilitate orders. Their strategy proved so successful that by 1930 over 50 million model No. 14 chairs alone had been sold. Today, the Thonets are considered pioneers of both furniture design and manufacture.
