Wood bent with steam
The cabinetmaker Michael Thonet spent years experimenting with bending wood and was granted a patent for his process. He heated solid rods of beech with steam until they became pliable, bent them in metal moulds and left them to dry in that shape. This gave him long, thin curves without joints, and the chair was lighter and cheaper than the carved chairs of the day.
Six parts in one crate
The whole chair consisted of six pieces of bent wood, ten screws and two nuts. It was not assembled at the factory. The parts were packed into crates, 36 chairs to a cubic metre, and the chair was put together only at its destination, with an ordinary screwdriver. Shipping was therefore cheap, and it reached cafés all over the world. IKEA turned the same idea, furniture that travels disassembled, into a business model only in the mid-20th century.
About 50 million by 1930
By 1930 about 50 million had been sold, which is why No. 14 is considered the first chair produced in truly large series. Production has never stopped. Thonet still makes it today, under the designation 214.
What Le Corbusier saw in it
The architect Le Corbusier, known for his strict taste, wrote of this chair that a more elegant and better conceived object had never been created. Designers still cite it today as proof that mass production does not have to look cheap.
Why it is interesting for your home
No. 14 is light, so it is easy to move, and its thin, rounded silhouette does not weigh down even a small dining room. Because it is made of several parts, it is easier to repair than a chair made from a single piece. If you are looking for dining chairs with this kind of character, compare the ranges of the showrooms on ambijent.me.