Physical description
Curvilinear laminated walnut frame with walnut surface veneers, with curved back splat, curved stretcher and cane seat. Solid wood bracing blocks to back, rear stretcher missing.
Place of Origin
Boppard-am-Rhein (designed)
Date
1834-1840 (made)
Artist/maker
Thonet, Michael (designer)
Mündenich, Peter (retailed by)
Materials and Techniques
Laminated walnut frame, with cane seat
Marks and inscriptions
'Mrs Maslen'
'Möbel Magazin / von Peter / Mündnich / Hof Tischler / COBLENZ'
Dimensions
Height: 88.2 cm, Width: 44 cm, Depth: 46.5 cm
Object history note
It was probably sold by Peter Mündenich, a joiner accredited to the Court at Koblenz on the Rhine.
Historical significance: Made of laminated rather than carved wood, this chair is well-documented to be among his very earliest work.
Stacks of thinly cut veneers were boiled in glue and moulded into curvilinear shapes using a process patented by Thonet in Prussia in 1840 and later in France and Austro-Hungary. These were sanded and joined, and veneers were applied to most surfaces to hide the striations of the veneers, giving the chair a more uniform surface appearance. The result was a lightweight chair - this chair weighs 2.1 kg - possessing great tensile strength. Only a few similar examples are known. Thonet's 'Wienerstühle, which evolved from this chair, became widely famed.
Historical context note
Michael Thonet, in an attempt to lower costs, began to look for an alternative to cutting or carving wood and experimented with the use of bentwood for furniture.
Thonet's technical innovation was part of the search for improved methods of manufacture spurred on by increased competition and made possible by the availability of woodworking machinery, including the circular saw. The 1820s saw not only the importation of many technical methods and machines from England but the invention and patenting of scores of new woodworking machines. Thonet himself was to spend the 1840s perfecting methods for bending laminated and solid wood, and by the 1850s he was mass-producing 'bentwood' furniture made from solid wood manufactured in a modern factory using machinery designed and built by his own firm, Gebrüder Thonet (Thonet Brothers).
Descriptive line
Chair, bentwood, German (Boppard-am-Rhein); 1836-1840. Designed and made by Michael Thonet
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Wilk, Christopher. Western Furniture 1350 to Present Day: In the Victoria and Albert Museum London. London: Philip Wilson Publishers Limited, 1996, pp. 148-149, ill. ISBN: 1856674435
Exhibition History
Innovative furniture design from the Rhine-Roentgen and Thonet - From luxury furniture to the mass production (Roentgen Museum 21/05/2011-04/09/2011)
Labels and date
CHAIR
W.5-1976
'American and European Art and Design 1800-1900'
Inscribed 'Möbel Magazin von Peter Mündenich: Tischler. Coblenz' for the retailer, this chair is almost certainly an early example of the work of Michael Thonet, who later moved to Vienna and developed bent-wood techniques, which served as the basis for an international industry. [1987-2006]
Europe and America 1800-1900, room 101
CHAIR OF LAMINATED BENTWOOD
1836-40
Germany, Boppard-am-Rhein; designed by Michael Thonet; manufactured by P. Mundernich
Walnut, with laminated frame and surface veneers
Museum no. W.5-1976
The traditional appearance of this veneered chair belies its innovative construction. The curves were made not by carving, but by sandwiching thin layers of wood together to make a laminate. This laminate was then boiled in glue and bent in a metal mould. Thonet's invention of this technique paved the way for the mass production of bentwood furniture. [2006]
Production Note
Attribution note: The seat frame is cut in one piece from a 5-laminate sheet. The front edge has a thicker core on the front upper edge, tapering towards the front lower edge. The legs and stretchers are all laminated (with varying numbers - 5 to 13 - at different points on the continuous curves). The visible surfaces of the legs and the stretchers are veneered. The side stretchers show one continuous curve starting and ending at the back, with the front to back curve cut to fit within this. The veneers on the front of surface of the top rail show wavy line joints, approximately 100mm apart. The caning show no sign of pegging and is all tied. Veneer is blistered at the back of the seat. Old tearing, which has been repaired, shows at the left of the top rail.
Materials
Wood; Walnut; Cane (plant material)
Techniques
Veneering; Varnishing; Laminating
Categories
Furniture
Collection code
FWK
