By Porter Lang
Count the parts. That is the whole trick of this chair, and it is why it ended up in more cafés than anyone can tally.
The parts, as one source counts them
The Sarasota Art Museum, a US art museum, gives the No. 14 as six pieces of wood, ten screws and two bolts. It says Michael Thonet, a German cabinetmaker, designed it in 1859 as a simple, light, functional bistro chair. Our reading: those numbers describe a chair meant to be made fast and boxed small. The V&A, which holds a No. 14 dated about 1859, puts it as the firm’s “key principle”: to make as many chair models as possible from as few parts as possible. The V&A does not give a part count, and the Sarasota page says “bolts”, not “nuts”. Both are on the page as written.
How wood bends
Thonet did not carve curves out of planks. The V&A says that in the 1830s he began bending wood instead of carving it. Early bending used stacks of glued veneers. In 1855, the V&A says, he found that steam and a metal strip along the length let solid wood bend in a similar way.
The Sarasota museum describes steaming the solid wood for many hours and shaping it in cast iron moulds. The MAK, the Vienna museum of applied arts, says he bent wood “under pressure and steam”, then let it harden again. Three sources, three levels of detail, and no disagreement on the principle.
Why does that matter to a buyer? A bent leg and back made from one length of wood has no joint where the curve sits, so there is no joint to loosen at the point of most stress. That is our reading, not a claim from any source.
Where the wood came from
Wikipedia says Moravia’s beech woods were of great importance to the firm. It gives Koryčany as the first Moravian factory, begun in 1856 to 1857, and Bystřice pod Hostýnem in 1861, now the oldest still-working bentwood factory of its kind; it lists seven production sites in all. The V&A mentions the Koritschan factory (1857) and its ready supply of beech.
From Boppard to Vienna
The V&A says Michael Thonet lived from 1796 to 1871, was born in Boppard am Rhein and trained as a cabinetmaker. After bankruptcy, aged nearly 50, he moved to Vienna with his wife and five sons. Wikipedia says he set up as an independent cabinetmaker in Boppard in 1819, that his first success was the Boppard layerwood chair in 1836, and that he sold the business after financial difficulty. Wikipedia gives no year for the move, only an 1841 meeting with Metternich that led to an invitation from the Vienna court. The V&A dates the family firm Gebrüder Thonet to 1853.
At the Crystal Palace in London in 1851, the V&A says, Thonet showed two armchairs, six side chairs, four tables and two “what nots”. The jury gave a prize medal, though it called the chairs “curious”.
Shipped in pieces
The V&A says parts were packed in boxes for shipping and assembled by distributors or retailers. Sarasota calls the No. 14 “the first flat-pack chair in history”, a claim we pass on as the museum’s. Wikipedia says 36 disassembled chairs fit into one cubic metre of box. Different sources use different words, and only one uses “flat-pack”.
The numbers don’t agree
- The V&A says over 50 million No. 14 chairs had been sold by 1930.
- Sarasota says about 50 million were sold to bistros worldwide between 1890 and 1930.
- Wikipedia says “some 50 million” were produced and that the chair is still in production.
- The MAK says “tens of millions”.
So: roughly fifty million, with sources differing on “sold” and “produced” and on the dates. We do not choose.
Output rose, the V&A says, from 10,000 chairs a year in 1857 to 1,810,000 by 1913. Wikipedia gives a peak in 1912, around two million products of all kinds. Again the figures are close but not the same.
In the café
The MAK says the No. 14 epitomises Viennese coffee culture and that a bentwood chair turns up in any Vienna café, often faded from age and spilled coffee. Visiting Vienna, a travel guide, calls it “the Godfather of the coffee house chairs” and says cafés were Thonet’s primary market at the time. The MAK ran an exhibition, Bentwood and Beyond, from December 2019 to September 2020 with just under 240 exhibits. It has finished, so check the museum for what it shows now.
Still made today
The MAK says the company makes a modern version, the no. 214. Wikipedia says the firm became Thonet GmbH in 2006, with head office and production in Frankenberg, Germany. It names the No. 16 and No. 18 as later popular variants, a point Sarasota also makes.
Questions a buyer would ask
Is a vintage No. 14 the same as a new 214? The MAK treats the 214 as the modern version of the chair; beyond that we have no source on how to tell them apart and will not guess. Ask any seller to show you a maker’s mark and describe it, and read it against the company’s own records.
Can you replace a part? Our reading: a chair built from named parts and screws ought to be repairable, but we have no source on spare parts.
What kind of sources these are
A national design museum (the V&A), an art museum in the US, a Vienna museum, a travel guide and Wikipedia. The part count rests on one museum page.
What we left out
Any price, any maker’s mark guide, and any list of shops that sell the chair. Sephari curates; it does not stock chairs.
Quick answers
How many parts does a Thonet No. 14 have? According to the Sarasota Art Museum, six pieces of wood, ten screws and two bolts. The V&A does not give a count.
When was the Thonet No. 14 designed? The Sarasota Art Museum and the MAK in Vienna both give 1859. The V&A dates its own example to about 1859.
Where did Michael Thonet come from? The V&A says he was born in Boppard am Rhein in 1796 and trained as a cabinetmaker before moving to Vienna.
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Roam first. Shop later.