Thonet-Mundus Furniture
For more than 180 years, Thonet — or Gebrüder Thonet — has produced elegant and durable tables and cabinets as well as chairs, stools and other seating that wholly blur the lines between art and design. Widely known as a trailblazer in the use of bentwood in furniture, the European manufacturer has reimagined the places in which we gather.
Changes in the organizational structure of Thonet since its inception in 1853 included a merger with Mundus, a Viennese company that Rudolf Weill & Co.'s Leopold Pilzer founded in 1907. Mundus was a joint stock firm that comprised a range of small bentwood furniture makers. The Thonet and Mundus merger took place in the early 20th century, which followed Mundus’s becoming a majority stakeholder in J. & J. Kohn. The merger yielded the formation of Thonet-Mundus in 1922.
Noted for his skill in parquetry, German-Austrian company founder Michael Thonet received an invitation from Austrian Chancellor Prince Metternich to contribute Neo-Rococo interiors to the Liechtenstein City Palace in Vienna. The Boppard-born Thonet had honed his carpentry skills in his father’s workshop, where he carried out experiments with plywood and modified the Biedermeier chairs that populated the studio.
Thonet’s work for the chancellor raised his profile, and the cabinetmaker gained international recognition, including at London’s Great Exhibition of 1851, which featured works created by members of the Arts and Crafts movement as well as industrial products of the day. Thonet showed a range of furniture at the fair and won the bronze medal for his bentwood chairs. He incorporated his family’s company, the Thonet Brothers, with his sons in 1853.
Bentwood furniture dates as far back as the Middle Ages, but it is the 19th-century cabinetmaker Thonet who is most often associated with this now-classic technique. Thonet in 1856 patented a method for bending solid wood through the use of steam, and from there, the bentwood look skyrocketed to furniture fame. The works of renowned mid-century modern designers such as Alvar Aalto, Arne Jacobsen, and Charles and Ray Eames that put this technological advancement to use would not be as extensive or celebrated were it not for the efforts of the pioneering Thonet.
Considered the world’s oldest mass-produced chair, Michael Thonet’s ubiquitous Chair No. 14 demonstrated that his patented bentwood technology made it possible to efficiently produce furniture on an industrial scale. Now known as the 214, it won the German Sustainability Award Design for 2021, a recognition of the company’s commitment to environmentally responsible production.
Often called the Coffee House chair — the company’s first substantial order was for a Viennese coffeehouse — the No. 14 remains an icon. Thonet originally designed the chair in 1859, and it is considered the starting point for modern furniture.
The bentwood process opened doors — there were investments in machinery and new industrial processes, and the business began mass-producing furniture. By the end of the 1850s, there were additional Thonet workshops in Eastern Europe and hundreds of employees. Michael Thonet’s reputation attracted the attention of notable architects including Otto Wagner, Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
The No. 14 was followed by the No. 18, or the Bistro chair, in 1867, and the 209, or the Architect’s chair, of which Le Corbusier was a fan. (The influential Swiss-French architect and designer used Thonet furniture in his Pavillon de l’Esprit Nouveau at the 1925 International Exposition of Decorative Arts in Paris.)
Thonet’s chair designs also appeared in artwork by Toulouse-Lautrec, John Sloan and Henri Matisse in his Interior with a Violin Case. The noteworthy Thonet rocking chair remains a marvel of construction — in the middle of the 19th century, Michael produced a series of rockers in which the different curved parts were integrated into fluid, sinuous wholes. Thanks to Thonet, the humble rocker acquired something unexpected: style. It was captured in the paintings of Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and James Tissot.
Thonet is currently split into global divisions. Thonet Industries U.S.A. was acquired in 1987 by Shelby Williams and joined the CF Group in 1999, while the Thonet brand in Germany is owned by Thonet GmbH.
Find antique Thonet-Mundus furniture on 1stDibs.
1970s Croatian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Rattan, Beech, Bentwood
1950s Austrian Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Cane, Wood
1970s European Mid-Century Modern Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Chrome
1910s Austrian Vienna Secession Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Brass
1930s Slovak Art Deco Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Beech, Bentwood
1930s Austrian Art Deco Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Beech, Bentwood
1920s Austrian Vienna Secession Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Fabric, Beech, Bentwood
1930s Austrian Bauhaus Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Steel
1970s Austrian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Cane, Bentwood
Early 20th Century German Bauhaus Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Steel
1930s Czech Art Deco Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Rattan, Bentwood
20th Century Croatian Modern Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Beech
1930s Austrian Art Deco Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Beech, Bentwood
1910s Austrian Vienna Secession Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Fabric, Beech, Bentwood
1910s Austrian Vienna Secession Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Beech
1930s Austrian Art Deco Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Beech, Bentwood
1920s Austrian Jugendstil Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Fabric, Glass, Beech, Bentwood
1930s Austrian Art Deco Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Beech, Bentwood
1930s Hungarian Art Deco Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Wood
1930s Austrian Bauhaus Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Beech
1930s Czech Art Deco Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Rattan, Beech, Bentwood
1930s Czech Art Deco Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Beech, Bentwood
Early 19th Century Hungarian Art Nouveau Antique Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Straw, Bentwood
1930s Slovak Art Deco Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Bentwood, Glass, Beech
1920s Slovak Vienna Secession Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Bentwood, Rattan, Beech
1920s Austrian Edwardian Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Bentwood
1920s Austrian Jugendstil Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Wicker
1930s Slovak Art Deco Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Beech
1930s Slovak Art Deco Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Fabric, Beech
Early 1900s Austrian Vienna Secession Antique Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Beech, Bentwood
Early 20th Century Austrian Belle Époque Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Bentwood
1920s Austrian Art Deco Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Bentwood
Early 20th Century Austrian Art Nouveau Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Beech
Early 20th Century Czech Bauhaus Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Bentwood
1970s Croatian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Rush, Bentwood
1930s Austrian Bauhaus Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Beech
1930s Slovak Art Deco Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Wood
1930s Slovak Art Deco Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Glass, Beech
Early 20th Century Czech Bauhaus Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Bentwood
1920s Czech Art Nouveau Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Wood
Early 20th Century Austrian Art Deco Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Cane, Bentwood
Early 20th Century Austrian Vienna Secession Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Beech, Bentwood
1920s Art Deco Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Bentwood
1920s German Bauhaus Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Fabric, Upholstery, Beech, Bentwood
Early 20th Century Austrian Vienna Secession Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Beech, Cane
Early 1900s Austrian Vienna Secession Antique Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Beech, Bentwood
Early 20th Century Austrian Art Nouveau Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Bentwood
Early 20th Century Austrian Bauhaus Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Bentwood
Early 20th Century Austrian Bauhaus Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Bentwood
Early 20th Century Austrian Vienna Secession Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Beech, Bentwood
1930s Czech Bauhaus Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Beech, Glass
1920s Czech Jugendstil Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Beech
1930s Slovak Art Deco Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Bentwood
1910s Czech Art Nouveau Vintage Thonet-Mundus Furniture
Wood
