Bentwood Dining Room Chairs

Looking for antique or vintage bentwood dining chairs?

 In America, dining rooms weren’t even much of a concept until the late 1700s, when a space set aside specifically for dining became a part of the construction of homes for the wealthy. In Europe, neoclassical dining chairs emerged during the 1750s owing to nostalgia for classical antiquity, while the curving chair crests of Queen Anne furniture in the United States preceded the artistically bold seat backs that characterized the Chippendale chairs that followed.

Today sees a wide range of dining room chairs on offer, however, which means that they can now be styled in different ways, bringing functionality and fun to any sumptuous dining space. No longer do tables have to be accompanied by a matching set of seats. Skillfully mixing and matching colors and designs allows you to showcase your personality without sacrificing the cohesion of a given space, and bentwood dining chairs, in addition to being comfortable, can bring texture and character to the dining area in your home.

Antique, new and vintage bentwood dining chairs and other bentwood furniture have become very popular in interiors over the years. Today bentwood chairs, tables, sofas and pendants are receiving striking modern interpretations from makers like Thonet, which are being carried on by the next generation.

Bentwood furniture dates as far back as the Middle Ages, but it is German-Austrian chair maker Michael Thonet who is most often associated with this now-classic technique. Thonet turned bentwood rocking chairs and other types of bentwood chairs into a work of art. The designer manufactured chairs out of steam-bent wood, and starting in the middle of the 19th century, he produced a series of rocking chairs in which the different curved parts were integrated into fluid, sinuous wholes. From there the bentwood look skyrocketed to furniture fame.

Bentwood was eventually embraced by design greats ranging from Josef Hoffmann to Gio Ponti, and Adolf Loos to Alvar Aalto for its versatility, timelessness and simple elegance. Mid-century modernists Charles and Ray Eames added wooden rockers to their famous plastic shell armchair, while Danish designer Frank Reenskaug opted for teak and polished beech, introducing pops of color with small cushions (a precursor to the bold works that would follow in the 1970s and 1980s).

In the Czech Republic — home to a range of talented but unsung mid-century modern and Art Deco designers — the company TON held a bentwood furniture exhibition in Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Villa Tugendhat in recent years. TON manufactures their bentwood furniture in the same workshops where Michael Thonet set up his operations in the 1800s.

Find a collection of antique, new and vintage bentwood dining chairs and other bentwood furniture on 1stDibs.