 |
||||||||
 |
 |
|
||||||
 Available russian version |
 |
 |
|
Issues of 2008
|
|
Mikhael Thonet — a scheme of success
The chair No.14, created by Michael Thonet (1796–1871) in 1859, consisted of six parts and was produced by millions. The design of a chair was rather simple. This model, as a rule, was sold in disassembled condition. The chairs were delivered to the shops in boxes of one cubic meter volume, in which three dozens of them were packed. By 1930, more than fifty millions copies were sold, and the production of the model No.214 has not stopped even today.
All this did not happen just occasionally. Michael Thonet, the founder of the Thonet Company, was gradually moving to the top of the furniture Olympus for really a long time. The son of a dresser, sent for training to a joiner, appeared to be a talented pupil, having organized his own workshop at an age of twenty three. His business was successful, and in 1820, Michael married Maria Grae, who bore him fourteen children, seven of them (two daughters and five sons) reaching adult age. The sons — Franz, Michael, August, Joseph and Jacob — became the successors and continued the father’s business. Under their management, the firm reached its peak of success. The main capital of the firm was the technology invented by Michael Thonet, allowing producing furniture of the most freakish forms. For the first time, he started to use it in 1830. According to it, the sheets of plywood cut in strips in parallel to the direction of their fibres, were boiled in glue and then stacked in bending dies. In comparison with already existing wood bending methods, it was a significant step forward. It was easier to work with it, and the finished articles were lighter. The cheapness of the production was provided by the organization of manufacture: the bending dies were wide, which allowed producing simultaneously several identical parts at once. Certainly, the bent furniture was produced both before and after Thonet, however, the predecessors of the master were limited by physical characteristics of wood, and the followers only repeated the technical achievements of the Master. The Thonet’s workshop was located in his native city of Boppard for a long time. However, in 1842, Michael with his family moved to Vienna, where the conditions of work were more favorable. On July 16, 1842, the government conferred to him the privilege to «bend all types of wood even the most fragile using chemical-mechanical techniques, producing all kinds of forms and roundings». Thonet’s own new company was established in 1849, it was called now «Gebruder Thonet» (Thonet Bros.). Michael passed his business to his sons (1853). The period of 1850s was the period of the Company’s blossom: in 1854, at «the Universal German Industrial Exhibition» in 1855 the Company won a bronze medal, and at the first World’s Expo in Paris a silver medal. In 1860, a one more Viennese bestseller, the rocking armchair, appeared. For many years, Michael Thonet was trying to patent his method of producing bentwood furniture. His applications were turned down in Germany and some other countries, but in 1856, he succeeded after all and received a patent, which lasted till 1889. It was in the 50¬s of the 19th century, when the first big export orders from South America were received. The production volume grew at an amazing rate: in 1856, in Moravia, in the city of Korichane, the first factory of the Company was launched. By 1870, its branches operated in Brno, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt-on-Main, Paris, Rome, Naples, Barcelona, Madrid, Rotterdam, Moscow, Odessa, Saint Petersburg as well as in London and Prague. Graceful chairs, tables and couches even reached North America — they were available at the offices of the company in New York and Chicago. Then furniture by Thonet received the supreme international award: the World Expo in Paris (1867) conferred a gold medal to Thonet Bros. Not only its high quality and reasonable price, but also an aggressive advertising policy added to the popularity of Thonet Bros.: in 1859, the company has released the first printed ad, where twenty six models have been submitted, and in 1880, the catalogue became multipaged, while the number of models increased up to three hundred. In the early 20th century, more than 1200 models were offered in a hundred pages of the Thonet Bros. catalogue. Also, the Company produced an impact on the history of advertising — it initiated the first «crazy» PR-action. In the early 20th century, a chair of the legendary No.14 model was dropped from Tour d’Eiffel, the French masterpiece of engineering skill of a height of 318.7 meters (the lowest viewing platform is positioned at a height of 57 meters), erected ten years before it. The chair remained intact to the marvel of the public and the pleasure of the manufacturers: thus the simplicity and ergonomics of the design successfully passed a durability check. By 1912, the productivity has reached its peak: two million pieces of furniture was produced yearly at seven factories of the Company. Growing popularity also brought in the market numerous imitators and not less numerous fakes, repeating the products of the famous maker in details. Austrians, a family business, owners of the wood-sawing and wood-processing factories were the major competitors.
Both these firms opened offices in Russia in 1870, and closely followed all the Thonet movements. As soon as a new model appeared in the market, the competitors released the same one, making only little changes to it. Besides the traditional chairs, sofas and armchairs, all the producers following the Thonet’s example, produced little gaming tables, hangers and towel dryers as well as pier glasses and supports for umbrellas. The situation with the competition especially aggravated after 1889, after the expiry of the Thonet's patent on the bentwood furniture production. To protect the brandname, each «true» Thonet was marked by a paper label on which the official name of the company, its trademark, the address and the information on the awards won at various exhibitions were presented. Also the relief stamps were put on the pieces — the ones in form of the short name of the Company in German. In the 19th — early 20th centuries, in Saint Petersburg, the furniture of the firm Thonet Bros. could be purchased in two shops of the Company: one of them (16/7 Nevsky pr.) specialized on selling of «the Viennese beechen furniture», another (9 Malaya Morskaya Str.) on «furniture of all styles». In 1880, paper labels in Russian have been designed specially for the Russian market. Chairs could be purchased at a price from 2 roubles and 25 copecks up to 3 roubles and 70 copecks apiece, an armchair costed from 6 up to 13 roubles. In the catalogues, it was possible to find more expensive models, for example, the room upholstered chairs from 50 to 70 roubles apiece or the set consisting of a sofa, two armchairs and four chairs at a price from 55 to 240 roubles. Simple and elegant Viennese furniture could be met at a restaurant, in an apartment, in an employee’s office, in a smart private residence and even on the cinema screen, for the bentwood chair was a true help for Charlie Chaplin in his well-known tricks. With the introduction of the Thonet’s method, the industrial manufacture of the furniture began. Initially, the chairs, sofas, with inserts from imprinted plywood or wickered elements have drawn attention of the wealthiest public. It could be found in the interiors of such refined manors located near Moscow as Arkhangelskoye of Youssupov or Kuzminki of Golizyn, but gradually the situation was changing. Tens of thousands of chairs and armchairs annually was supplied to furniture stores of many cities of the world, and subsequently, the price for them decreased. In course of the time, the Viennese furniture became a sign of a particular social class, testifying both the limited budget and the purposeful democratic style. It is interesting that the further development of the firm was connected with the Michael Thonet’s method, but with the one applied to an absolutely different material. Shared aesthetic principles: functionality, minimalism, etc. made possible the cooperation of the Company with key figures of the design association «Bauhaus». In 1930, such famous modernist designers — «Bauhaus» members as a Dutch, Mart Stam (author of the Cantilever chair), a Hungarian, Marcel Breuer (author of the Wassily chair), and a German, Mies van der Rohe designed furniture from bent steel tubes for the Company. The Thonet Company exists even today. The fifth generation of the well-known family: Klaus, Peter and Phillip Thonet supervise its head office in Frankenberg (Germany), its production can be purchased today even in the most exotic places of the Earth, for example, in New Zealand. Following precepts of the founder of the enterprise, his successors try not to stop on the way of the new heights achieving. They use high technologies and cooperate with leading architects and designers of all the world like Glenn Oliver Low and Erik Magnussen, and also with the well-known in Russia Norman Foster, the English architect, being the author of the project of the Kirov Stadium renovation and of the scandalous project of constructing a business center meant to replace the Frunzensky department store, which is a monument of the Soviet epoch architecture. A museum was created in Frankenberg in one of the buildings of the factory presenting the history of the largest furniture firm in Europe. George Thonet, a great-great-grandson of the founder of the Company, who is a passionate collector, collected 450 subjects reflecting all the history of the family business from the establishing date up till nowadays. Also, the main masterpieces of the Thonet’s design can be found in the largest art museums of the world: for example, in the New York Museum of Modern Art or in the Parisian Pompidou Centre. In Russia, a large museum collection of the Thonet’s furniture is kept, for example, in the State Museum of History of Saint Petersburg. To start an own antiquarian collection of the Thonet’s furniture is not so it easy nowdays. The best samples of Thonet cost now from 1,500 euros for a rocking armchair or an incomplete set of chairs and up to 10,000 euros for rare and well-preserved subjects. However, it does not stop the collectors, and the ranks of admirers of the Viennese furniture are only multiplying. The reason for this is both in the artistic and ergonomic qualities of the Thonet’s furniture, about which Le Corbusier noted in 1920-s that it is simply impossible to create a more expedient form of the chair.
|
|
Strategic partner
Project of company 
|
|
Headquarters, Edition, Advertising department, Sale department, Information agency
 |
|
|
|