214 Chair Default Title

In 1819, cabinetmaker Michael Thonet opened a workshop in Boppard on the Rhine and began experimenting with bending layers of wood. His methods caught the attention of the Austrian court, and he moved to Vienna, where he and his sons built the business into an international manufacturer. Their café chair of 1859, now known as the No. 14 or 214, could be shipped flat in parts and assembled anywhere, and it has since sold in the tens of millions.

In the late 1920s, Thonet became the home of a second revolution, producing tubular steel furniture by Marcel Breuer, Mart Stam and Mies van der Rohe. Now based in Frankenberg, Germany, with descendants of the founder still involved, the company makes its bentwood and steel classics alongside new designs by names such as Sebastian Herkner and Stefan Diez.