Practical and rare desk armchair attributed to the intact Thonet manufacture. Austria from 1850 to 1870 approx.

Practical and rare desk armchair attributed to the intact Thonet manufacture. Austria from 1850 to 1870 approx. In solid beech wood, steam bent. Vienna straw seat. Limited series production phase of the mid-nineteenth century, much rarer than the subsequent one from the 1900s. In excellent condition, in patina. Original marks and cartouche of the Thonet manufacture unfortunately abraded in previous restoration. History of the prestigious Thonet manufacture. In the years around 1830, Thonet carries out his experiments with strips of veneer softened in boiling glue before inventing "bentwood furniture". In 1842, Prince Metternich, impressed by the talent of the Rhenish cabinetmaker, called him to Vienna. Here, Michael Thonet dedicates himself, with his children, to creating parquet floors and furniture for the Liechtenstein Palace and the Schwarzenberg Palace. With the creation of chair No. 4 for the Daum café on the Kohlmarkt in Vienna, he quickly conquered the Viennese café scene, laying the foundations for the development of the sector of furniture intended for the "community", i.e. public environments. With the revolution of 1848, many people lose their jobs and find another job in the new Thonet factories, where steam engines are in operation. Success came in 1859, when Michael's sons' company Gebrüder Thonet presented chair No. 14 in solid bentwood, the famous "Vienna straw chair" now counted among the icons of design history. The Thonet brothers soon understood the need to integrate new trends and technical developments into their work, embracing certain intuitions that were still in their embryonic stage. From the beginning, they presented their creations at industrial and craft exhibitions of the time. The multilingual catalogs of the Gebrüder Thonet company contribute to making the products known abroad, which soon become best sellers. Thus, sales branches are created in neighboring countries, as well as in more distant ones, up to the development of a distribution network of Thonet furniture all over the world. The development of an innovative technique for bending solid wood (steam heat), first by boiling the glue, then by humidifying it through steam, generated by an autoclave, and then giving it the desired curvature in metal shapes and making it rigid again with drying in ovens. This last procedure was then patented in 1842. Michael Thonet died in Vienna in 1871, and the activity was carried out by his children. The most precious original Thonet furniture are those made in the "artisanal and design" phase of the mid-nineteenth century. The first models produced around the mid-century first in Boppard, then in Moravia, are objects of reference in the history of design and furniture and museum relief. The production of the last third of the 19th century retains a notable artistic-collector interest as the production was still well-maintained, limited in number and with a technique similar to prototypes. The Austrian Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna and the Thonet GmbH museum in Frankenberg, Hesse, possess one of the largest collections of original Thonet chairs. In compliance with the provisions of the New Code of Cultural Heritage, the selling company provides a detailed written photographic guarantee of originality and provenance of the works sold at the time of sale. The data with which the works are described and then contained in the written guarantees are expressed determinations resulting from accurate, thorough and documented technical/historical/artistic investigations.