Chair No 14 – the chair of chairs
Chair No 14 has a perfect design for cafés, restaurants and residential dining where classic European style is desired. There is not much to say about these classic bentwood chairs, other than they are elegant and undeniably appropriate in almost any space!
Since 1859, when chair No 14 was first introduced, more than 80 million units have been sold all over the world. Its iconic shapes are created by six manually bent beech rods, two bolts and ten screws. Thanks to its low weight, attractive price and legendary strength, this chair quickly found its place in the cafes of Vienna, earning the nickname the “café chair”.
Chair No 14 is an icon and considered the most successful mass produced product in the world to date: it initiated the history of modern furniture. The basis was a new technique – the bending of solid wood – that Michael Thonet developed and perfected during the 1850s and it was the first time serial furniture production was possible. With its clear, reduced aesthetics the classic chair Nr. 14 has been placed in the most diverse environments for more than 150 years. The chair No 14 is still called the “chair of chairs”.
Michael Thonet was one of the most important innovators in bent wood furniture making. Thonet patented a process of bending under heat several layers of wood veneer glued together and laminated. He used the new material to create curved back-rails and legs on chairs, contoured headboards for beds and scrolled arms for sofas. This new technique enabled mass production. Added were new and simple aesthetics and a low price, which represented a revolution in interior design: suddenly, homes, restaurants and cafés looked entirely different; they were lighter and less massive.
No 30 is often used in combination with chair No. 14 as an end ‘carver’ chair, also called The Le Corbusier Arm chair. No 30 has a very elegant design and was widely used by Le Corbusier in his interior fit outs during the mid-1920s.
TON is a Czech company that has since 150 years back made the classic Wiener chairs. The company stands for quality and has since inception used a manual bending technology to get the best results. The name TON stands for Tovarna Ohýbaného Nábytku meaning curved furniture factory. TON is today one of the largest of the dozens of factories that creates these furniture’s.
Images via room21
