Rare Thonet Fireside Chair from the 1870 production. With the manufacturer's branded stamp.

Rare Thonet Fireside Chair from the 1870 production. With the manufacturer's branded stamp. The item is intact, including the straw seat. The items in the background are not for sale. The most valuable original Thonet furniture pieces are those made during the 'craft and design' phase of the mid-19th century. The first models made around the middle of the century, first in Boppard, then in Moravia, are reference objects in the history of design and furniture and museum pieces. The 1870 production retains significant artistic and collectible interest as production was still meticulous, limited in number, and with techniques similar to the prototypes. Mass production, which became widespread at the end of the century and the beginning of the 20th century, is considered less interesting. Beech wood, steam-bent, stained and in natural color. French polished. Intact item. Stamp and cartouche of the manufacturer. Vienna, circa 1870. History of the prestigious Thonet manufactory. In the 1830s, Thonet conducted 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, with his sons, dedicated himself 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 Kohlmarkt in Vienna, he quickly conquered the Viennese café scene, laying the foundations for the development of the 'collective' furniture sector, i.e., for public places. With the revolution of 1848, many people lost their jobs and found new employment in Thonet's new factories, where steam engines were 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 considered one of the icons of design history. The Thonet brothers quickly understood the need to integrate new trends and technical developments into their work, adopting certain insights that were still in their early stages. From the beginning, they presented their creations at industrial and craft exhibitions of the time. The multilingual catalogs of the Gebrüder Thonet company helped to make the products known abroad, and they soon became bestsellers. Sales branches were established in neighboring countries as well as in more distant ones, developing a distribution network for Thonet furniture worldwide. The company developed an innovative technique for bending solid wood (hot steam), first by boiling the glue, then by humidifying it with steam, generated by an autoclave, and then shaping it into the desired curves in metal molds and making it rigid again by drying it in ovens. This last process was then patented in 1842. Michael Thonet died in Vienna in 1871, and the business was continued by his sons. The most valuable original Thonet furniture pieces are those made during the 'craft and design' phase of the mid-19th century. The first models made around the middle of the century, first in Boppard, then in Moravia, are reference objects in the history of design and furniture and museum pieces. In accordance with the provisions of the New Code of Cultural Heritage, the selling company provides, concurrently with the sale, a detailed written photographic guarantee of originality and provenance of the works sold. The data with which the works are described and then contained in the written guarantees are express determinations resulting from accurate and documented technical/historical/artistic investigations, even forensic assessments.