Advertising broadside for Thonet Brothers

Sinuous, sturdy, and elegant, yet relatively informal and inexpensive, bentwood furniture was all the rage in the second half of the nineteenth century. The art of wetting, steaming, and bending wood to make chairs and tables was not new in the nineteenth century, but around 1850 an Austrian cabinetmaker named Michael Thonet perfected techniques that allowed the industrial-scale manufacture of such furniture. He won medals at international exhibitions, and soonThonet furniture was everywhere, from cafés to hotel lobbies to verandas. Although Thonet furniture is particularly associated with Vienna, where the firm began, Thonet was an international firm from the very beginning. This trilingual advertisement for Thonet’s furniture was printed in Austria, but includes their Paris, London, Berlin, and Amsterdam addresses on equal footing with Vienna. This example was clearly made for the American market, as strips of printed paper have been glued on near the top, telling customers in New York and Chicago where to look for Thonet’s wares.