Michael Thonet vs. Carl Leistier 
*4 
Fauteuil Armchair, präsentiert auf der Weltausstellung 1851 
presented at the 1851 World Fair in London 
Entwurf Design: Michael Thonet, Wien Vienna, 1850; Ausführung Execution: 
Michael Thonet, Wien Vienna, Werkstatt Workshop Gumpendorf, ab ca. 1851; 
Palisander, stab-/schichtverleimt, Messingstreifen, Geflecht Rosewood, rod bundles/ 
laminated, brass strips, cane; Firmensammlung Company Collection TON 
Fauteuil Armchair, präsentiert auf der Weltausstellung 1 851 
presented at the 1851 World Fair in London 
Entwurf Design: Carl Leistier, Wien Vienna, 1850 
Ausführung Execution: Carl Leistier, Wien Vienna, 1850; Esche, gepolstert 
Ash, upholstered; MAK H 2730/1983 
The furniture designed by Peter Hubert Des- 
vignes for the Palais Liechtenstein in Vienna 
in the mid-1840s had already shown that 
Michael Thonet was able to combine repre- 
sentative requirements with modern light- 
ness and elegance, thanks to his innovative 
bending technology. In contrast to the stylistic 
balance of Thonet's running chairs, the chairs 
Carl Leistier produced for the Palais Liech 
tenstein seem downright clumsy and awk- 
ward. This was all the more evident at the 
1851 World Fair in London: As a part of a 
complete set of furniture which was offered 
for the first time, Michael Thonet presented a 
slender armchair as a new and inexpensive 
piece of furniture, and therewith completely 
freed himself from the stylistic escapades of 
the Second Rococo. 1 Carl Leistier, on the 
other hand, came to the Great Exhibition with 
exhibits 2 displaying an expansive opulence, 
which corresponded to the massive armchair 
from the same period shown here and whose 
impression was described in a Contemporary 
report: “In the rooms where Leistier from 
Vienna has set up his splendid furniture, which 
is only too richly decorated, it is never empty. 
You cannot see anything richer in woodcarv- 
ing, as it is wasted on every piece here. It is 
only too much, much too much." 3 The Thonet 
furniture was received quite differently, not 
least because of its low price: “The rosewood 
furniture by M. Thonet of Vienna, mostly with 
inlaid work in boulle, tortoiseshell, mother- 
of-pearl, and the like were quite excellent. 
A rosewood sofa together with armchairs and 
6 chairs at the price of 407 Fl. in particular 
seemed extremely cheap. Thonet's chairs, 
partly of bent wood, received special attention 
from the jury.” 4 
1 Cf. Marianne Zweig, Zweites Rokoko, Vienna 1924. 
2 The Leistier exhibits-the furnishings of an antechamber, a dining 
room for 36 people, a library, and a bedroom-were designed by 
the architect Bernardo di Bernardis. 
3 Friedrich Wilhelm Hackländer, “London 1851 - Weltausstellung,” 
Chapter 3: Der KristalIpalast, 34, in: Krieg und Frieden, Vol. 2, 
Stuttgart 1859, cited from http://www.fw-hacklaender.de/pdf/. 
4 Amtlicher Bericht über die Industrie-Ausstellung aller Völker zu 
London im Jahre 1851, Third and last part, Berlin 1853, 415. 
99