Wolfgang Thillmann 
Thonet in the 
19th Century 
Boppard 1819-1842 
Michael Thonet, whose father had moved from Andernach to Boppard 
in 1786, was born in Boppard on 2 July 1796 and took over his father 
Franz Anton’s joinery workshop in 1819. On 13 April 1820 Michael mar- 
ried the butcher’s daughter Anna Maria Grass. Michael Thonet’s marriage 
certificate lists his father’s occupation not only as “tanner," but also as 
“joiner,” “a fact of special importance which explains his, Michael’s, 
choice of occupation, and the repeatedly mentioned establishment of 
his joinery workshop in 1819. If [Michael] Thonet’s father had been 
successful in running his tannery his only son certainly would have had 
to take over the business. The joiner’s workshop must have already 
been successful at that time because otherwise Michael Thonet would 
not have been able to marry at the age of 24, young for the times in 
which he lived, or be capable of supporting a family.” 1 
In 1830 Michael Thonet began with his first attempts to produce furniture 
parts, mainly for chairs and armchairs, from single strips of veneer which 
were glued together-he speaks of “rails." These were boiled in bundles 
in a glue bath and then, while they were still hot, placed and pressed in 
molds. The bundles were made already so wide that one could cut them 
into identical side frame sections for several chairs if cut longitudinally, 2 
Using this procedure only two-dimensional components could be man- 
ufactured; these, however, sufficed for the desired shapes. For the visible 
outer sides of the furniture Thonet used veneer made of nut or cherry 
wood, for the non-visible parts on the inside of the furniture woods of in 
ferior quality were used. 
With its basic design the Boppard Chair is a typical piece of late Bie 
dermeier period furniture, Michael Thonet did not invent this type of chair. 3 
Still, already here one can see how a new manufacturing technique in- 
fluences the shape of the product: The two-piece side frames, like the 
ones used in the Boppard chair, and also in the first chairs manufactured 
in Vienna, are possible only when using the technique of bent laminated 
wood. 
However, it wasn't primarily design reasons that led to the “invention" of 
this kind of side frame construction. Most importantly Michael Thonet 
solved a technical problem by using this method: The connection of the 
front and rear legs with the seat frame was a challenge in chair construc 
tion as this connection was usually not permanently stable. Michael 
Thonet’s solution was revolutionary. He did not create a new type of 
connection or simply improve on the existing one, no: He eliminated it. 
The Boppard chairs have a seat and chair leg which consists of one 
1 Reinhard Lahr, “Familie und Werkstatt Thonet bis 1842," in: Exhib. Cat. Koblenz 1996: Thonet, 
Biegen oder Brechen, 20-33: 21. 
2 Cf. French patent application from 16 November 1841, “[...] elles puissent etre coupees en plusieurs 
parties, et servir ainsi ä composer trois, quatre chaises et mäme plus," in: Robin Rehm / Christoph 
Wagner (Ed.), “Transkription der Patentschriften,” in: Designpatente der Moderne 1840-1970, 
Berlin 2019,418. 
3 Cf. Heidrun Zinnkann, Mainzer Möbelschreiner der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts, 
Frankfurt am Main 1985, 70ff. 
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