Thinking round the bend
By Judy Evans
@JudyEv (375182)
Rockingham, Australia
March 23, 2026 3:51am CST
Another photo I found in my Salzburg, Austria, file was this of a bentwood chair. The notice said that the German Master carpenter Michael Thonet founded the furniture company, Brothers Thonet in Vienna over 200 years ago. He is credited with developing the bentwood method whereby beech wood bars were moistened over water vapour, then moulded into curved shapes and patterns according to the item being made.
Thonet’s iconic No. 14 chair is still made today and just as popular as it was back in the early 1900s. Wikipedia says the chairs were/are made from six pieces of steam-bent timber, ten screws and two nuts and could be mass-produced by unskilled workers.
I remember bentwood chairs being very common in Western Australia. At one time it was the fashion for those ladies into craftwork to upholster a bentwood chair to create a very nice bedroom chair to place in front of a dressing-table.
7 people like this
8 responses
@DaddyEvil (170566)
• United States
8h
That looks like one of the chairs that went with the first dinner table I ever bought. I liked them but the seats wore out too fast.
1 person likes this
@pitsipeahie (5603)
•
5h
It looks nice, but it’s easy to get damaged because of the material used. That used to be one of our 4 dining chairs. We already get rid of the other 3 since they worn out and had holes. Instead of having them re-caned, we just replaced them with solid wood chairs. That one is the only one left because it’s not used as much, so it’s still intact. But even the edges are starting to come apart, not sure if it’s visible in the photo.
@crossbones27 (52405)
• Mojave, California
8h
Its very nice. I wonder how strong that netting is? I broke a couple of chairs plopping in them. I am not a big guy but you know like most men, we not very delicate. 
