Michael Thonet
born 1796 Boppard, Germany
died 1871 Vienna, Austria
| Trained as a carpenter and cabinetmaker in Boppard | |
| 1819 | opened his own furniture workshop |
| 1830 | first experiments with laminated wood |
| 1842 | his workshop in Boppard was impounded; moved to Vienna; granted a five-year royal patent to produce bent laminated wood; employed in the workshop of the Viennese furniture producer List |
| 1843 | reated chairs for the Liechtenstein Palace |
| 1849 | opened his own workshop in Vienna |
| 1850 | designed chairs for the Daum café in Vienna |
| 1851 | received a bronze medal at the London world’s fair for his furniture designs |
| 1852 | opened a sales office in Vienna; received a second patent for bending laminated wood |
| 1853 | transferred ownership of the company to his sons under the name Gebrüder Thonet |
| 1855 | participated in the Paris world’s fair; first orders from overseas |
| 1856 | established the first furniture plant in Korichan, Moravia; Austrian citizenship; granted the “patent for the solid bending of chairs and table legs” |
| 1858 | losed down the Viennese workshop; opened a second sales office in Vienna; began producing chair “No. 14” |
| 1862 | stablished a second factory in Bistritz, Czechoslovakia |
| 1866 | set up a third plant in Gross-Ugrocs, Hungary |
| In his role as an inventor and entrepreneur, Michael Thonet was one of the founding fathers of modern furniture production. |
