Michael Thonet pioneered a radical innovation in the construction of furniture in nineteenth-century Austria, bending first veneer bundles and then solid wood to make bent wood chairs and other furniture items. Thonet succeeded in refining the technique of bending wood to achieve the first large scale mass-production line; this was a key development in the history of furniture design, since it marked the transition from individual handmade pieces to industrially manufactured products.

From the first patent application in 1840 to the development of tubular steel furniture in 1920, through the designs of the 1960s, this book presents the most comprehensive history of Thonet furniture.

In addition to generous full-color photographs of Thonet furniture through the years, this book includes designs for Thonet's parquet flooring, maps of factory locations, photographs and drawings of bending forms and the factory floor, many catalogue covers, and other ephemera - in short, everything the collector or historian could want for an in-depth knowledge of Thonet.