On the 1May 1851 the first world exhibition was opened in Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London.
The exhibition showed products of contemporary industrial production, above all, from the arts and crafts movement, and went down in economic and industrial
On the 1May 1851 the first world exhibition was opened in Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London.
The exhibition showed products of contemporary industrial production, above all, from the arts and crafts movement, and went down in economic and industrial history as the first and most important forum for innovations in design and technology. More than six million people visited the exhibition.
Michael Thonet started making preparations for it already back in August 1850. For the first time he showed in London an ensemble ofa chair, a bench seat and a sofa. He is mentioned in the list of exhibitors with six chair models, two armchairs, a bench seat, two tables, a sewing table as well as two reading tables and two whatnots. From the set he exhibited, he developed the later series model No. 9 and the No. 5 which was simplified in the leg construction.Thonet offered both versionsalongside each other until the mid-1870s. By 1883 at the latest the No9 was removed from the range. The furniture was and is decidedly luxurious. Thonet worked with rosewood and inserted strips of brass into almost all the parts and gave the table tops artistic inlays in tortoiseshell, brass and mother-of-pearl.
The exhibits attracted the attention of the public and the critics and were widely praised. Thonet was awarded a bronze medal by the exhibition committee, the highest award for manufactured products.
After the exhibition was over the furniture was bought by the architect Desvignes, Thonet’s friend and patron in Vienna, for his English country estate. After his death in 1883, the furniture returned to the Thonet family ownership.
Already a few months before receiving his patent to make furniture out of bentwood, Michael Thonet took the decision to counter the lack of space and constantly increasing need for wood by opening a new factory.
In the Moravian town of Koryčanyhe found a place with abundant beech forests. Here there werealso sufficient wo