Michael Thonet

Bentwood furniture, Vienna. Thonet, a cabinet-maker from the Rhineland, developed a way of steaming and bending solid beech into curves, and his No. 14 chair of 1859 used just six pieces of wood, a few screws and nuts. It could be shipped flat and assembled at its destination, and tens of millions were sold. It is a case where craft knowledge was turned into a cheap, standardised product rather than an exclusive one.