One of the first examples of industrial furniture, this chair became an archetype of modern design. Its popularity laid the foundations for the rise of the Thonet furniture company. Indeed, the simply built chair became one of the most successful industrial products of all time, ultimately produced in the millions. Yet it was originally developed from a rather traditional piece constructed in laminated wood. Only after a series of experiments in extreme wood bending was it possible to use solid wood for the “consumer chair”, the a rmchair version that even representatives of classical Modernism like Le Corbusier came to regard as iconic. Michael Thonet’s special bending technique, in which steam and high pressures are applied to beech rods, gave designers a freedom that was unmatched until the much later arrival of plastic furniture. At first, however, the design was rather controversial. Was Thonet's method teasing out the wood’s hidden potential, or was it doing violence to the material? The chair's simplicity revolutionized furniture retailing, since it could be supplied as a kit for assembly. No. 14 consisted of just six wooden parts, ten screws and two nuts. With shipping made so simple, the chair proved an ideal export product.