S 32 N Tubular steel classic cantilever chair Thonet

With cover: S 32 N tubular steel classic cantilever chair from Thonet

Whether uncompromisingly modern furnishings or a versatile mix - the S 32 cantilever chair from Thonet is at home in many design worlds. The cantilever chair is one of the best-known tubular steel classics. The seat and backrest made of bent solid wood with woven cane stand for tradition, while the innovative frame represents the present and the future. The S 32 and S 64 were designed by Marcel Breuer in Berlin in 1928. Thonet has been producing them since 1930.

Designer Marcel Breuer

Marcel Breuer completed an apprenticeship as a carpenter at the state Bauhaus in Weimar from 1920 to 1924. He took over the management of the carpentry workshop there in 1925. What began as a private project quickly became part of the Bauhaus Dessau: his pioneering tubular steel furniture designs. Breuer left the Bauhaus in 1928 and sought closer contact with industry, including Thonet. He settled in Berlin as an architect and worked mainly in the field of interior design before working for Thonet for several years. This led to the creation of a comprehensive tubular steel collection in 1930/31. Breuer left Germany via Budapest, London and finally landed in the USA in 1937. At this time, he developed plywood and aluminium furniture. Through the mediation of Walter Gropius, Breuer became a lecturer and later even a professor of architecture at Harvard University in Cambridge. From 1941, he and Gropius ran an architecture studio together. Breuer is regarded as one of the most central figures in the history of architecture and design.

Thonet - 200 years of tradition

The Frankenberg-based manufacturer stands for consistency and the irrepressible urge to innovate. Thonet was the first manufacturer to bring bentwood furniture onto the market and to sell tubular steel furniture. Michael Thonet founded his own workshop in Boppard am Rhein in 1819. In the 1830s, he experimented with veneer strips boiled in glue and is therefore regarded as the inventor of "bentwood furniture". in 1842, he was invited to Vienna by the Austrian State Chancellor Prince Metternich and the coffee house culture there laid the foundation for Thonet's later success. With this innovative spirit, it is not surprising that Thonet also cultivated links with the Bauhaus and Marcel Breuer. Thonet realised Breuer's experiments with cold-bent tubular steel and produced the famous cantilever chairs.

Material and format

The S 32 N  cantilever chair is made of chrome-plated tubular steel, stained beech wood and a seat and backrest with black plastic mesh upholstery. It is 46 cm wide, 60 cm deep and 82 cm high. The seat height is 45 cm.