thumb|upright|Original version without braces showing the cane seat
The No. 14 chair is the most famous chair made by the Thonet chair company. Also known as the "bistro chair<nowiki/>", it was designed in the Austrian Empire
by Michael Thonet and introduced in 1859, becoming the world's first mass-produced item of furniture. It is made using bent wood (steam-bending), and the design required years to perfect. With its affordable price and simple design, it became one of the best-selling chairs ever made. Gebrüder Thonet sold 50 million No. 14s between 1859 and 1930,
and the company's successor organisations have sold millions more since then. "It represents the best example of a design which has been refined to the point where there is no way to improve it."
Thonet's No. 14 comprises six pieces of steam-bent wood, ten screws, and two nuts. The wooden parts were made by heating beechwood slats to , pressing them into curved cast-iron moulds, and then drying them at around for 20 hours. The chairs could be mass-produced by unskilled workers and disassembled to save space during transportation. by Ton, and by Thonet (as 214).
Design classic
The No. 14 chair is widely regarded as a design classic. It earned a gold medal when it was shown at the 1867 World Exposition in Paris. It has been praised by many designers and architects, including Le Corbusier, who said, "Never was a better and more elegant design and a more precisely crafted and practical item created."