English

A bentwood rocking chair made by Thonet GmbH

Noun

bentwood ‎(countable and uncountable, plural bentwoods)

1. (woodworking, countable and uncountable) Also attributive. Lengths of wood that have been made pliable by heating with steam and then bent into the appropriate shape (to make furniture, ships' hulls, etc.).
   • 1985, “Michael Thonet”, in Fine Woodworking on Bending Wood: 35 Articles Selected by the Editors of Fine Woodworking Magazine, Newtown, Ct.: Taunton Press, ISBN 978-0-918804-29-7, page 56:

     About this time [Michael] Thonet received his first major public commission from the famous Cafe Daum in Vienna. From this point on, the bentwood chair would be known by many as the Cafe Chair […]. The back is made of four layers of twisted mahogany laminates, while the front legs appear to be bent from solid stock with turned capitals, which act as shoulders for the tenon of the leg into the seat. The seat frames are made of five layers of mahogany, as they were in the Schwarzenburg chairs. Because of its lightness, durability and accommodating design, the bentwood chair was perfectly suited for public places.

   • 1992, Daniel Mack, “Contemporary Styles of Rustic Furniture”, in Making Rustic Furniture, New York, N.Y.: Lark Books, ISBN 978-1-887374-12-5, page 42:

     Bentwood furniture is made by bending and nailing long, straight, fresh branches or suckers of trees around a frame. Unlike most stick work, bentwood furniture is carefully planned before it is made.

2. (countable) An object, especially a piece of furniture, made from bentwood.
   • 1980, Dale R. Croes and Eric Blinman, editors, Hoko River: A 2500 Year Old Fishing Camp on the Northwest Coast of North America (Reports of Investigations (Washington State University. Laboratory of Anthropology); 58), Pullman, Wash.: Laboratory of Anthropology, Washington State University, OCLC 7480228, page 141:

     The two basic types of fishhooks are almost equally represented within the site, with composite fishhooks exhibiting only a slightly higher relative frequency than that of bentwoods.

   • 1985, “‘Do I Love You? How Do You Mean?’”, in The New Yorker, volume 61, number 6, New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast Publications, ISSN 0028-792X, page 45:

     She started walking over to the trestle table and, about ten years later, sat down on one of the thirty-three bentwoods.

   • 1997 March 31, Corky Pollan, “Best bets: The best of all possible things to buy, see, and do in the best of all possible cities”, in New York, volume 30, number 12, New York, N.Y.: New York Media, LLC, ISSN 0028-7369, page 56:

     Catherine Holt of Cobweb (a store known for great antiques at tiny prices) has assembled a kind of United Nations of kitchen and dining room chairs. She has turn-of-the-century cafe bentwoods from Spain, Austria, and Czechoslovakia; vintage teak sidechairs from Java; provincial rush-seated chairs from France; and painted bentwoods from Buenos Aires, along with contemporary lattice-backs from Morocco and chairs with stamped seats from Egypt.