For over two decades, the Vitra Design Museum has been making miniature replicas of milestones in furniture design. The Miniatures Collection encapsulates the entire history of industrial furniture design - moving from Historicism and Art Nouveau to the New Objectivity of Bauhaus and Radical Design, and from Postmodernism all the way up to the present day. Exactly one sixth of the size of the historical originals, the chairs are all true to scale and precisely recreate the smallest details of construction, material and color. The high standard of authenticity even extends to the natural grain of the wood, the reproduction of screws and the elaborate handicraft techniques involved. This has made the miniatures into popular collector's items as well as ideal illustrative material for universities, design schools and architects.

The No. 14 chair is one of the world's most successful, mass-produced products. It was the standard model in Thonet's collection of bent-wood furniture and is considered the typical Viennese coffee-house chair. By 1930, 50 million of the chairs had already been sold. A modified version of the No.14 is still being produced today.

Using the bent-wood technique developed by Michael Thonet, solid wood is shaped subjected to steam pressure and shaped three-dimensionally in iron moulds, this offers a great deal of scope for creativity in the design. Thonet's new packaging system was also revolutionary for the second half of the 18th century. The individual parts of the chairs were packed in an extremely space saving manner and then sent to their final destination, where they were first screwed together. The Thonet brothers combined industrial production processes and a business-oriented approach with a unique aesthetics, making a substantial contribution to our current concept of industrial design.

Each Vitra miniature is true to the original in construction and materials, and reduced in size on a scale of 1:6. Each miniature is packaged in a wooden box, accompanied by an informational booklet. Production notes: Each of the delicate objects are made by hand; on average, each miniature requires five hours of careful manual work. Ongoing quality control ensures that every miniature corresponds to its larger original in terms of finishing, details and materials.