Featured Antique small side table. Need help identifying

The short answer is that you get experience from looking at many, many, many chairs looking for signs of age. I have a bit of a chair problem (ahem) and have looked at WAY too many chairs and collected the ones I have found interesting. Below are a couple pics of a chair I have from a set of six. Some are labelled as shown with the Kohn and Mundus, others are slightly later after they merged with Thonet showing the Thonet label, others have had the label fall off. But they all show the same signs of age since they were made within a few years of each other. The one shown is from about 1921, prior to the merger with Thonet in 1923.

Compare the pics to the ones you show, and you'll see many differences. Besides the obvious label that makes dating much easier, and the Made in Czechoslovakia stamp that also is a huge clue, look at the shrinkage of the wood to reveal stain line, look at the wear on the wood from 100 years of use, look at the gradual tapering of the wood members, look at the metal hardware, look at the finish. Yours doesn't have any of these and is also a greatly simplified form from the catalog picture that was shown that was made by Thonet. Thonet style furniture was widely copied and still is. Lots of the more recent stuff is marked Made in Poland, and this style has really been made all over the world some of the Asian stuff with no permanent marks at all.

So to me it looks like your table isn't simply made in the 20th century, but it is made later than the one I show from the 1920's and I would put it mid-20th century or later and not by one of the Thonet companies but as a knockoff in the style of Thonet. I'm not saying I am necessarily correct, but that is my opinion based on the pics you showed.

 

One more note. Apparently Thonet will evaluate pieces submitted via picture for authenticity. I have not done it myself, but if you want an authoritative answer, you can submit it to their website. I don't know if they charge or not but it seems they don't? If you do this, please make sure to come back and let us know what they tell you.

http://en.thonet.de/service/authenticity-verification.html

 

Jeff,
You are awesome! Thank you so much for your help. Furniture it is so tricky to navigate. You made it much easier. I look forward to future exchanges.

Kind regards
Lucy