Q: We found six old chairs in a 100-year-old farmhouse that we are restoring. This label is on the bottom of the seat of the chairs. How old are they and what are they worth?
A: Your chairs were made by Jacob Kohn (1791-1868) and his son, Josef (1814-1884), of Vienna, Austria. They may have started out in the lumber industry in 1850 but were making furniture by 1867. Their chairs were similar to the bentwood chairs Thonet made. In 1914 the company merged with Mundus, a holding company in Vienna, and became Kohn-Mundus. Kohn-Mundus merged with Thonet in 1922. The motto in the mark, "Semper Sursum," means "Always Rising." Your chairs were made in the early 1900s, before 1914. Value: about $100 each.
