Model No. 988 Nesting Tables with Grid by Josef Hoffmann for J.& J. Kohn, 1906, Set of 4

Four nesting tables with grids model no. 988, design Josef Hoffmann, manufactured by J.& J. Kohn Vienna, circa 1906, beechwood bent stained, glass top, original company label with the innovative idea of having their furniture designed by important designer-architects of Viennese Modernism, the company J. & J. Kohn became Thonet’s strongest competitor at the turn of the century. Until around 1867, the Gebruder Thonet had a de facto monopoly on the production of bentwood furniture in the Habsburg monarchy. J. & J. Kohn commissioned renowned architects of the time, such as Otto Wagner, Josef Hoffmann, Koloman Moser and Gustav Siegel, to design furniture or entire interiors. with its high-quality furnishings, the company succeeded at many international exhibitions, including World Fair Paris 1900. These set of nesting tables by Josef Hoffmann perfectly embodies the guiding principle of reduction to the essentials and functional forms. with the grids (Gitterwerk) on the sides, they are also a fine example of Hoffmann’s or Koloman Moser’s early Viennese Jugendstil, in which geometric elements such as squares or rectangles are used ornamentally. Made of bentwood and stained, the nesting tables still bear the perfectly preserved company’s original adhesive label and a small original label indicating the stain tone. original company label “Jacob & Josef Kohn, Wien”under the smallest table, original label indicating stain tone “Nuss 5” (nutwood) Bib.: Giovanni Renzi, „Il mobile moderno“, Silvana Editoriale Spa, Milano 2008, p. 180-181