Curious if anyone understands the the various Thonet brands.
I know there’s the Thonet US brand ( https://www.thonet.com/about) that split off from the German company ( https://www.thonet.de/en/company/story) and then there’s GTV which seems to have been expropriated from Thonet, and the there’s Ton ( https://www.ton.eu/en/about-us/) the Czech manufacturer of Thonet designs. And then there’s the Australian Thonet, I’m not sure if they even manufacture at all or are just a retailer ( https://thonet.com.au/about/profile/).
Many seem to make some of the same designs, such as the B9 “Corbusier” chair, with varying prices from $400-$1,200. Any thoughts on the quality differences between the companies?
Thonet is a pretty muddy to me to be honest.
The modern stuff is probably worth ignoring, if I may be so bold as to say. I mean you can buy new furniture from France and Son if you like, but it's got nothing to do with the original company by that name.
For me, the part I struggle with, with Thonet is that after the war the TON factories became a part of the communist state, but continued to make TON designs, so they're legally unlicensed copies, but practically speaking they were made in the same factories often by the same hands. In that sense they would be more genuine than anythng produced by Thonet in that period. Though I have to assume for that time, any TON designs just weren't being produced by Thonet as they no longer had those factories?
I think TON models still had the factory locations stamped on them, like Ligna or Drevounia, but if it also doesn't have a TON label, you know it likely came post war. So odd.
It's hard to follow.
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