Jacob & Josef Kohn furniture
Jacob & Josef Kohn was an Austrian furniture maker & interior designer from Vienna. They also traded as J & J Kohn.
Jacob (1791 - 1866) and his son, Josef (1814 - 1884) founded the company in 1849. They became one of the leading competitors of Gebrüder Thonet in the making of bentwood furniture. All their furniture was made from Austrian beech wood. Thonet patented bentwood furniture, but Josef Kohn sued Michael Thonet over this patent, arguing that Thonet’s products were not sufficiently novel to warrant protection. As a result Thonet gave up his patent and J & J Kohn could begin producing similar furniture to Thonet’s.
J & J Kohn opened shops in many large cities across Europe as well as Austria and the USA. In 1900 they started hiring architects to design furniture for them. They also collaborated with artists of the Wiener Werkstatte & Josef Hoffman, amongst others. J & J Kohn received many awards & prizes for their work as well as a Spanish Royal Warrant of Appointment as purveyors of the royal house. Kohn's work can be seen in a number of museums today, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Kohn merged with Mundes in 1914 who in turn merged with Gebrüder Thonet in 1921, becoming the world’s largest furniture manufacturer.
At Ghorbany Benmore we have an amazing original Josef & Jacob Kohn bentwood rocking chair.