Thonet Freres Game Table

For more than 180 years, Thonet — or Gebrüder Thonet — has produced elegant and durable tables and cabinets as well as chairs, stools and other seating that wholly blur the lines between art and design. Widely known as a trailblazer in the use of bentwood in furniture, the European manufacturer has reimagined the places in which we gather.

Noted for his skill in parquetry, German-Austrian company founder Michael Thonet received an invitation from Austrian Chancellor Prince Metternich to contribute Neo-Rococo interiors to the Liechtenstein City Palace in Vienna. The Boppard-born Thonet had honed his carpentry skills in his father’s workshop, where he carried out experiments with plywood and modified the Biedermeier chairs that populated the studio. 

Thonet’s work for the chancellor raised his profile, and the cabinetmaker gained international recognition, including at London’s Great Exhibition of 1851, which featured works created by members of the Arts and Crafts movement as well as industrial products of the day. Thonet showed a range of furniture at the fair and won the bronze medal for his bentwood chairs. He ​​incorporated his family’s company, the Thonet Brothers, with his sons in 1853. 

Bentwood furniture dates as far back as the Middle Ages, but it is the 19th-century cabinetmaker Thonet who is most often associated with this now-classic technique. Thonet in 1856 patented a method for bending solid wood through the use of steam, and from there, the bentwood look skyrocketed to furniture fame. The works of renowned mid-century modern designers such as Alvar Aalto, Arne Jacobsen, and Charles and Ray Eames that put this technological advancement to use would not be as extensive or celebrated were it not for the efforts of the pioneering Thonet.

Considered the world’s oldest mass-produced chair, Michael Thonet’s ubiquitous Chair No. 14 demonstrated that his patented bentwood technology made it possible to efficiently produce furniture on an industrial scale. Now known as the 214, it won the German Sustainability Award Design for 2021, a recognition of the company’s commitment to environmentally responsible production.

Often called the Coffee House chair — the company’s first substantial order was for a Viennese coffeehouse — the No. 14 remains an icon. Thonet originally designed the chair in 1859, and it is considered the starting point for modern furniture.

The bentwood process opened doors — there were investments in machinery and new industrial processes, and the business began mass-producing furniture. By the end of the 1850s, there were additional Thonet workshops in Eastern Europe and hundreds of employees. Michael Thonet’s reputation attracted the attention of notable architects including Otto Wagner, Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. 

The No. 14 was followed by the No. 18, or the Bistro chair, in 1867, and the 209, or the Architect’s chair, of which Le Corbusier was a fan. (The influential Swiss-French architect and designer used Thonet furniture in his Pavillon de l’Esprit Nouveau at the 1925 International Exposition of Decorative Arts in Paris.)

Thonet’s chair designs also appeared in artwork by Toulouse-Lautrec, John Sloan and Henri Matisse in his Interior with a Violin Case. The noteworthy Thonet rocking chair remains a marvel of construction — in the middle of the 19th century, Michael produced a series of rockers in which the different curved parts were integrated into fluid, sinuous wholes. Thanks to Thonet, the humble rocker acquired something unexpected: style. It was captured in the paintings of Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and James Tissot. 

Thonet is currently split into global divisions. Thonet Industries U.S.A. was acquired in 1987 by Shelby Williams and joined the CF Group in 1999, while the Thonet brand in Germany is owned by Thonet GmbH.

Find a collection of antique Thonet furniture on 1stDibs.

Art Deco furniture is characterized by its celebration of modern life. More than its emphasis on natural wood grains and focus on traditional craftsmanship, vintage Art Deco dining chairs, tables, desks, cabinets and other furniture — which typically refers to pieces produced during the 1920s and 1930s — is an ode to the glamour of the “Roaring Twenties.” 

ORIGINS OF ART DECO FURNITURE DESIGN

• Emerged in the 1920s 
• Flourished while the popularity of Art Nouveau declined
• Term derives from 1925’s Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts) in Paris, France
• Informed by Ancient Egypt, Cubism, Futurism, Louis XVI, De Stijl, modernism and the Vienna Secession; influenced Streamline Moderne and mid-century modernism 

CHARACTERISTICS OF ART DECO FURNITURE DESIGN

• Bold geometric lines and forms, floral motifs
• Use of expensive materials such as shagreen or marble as well as exotic woods such as mahogany, ebony and zebra wood
• Metal accents, shimmering mirrored finishes
• Embellishments made from exotic animal hides, inlays of mother-of-pearl or ivory

ART DECO FURNITURE DESIGNERS TO KNOW

• Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann
• René Lalique
• Eileen Gray
• Jean Dunand
• Donald Deskey
• Jean Perzel

VINTAGE ART DECO FURNITURE ON 1STDIBS

Few design styles are as universally recognized and appreciated as Art Deco. The term alone conjures visions of the Roaring Twenties, Machine Age metropolises, vast ocean liners, sleek typography and Prohibition-era hedonism. The iconic movement made an indelible mark on all fields of design throughout the 1920s and ’30s, celebrating society’s growing industrialization with refined elegance and stunning craftsmanship.

Widely known designers associated with the Art Deco style include Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, Eileen Gray, Maurice Dufrêne, Paul Follot and Jules Leleu.

The term Art Deco derives from the name of a large decorative arts exhibition held in Paris in 1925. “Art Deco design” is often used broadly, to describe the work of creators in associated or ancillary styles. This is particularly true of American Art Deco, which is also called Streamline Moderne or Machine Age design. (Streamline Moderne, sometimes known as Art Moderne, was a phenomenon largely of the 1930s, post–Art Nouveau.)

Art Deco textile designers employed dazzling floral motifs and vivid colors, and while Art Deco furniture makers respected the dark woods and modern metals with which they worked, they frequently incorporated decorative embellishments such as exotic animal hides as well as veneers in their seating, case pieces, living room sets and bedroom furniture.

From mother-of-pearl inlaid vitrines to chrome aviator chairs, bold and inventive works in the Art Deco style include chaise longues (also known as chaise lounges) and curved armchairs. Today, the style is still favored by interior designers looking to infuse a home with an air of luxury and sophistication.

The vintage Art Deco furniture for sale on 1stDibs includes dressers, coffee tables, decorative objects and more.

Bring drama and duels of dexterity into your home with vintage, new and antique game tables for every kind of game.

Who doesn’t love a little competition? Historians estimate that early versions of games such as backgammon were played by members of ancient civilizations at least as far back as 3,000 B.C. Chess, which likely originated in India as a game called chaturanga, is a timeworn test of skills and strategy as well, and the modern era’s iteration of the game was enjoyed by nobles at least as early as the 16th century.

While the upper classes in Europe were among the only chess players who could afford the game’s decoratively carved ivory pieces, the game eventually became accessible to the general public. In the late 19th century, the game’s first official chess championships took place, a realm that eventually produced celebrated players such as avowed Eames Executive chair enthusiast Bobby Fischer. Today, antique chessboards have seen an uptick in demand owing to a successful Netflix series in 2020 called The Queen’s Gambit, which chronicles the life of fictional chess prodigy Beth Harmon.

Modern versions of chess boards and other home game tables may have evolved to accommodate the variety of games for which they’re used but are still versatile pieces of furniture. Not every card table with chairs is the ideal dining table, but you certainly don’t have to limit a game table to recreational use.

Antique trictrac tables, for example, were products of 18th-century France, wherein furniture makers created what looked like multipurpose neoclassical writing desks and card tables that when their tops were removed revealed trictrac, chess and checkers surfaces. Other game tables, in a complete commitment to fun, merely support good old-fashioned competition. Contemporary Ping-Pong (or table tennis) tables, which have origins in 1880s Victorian England, can be quite sophisticated in form and are made from a variety of materials today. A billiards table is an iconic piece for any game room or living room, but your pool table is really going to be used for only one thing, right?

Antique or new Regency-style game tables, mid-century modern tables or Art Deco–style card tables, perhaps fashioned from rosewood or mahogany, might be equipped with convertible tabletops to shift from meals to game time in a snap. If you prefer poker or opt for a card table topped with a checkerboard, convenient drawers and other compartments can be found in new and vintage game tables that fit poker chips or other types of game pieces perfectly.

Find a range of top-quality vintage and antique game tables on 1stDibs that can help you introduce a bit of class to every competition at home.