Bentwood Cafe-Style Chairs

Q: I have four cafe-style chairs, each marked with a paper label that says “Jacob Josef Kohn & Mundus.” The chair-backs have a bentwood frame with three horizontal splats. Can you tell me age and value?

A: Your chairs were made after 1914, the year Mundus, a German chair-manufacturing conglomerate, merged with Jacob & Josef Kohn, a competitor based in Vienna. And they were probably made before 1923. Thonet, the company whose founder invented the bentwood chair in the 1830s, merged with Mundus in 1923. Many different styles of bentwood chair-backs have been made. If yours are in excellent condition, each one would sell for about $100.