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Thread: OT: coffee table dating?

  1. #1

    OT: coffee table dating?

    Afternoon TZ,

    I've had this extending coffee table for a few years now, and I'm going to be making my own, so this will be going soon.



    I've realised I know very little about it, other than I think it's teak, which this label appears to confirm. But can anyone decipher the other writing?

    TOSCA g TEAK TABLE?



    The date looks like 7/12/15 but surely it's a '70s table? The digit that looks like a 1 is very different indeed to the 7 at the start!

    Any ideas on the designer or manufacturer?



    I can find no manufacturer labels on it, other than this:

  2. #2
    Grand Master TheFlyingBanana's Avatar
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    That tag is also written in biro, so definitely not 1915.
    So clever my foot fell off.

  3. #3
    Grand Master magirus's Avatar
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    I opened this in expectation of something to do with a tryst involving a scarecrow and his sweetheart.
    F.T.F.A.

  4. #4
    Master
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    I thought this was going to some new take on speed dating or something

  5. #5
    Grand Master AlphaOmega's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by magirus View Post
    I opened this in expectation of something to do with a tryst involving a scarecrow and his sweetheart.
    This is the comment I was looking for.

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by jaytip View Post
    I thought this was going to some new take on speed dating or something
    Me too 🤣

  7. #7
    Grand Master mart broad's Avatar
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    I thought it might have been a glass coffee table
    I FEEL LIKE I'M DIAGONALLY PARKED IN A PARALLEL UNIVERSE

  8. #8
    Grand Master Carlton-Browne's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mart broad View Post
    I thought it might have been a glass coffee table
    My thoughts exactly.
    In the Sotadic Zone, apparently.

  9. #9
    Titling it was half the fun.

    Also had:

    How to date a coffee table
    Dating a coffee table
    Help me date a coffee table

    Very good point on the biro Flying Banana!

    Could it be a bad 8, so 1985? I really have no idea how to assign dates to construction methods or suchlike.

    I may just have to stick with the generic 'mid-century style', but it's a shame when there's a label that gives more...whilst also giving nothing.

  10. #10
    Master
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    Could it be 75?

  11. #11
    Well that was disappointing, I thought this would be a confessional about objectophilia.

  12. #12
    Master draftsmann's Avatar
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    I’d have guessed at 1960s. Some of the scribbled characters on that label are so badly formed that it could possibly be a “6”.

  13. #13
    Journeyman goz211's Avatar
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    I think there might be a clue in the assembly number. Maybe this is the 353rd table of this style built in year”63”?
    The writing is pretty sloppy and my 5’s sometimes look like 3’s when I write quickly. If you look closely the top line of the last digit might be thicker than what a single stroke of a pen would look like. That last number in the date could be a 3. That does not explain the digit before the last number though. It doesn’t look like a 1 to me, more like a lazy letter C. C has the same initial shape as a 6.
    Nice table! I don’t think knowing the correct date of manufacture is going to make any real difference in price though.

  14. #14
    Master sweets's Avatar
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    Pretty sure that is 75, it is way more like the 7 than it is the 1.
    207 is written (downwards) over the end of the Tosca

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Jeremy67 View Post
    Could it be 75?
    That was my thought, but it's not similar to the first 7. I was hoping that the styling might give more away, but I guess these style of tables have been reproduced for many many years, so the styling doesn't really give much away.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by sweets View Post
    Pretty sure that is 75, it is way more like the 7 than it is the 1.
    207 is written (downwards) over the end of the Tosca
    This is very true - I hadn't clocked the 207 written downwards, cheers!

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by goz211 View Post
    I think there might be a clue in the assembly number. Maybe this is the 353rd table of this style built in year”63”?
    The writing is pretty sloppy and my 5’s sometimes look like 3’s when I write quickly. If you look closely the top line of the last digit might be thicker than what a single stroke of a pen would look like. That last number in the date could be a 3. That does not explain the digit before the last number though. It doesn’t look like a 1 to me, more like a lazy letter C. C has the same initial shape as a 6.
    Nice table! I don’t think knowing the correct date of manufacture is going to make any real difference in price though.
    Good point on the possible 3! That would be being very precise, which I think might be impossible given the whole mixture of things to go on.

    And you're quite right about the price, this is not an expensive Danish piece by any means, it's more just to be precise in the advert. Which I don't think I'll be, and instead leave it as mid-century style!

  17. #17
    Grand Master AlphaOmega's Avatar
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    Does the table come with any stools?

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by draftsmann View Post
    I’d have guessed at 1960s. Some of the scribbled characters on that label are so badly formed that it could possibly be a “6”.
    Indeed, another possibility.
    I have absolutely horrific handwriting, so I shouldn't criticise the label writer, but this one is particularly off!

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by AlphaOmega View Post
    Does the table come with any stools?
    Not that I have, but it may have done originally. Bought it from eBay a few years back and have used it mainly as a TV table as it extends to 182 cm. Now on disused coffee table duties whilst it gets shifted!

  20. #20
    Master sweets's Avatar
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    Style wise this is more fin than mid siecle.
    The scandis were making similar style (but much simpler and without being offensive, more elegant) versions from the 50s onwards, and this style only really caught on over here 60s and later.
    It is very much like a set that my in-laws were gifted mid 1970s (new), and the extension system, which adds functionality but also reduces the grace of the table as the ends need slides underneath, is a later type of addition to this sort of table design.
    If I were to guess a single year without the label, I would have said 72, which is why I am convinced it is 75 (no other number makes sense).

  21. #21
    Master
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    [QUOTE=AlphaOmega;5833607]Does the table come with any stools?[/QUOTE

    No but it's not glass so that doesn't matter.

  22. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by sweets View Post
    Style wise this is more fin than mid siecle.
    The scandis were making similar style (but much simpler and without being offensive, more elegant) versions from the 50s onwards, and this style only really caught on over here 60s and later.
    It is very much like a set that my in-laws were gifted mid 1970s (new), and the extension system, which adds functionality but also reduces the grace of the table as the ends need slides underneath, is a later type of addition to this sort of table design.
    If I were to guess a single year without the label, I would have said 72, which is why I am convinced it is 75 (no other number makes sense).
    Absolutely no offence taken! It's definitely on the chunkier side, and certainly doesn't have the elegant, contoured lines of the Danish and Swedish ones (that seem to be priced at over a grand around here in the 'right' shops). It cost around 100 quid a few years back, and was definitely bought for its practicality before its looks, but I do quite like it. This one's internal leaves hinge underneath and pivot, which I rather like. Though the extra leaves do add to the visible thickness of the top section, as you note.

    I've left out the dates from the advert as I think it's safer to leave it up to the buyer to decide.

  23. #23
    Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by AlphaOmega View Post
    Does the table come with any stools?


    Chapeau sir

  24. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by Captain Morgan View Post


    Chapeau sir
    Total woosh. Care to explain?

  25. #25
    It would have a Danish furniture board stamp if it was from Denmark, (I have Johannes Andersen and Henning Kjaernulf both stamped) or a factory stamp like Velje Stole, CFC Silkebourg or similar.

    Is it metamorphic? Looks a bit like the Trioh ones.

    Maybe the typeface will help date it?

  26. #26
    Quote Originally Posted by MrSmith View Post
    It would have a Danish furniture board stamp if it was from Denmark, (I have Johannes Andersen and Henning Kjaernulf both stamped) or a factory stamp like Velje Stole, CFC Silkebourg or similar.

    Is it metamorphic? Looks a bit like the Trioh ones.

    Maybe the typeface will help date it?
    Oof, lovely stuff! It's the subtleties in their wares that make them so gorgeous to behold. Some furniture designers and makers just make things look so 'right'.

    This one doesn't have quite that 'look'..!

    It does change, but just expands from this:



    To this:


  27. #27
    Quote Originally Posted by hughtrimble View Post
    Total woosh. Care to explain?
    A full and detailed reply to that can only be seen in the BP or by PM!!

  28. #28
    Quote Originally Posted by MrSmith View Post
    A full and detailed reply to that can only be seen in the BP or by PM!!
    I've just had a revolted missus not believe that I didn't know what this was about! Question answered. Unfortunately.

  29. #29
    Grand Master hogthrob's Avatar
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    I'd be interested to see a shot from underneath, to view the method of joinery.

  30. #30
    Quote Originally Posted by hogthrob View Post
    I'd be interested to see a shot from underneath, to view the method of joinery.
    Sure thing - I'll do so when I'm back from work.

  31. #31
    Quote Originally Posted by hogthrob View Post
    I'd be interested to see a shot from underneath, to view the method of joinery.
    Pozis and glue in the corners, so those fixings are at least 1963!


  32. #32
    Grand Master AlphaOmega's Avatar
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    Can't quite read it but it looks like someone has written WG was here underneath that table.

  33. #33
    Grand Master Andyg's Avatar
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    Looking at the style of the legs, I would say 60’s/70’s. Nice piece.

    Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
    Friedrich Nietzsche


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