My mother and I rescued this beautiful end table from a large garbage bin, when they cleaned out my next door neighbor's home when they left. My mother wanted a new coffee table for her tiny apartment and I though I saw something in the garbage. We pulled it out and saw it was missing the drawer, but upon further searching we found the drawer and it was missing only 1 knob.
We noticed that on the inside was a burned name of Mersman and decided to do a little research. When we looked underneath we found the "item" number of 22-32 and a random #4 also printed on the underneath. We were going to repaint it to match her living room, but have since abandoned that idea because we think this table deserves a good oil finish and keeping it the way it is.
I was wondering if anyone might know some history about this piece such as manufacturing dates or what the 4 might mean. Thank you all in advance. (We changed the knobs to suit her living space, the originals are taped in a bag at the back of the drawer).
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A little history about Mersman furniture. The company was founded in 1876 by J.B. Mersman and it was called Mersman tables. The first company was opened in Ottoville, Ohio. At this time the company mainly manufactured headboards, footboards and slats for beds.
After the turn of the 20th century the company was moved to Celina, Ohio where they built a new plant that employed 25 people. At this plant they expanded their inventory to include library and dinning room tables.
In 1906 Mersman sold his company to his two oldest sons, Edward H. and Walter I., and Henry Lenartz, a local banker. The new company was now called Lenartz and Mersman Brothers." They change the name again in 1927 to "Mersman Brothers Corporation."
Durning the depression the company started to manufacture bedroom suites and radio cabinets and during the war they manufactured wooden desks for the Treasury Department, benches and mess tables for the Navy, and plywood for the Lend Lease program.
After the war ended the company expanded again to make living room tables. The company changed names again several t time. Because of all this it makes it a bit easier to date the furniture because of the name changes. If you look at the name and it says "Mersman Bros. Brandts" the piece was made after 1927, if it does not say this then it was made between 1906 - 1927.
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