As seen in The Antique Shoppe Newspaper, November 2007

ALAS WE KNEW THEM WELL
Or Maybe Not

In the older and antique furniture business there are names that recur time and time again. Some are the names of styles like Rococo Revival or Federal. Others are the names of cabinetmakers like Duncan Phfye, Alexander Roux, J. H. Belter or John Seymour. And then there are company names that are very familiar like Mitchell & Rammelsberg, Herter Brothers and Berkey & Gay. But do we really know as much about some of the companies as we think we do?

A classic example is that of the company name Mersman. Everybody knows that Mersman made all those occasional tables during the Depression era. After all have you ever seen anything else by Mersman? And they have been out of business for many years. Right? Not exactly. Otto Mersman opened his furniture making business in 1876 in Ottoville, OH under the name Mersman Tables. But he also made beds and bed parts as well a other types of furniture. After Otto gave the company to his two sons it went though several formats and name changes including Lenartz and Mersman Brothers. In 1906 the company became known as Mersman Brothers and Brandts Company and later that year was incorporated under the slightly altered name of Mersman Brothers Brandts Company. The company name changed once again in 1927 to the famous name of Mersman Brothers Corporation, located in Celina, OH.

That is the name under which it turned out nearly thirty million tables and was a  major player in the Depression era occasional table marketplace. But it made other things too like bedroom suites, dining room tables and radio cabinets. During WWII it made tables and benches for the Navy and plywood for Lend/Lease. The company was acquired by Congoleum in 1963 and by an investor group known as the Somers Corporation in 1977 and operated under the name Mersman Tables, even using a triangular mark similar to the original Mersman Brothers mark. Mersman Tables ventured far afield from tables producing bookcase/secretaries and a wide variety of other case goods. It ceased production in 1995. Bookcase/secretaries in 1995 is a long way from the Depression tables we normally see with a Mersman label.

Another stranger in our midst is L. & J. G. Stickley. Leopold Stickley and his younger brother John George acquired a shop in Fayetteville, NY and incorporated it as L. & J.G. Stickley in 1904. In 1916 Leopold introduced his famous Cherry Valley Collection of Colonial Revival reproductions and the company was off and running. John George died in 1921 but Leopold made it to 1957. The family had run the business almost into the ground by 1974 when Alfred and Aminy Audi bought it and revived it. For the first time in the 20th century there was no Stickley brother in ownership of any furniture shop in America. Alfred Aminy died in October 2007 and his family continues to run the business without a Stickley.

Hitchcock is certainly one of the most famous names in American furniture history. Lambert Hitchcock was a true innovator in chair design and in developing methods of factory furniture construction. He built an empire from a tiny shop that first made parts for chair repair. Unfortunately he was not as good a business man as he was a chair innovator and he left the furniture business around 1850. Just after World War II a shoe store owner in West Hartford, CT went fishing in the Connecticut river country and happened across the remains of Hitchcock's old factory. After learning the Hitchcock story and lot of research and fund raising, John Tarrant Kenney revived the Hitchcock Chair Co. and began making furniture based on Hitchcock's original designs and even using some of the original brass stencils for the decorative paint schemes. In 1950 he received patent rights to the Hitchcock name and he began signing the new furniture in a fashion distinctly similar to Hitchcock's original label but with telltale distinguishing traits so there would never be confusion between original Hitchcocks and new reproductions. Many consumers of course were confused but a little research would quickly resolve the issue of the backward "N's" in the label.

Kenney expanded the Hitchcock line far beyond chairs and built a strong furniture manufacturing company on Lambert's 100 year old groundwork. The company was acquired by a British poultry processor in 1989.  The new Hitchcock eventually stumbled due to cheap foreign imports and the company property, machinery and inventory was auctioned off in 2006. Negotiations are under way for  rights to the name. We may yet see another Hitchcock chair rise form the phoenix's funeral pyre.

A final entry in the category of furniture company revival, at least in name, is Heywood-Wakefield, the name of the company formed in 1921 by the merger of Heywood Brothers & Wakefield with Lloyd Manufacturing. This is the company that brought cost effective wicker production to the American market and took the lead in modern furniture design in the 1940s and 1950s with its esoteric looks and golden birch finish. It remained in business in Gardner, MA until filing for bankruptcy in the early 1980s. In 1985 a completely new company was formed in Miami and in 1991 acquired the right to the trademark name Heywood-Wakefield and even the original black logo. The new company uses many of the old designs and even uses the old numbering system for its new furniture. Information on the new company can be found at http://www.heywood-wakefield.com

Send your comments, questions and pictures to me at PO Box 215, Crystal River, FL 34423 or fmtaylor@aol.com. 

Visit Fred's website at www.furnituredetective.com. His book "HOW TO BE A FURNITURE DETECTIVE" is now available for $18.95 plus $2.00 shipping. Send check or money order for $20.95 to Fred Taylor, PO Box 215, Crystal River, FL 34423.

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