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Furniture Industry Archives
Advertising ➔ Trade Catalog, Widdicomb Furniture Company
Identifier:
2016.43.1Description:
America's most distinguished furniture company. This trade catalog was put out by the Widdicomb Furniture Company during their 10 year merger with the Mueller Furniture Company (1950-1960). This was also the time period when famed English designed T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings worked at Widdicomb.Widdicomb Furniture Company, were key players in the Grand Rapids furniture industry. Catalogs like this are part of a larger body of research materials available on this important Grand Rapids company.
Date:
1950sMaterials:
Paper , MetalDimensions:
11 1/2" h 11 3/8" w 2 1/4" dCurrent Location Status:
In StorageCollection Tier:
Tier 2Source:
Gift of Dan CreaganRelated Entities:
Creagan, Dan (donor) Widdicomb Furniture Company (creator)Alternate names: George Widdicomb and Sons, Widdicomb - Mueller Corporation, Widdicomb Brothers and Richards
1873 - 1950
Grand Rapids, Michigan
COMPANY HISTORY
1873: Widdicomb Brothers & Richards incorporates as Widdicomb Furniture Co.
1887 and 1891: Local histories of Grand Rapids describe Widdicomb as the largest manufacturer of bedroom furniture in the world.
1915: Company is purchased by Joseph Griswold, Sr. and Godfrey Von Platen.
1950: Widdicomb merges with Mueller Furniture Corp. to form Widdicomb-Mueller Corp.
1960: Mueller severs ties to Widdicomb.
1970: Widdicomb Furniture Co. name is purchased by John Widdicomb Co.
PERSONNEL
At the time of the company’s incorporation, William Widdicomb was president, Theodore Richards was vice-president, and William’s brother Harry was secretary. William left the family business in 1883 for a position with the Grand Rapids National Bank. In 1885 he began a wholesale grocery business. But he returned to the company upon the request of its board, after the financial panic of 1893. He managed the company until his retirement in 1915. He was described as a clever mechanic who invented many improvements for machinery in the factory.
Lumber tycoon Godfrey Von Platen, furniture man Maynard Guest, and salesman Joseph Griswold, Sr. purchased the company from Widdicomb in 1915. Griswold served as president until he was succeeded by his son Joseph, Jr. who served as general manager and president from 1941 until 1964.
Free-lance designer William Balbach created designs for Widdicomb beginning in 1917.
English-born designer T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings served as designer for Widdicomb from 1943 until 1956. Although he began to design lines of Modern furniture from the time he arrived, its production was postponed until 1946, when World War II ended. George Nakashima designed the “Origins Group” for Widdicomb in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Other designers from the early 1960s included Marge Carson, Dave Butterworth, Albert Herbert, and Ray See.
PRODUCTS
The first products of the Widdicomb Furniture Co. were spindle beds that were generally shipped to retailers unfinished or “in the white”. An 1878 article in The American Cabinet Maker, Upholsterer and Carpet Reporter states that Widdicomb made only “nine styles of work,” and specialized in low-priced ash, maple, cherry, and walnut bedsteads.
By the 1880s the line had expanded to include all forms of “medium and fine chamber furniture” including beds, dressers, chiffoniers, wardrobes, washstands, mirrors, and night tables. The company utilized a variety of woods including San Domingo and Tabasco mahogany, Circassian walnut, golden curly birch, bird’s-eye maple, and also a white enamel finish. Pieces from the late 1890s were also produced in quarter-sawn oak. The 1906 catalog shows bedroom suites and occasional pieces in all of these woods, in American Empire or Colonial Revival styles, or with vaguely French inspiration.
Between 1918 and 1920 Widdicomb advertised Queen Anne, Adam, and Chippendale-styled phonograph cabinets made by its photograph division. Bedroom suites from the 1910s and 1920s were produced from mahogany and walnut, or with a polychromed enamel finish, in a variety of period revival styles including Italian Renaissance, Venetian, Georgian, Louis XV and XVI, Chippendale, Hepplewhite, Early American, and “New England Colonial”. A number of Adam-influenced designs from the late 1910s featured caned panels overlaid with carved swags and wreaths. The distinctive Spanish suites made of shaded and decoratively painted walnut featured trestle tables, Roman arched panels, and baroque scrolled and carved silhouettes.
The company introduced its first Modern pieces in 1928, and by 1938 had stopped production of all traditional and revival pieces. A 1936 Grand Rapids Market Ambassador showed a streamlined Art Deco-style bedroom suite made of white harewood (a veneer, usually Sycamore that has been stained), offered jointly by Widdicomb and the Hastings Table Co.
T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbing’s Modern designs in the 1940s and ‘50s were in a warm blond wood tone, with either tapering, functional Scandinavian Modern shapes, or Modern designs with Neo-classical influences. George Nakashima’s “Origins Collection,” produced in the late 1950s and early 1960s included bedroom, dining room, upholstered, and occasional pieces of Modern design with Japanese and Shaker stylistic influences. Emphasis was placed on the grain and texture of the woods, which ranged from Circassian walnut tabletops to hand-shaved hickory spindles.
OTHER SOURCES
The Grand Rapids Public Library owns a large collection of catalogs and original archival materials, which spans nearly the entire history of the Widdicomb Furniture Co. and its predecessors.
MARKS AND LABELS
The company’s earliest beds sometimes had paper shipping labels on the inside bottom of the headboard, and/or a burn mark on the back of the headboard with “WIDDICOMB/FURNITURE CO./GRAND RAPIDS/MICHIGAN”. The company used a distinctive, cursive type style for the name “The Widdicomb Furniture Co.” as its registered trademark between 1903 and 1937.
Widdicomb Brothers & Richards
1869 – 1873
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Manufacturer of Rococo Revival and Renaissance Revival-influenced bedroom furniture made from domestic hardwoods.
Successor to George Widdicomb and Sons. Predecessor to Widdicomb Furniture Co.
George Widdicomb & Sons
1857 – 1863
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Cabinetmaker George Widdicomb left Devonshire, England for New Hampshire in 1843. In 1857 George and sons William, Harry, John, and George, Jr. opened their cabinetmaking business in Grand Rapids. William made a selling trip to Milwaukee in 1858, and claimed to be the first traveling furniture salesman from Grand Rapids. The business was closed during the Civil War, when all four brothers joined the Union Army. George, Jr. died during the war, leaving the remaining three brothers who joined in starting the Widdicomb Brothers & Richards Co. in 1869.
Widdicomb Mantel Co.
1893 – 1897
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Manufacturer of interior woodwork and fireplace overmantels.
Successor to Gleason Wood Ornament Co. Predecessor to John Widdicomb Co. Mueller Furniture Company (creator)
Alternate names: Mueller and Slack Company, Mueller Furniture Corporation
Mueller Furniture Corp.
1920 - 1992
Grand Rapids, Michigan
SEE ALSO Widdicomb Furniture Company; Mueller & Slack Co.; Grand Rapids Parlor Chair Co.; Strahan & Long Furniture Co. (Listed below)
COMPANY HISTORY
1920: Name changes from Mueller & Slack Co. to Mueller Furniture Co.
1950: Mueller Furniture Co. merges with Widdicomb Furniture Co. to form the Widdicomb – Mueller Co.
1951: Company begins operation as Mueller Metals Co., a subsidiary of Widdicomb – Mueller.
1960: Mueller Metals separates from Widdicomb name as an independent company.
1962: Mueller Metals changes name to Mueller Furniture Corp.
1984: Mueller purchases West Michigan Furniture Co. in Holland, Michigan.
1990: Mueller is purchased by Haworth, Inc.
1992: Mueller is combined with another Haworth subsidiary, the Myrtle Desk Co. of High Point, North Carolina. Grand Rapids plant closes; product development and marketing move to Haworth in Holland, and manufacturing of some products under the Mueller name continues in High Point.
PERSONNEL
The company became Mueller Furniture Co. in 1920 when co-owner A.W. Slack sold his interest in the Mueller & Slack Co. to his partner, Johann Frederick Mueller. In 1920 his son, Frederick H. Mueller, joined the firm. The company continued in family hands when grandson Fritz Mueller went to work for the company in 1946. In 1950 it was merged with Widdicomb Furniture Co., and became the division know as Mueller Metals. This division continued to be managed by Fritz Mueller.
The company moved out of Mueller family hands in 1961 when it was purchased by G. Richard Bodkins. Partners David Lohr and Thatcher W. Rea, Jr. purchased the company in 1975. Rea became sole owner and operated Mueller until 1990, when it was sold and became a subsidiary of Haworth, Inc.
PRODUCTS
In the 1920s Mueller made high-grade, upholstered chairs, benches, ottomans, davenports, and sofas. Frames were mahogany and walnut, with patterned mohair, silk brocade and tapestry fabrics that interpreted historical English and French styles.
The noted streamlined Modern designer Kem Weber designed the “Fleetwood” line on contract for Mueller in 1936. The grouping included chairs, desks, and tables made of lightweight plywood, cut into rounded and aerodynamic shapes similar to his “Airline chairs” for a California company. Sofas and easy chairs in the Fleetwood line were rectangular and boxy with rounded corners, and were all over upholstered with leather or geometric patterned fabrics. At the same time Mueller continued to advertise traditional lines, which were adaptations of 18th-century English, French, American Empire, Colonial and Victorian styles.
As Mueller Metals Co., the company manufactured tables, upholstered seating, and other contract furniture for offices, especially sofas, lounge chairs, benches, occasional chairs, and table desks. When the company was purchased in 1961, the case goods were dropped and the company concentrated just on upholstered furniture and tables. Between 1963 and 1967, the company sub-contracted all of its manufacturing. It began to manufacture its own products again in 1967, after purchasing the former Widdicomb factory.
The wooden component-based VARIA system was introduced in 1986, to provide flexible systems furniture for small office settings. According to a December, 1990 Grand Rapids Press article, Mueller was the first company to develop wooden modular case goods for the contract market in the 1970s. A series of upholstered wooden chairs named for Thatcher Rea’s wife, Mary, and daughters Cara and Laura, were some of the company’s top-selling products.
MARKS AND LABELS
Circa 1951 pieces were marked with a square label that read, in script: “Est. 1892/Mueller/GRAND RAPIDS”. Mueller was a founding member of the Grand Rapids Furniture Makers Guild, and so pieces from the early 1930s through 1951 may carry the spread eagle symbol and “TRUE GRAND RAPIDS CERTIFIED” label in addition to the company’s trademark. Circa 1962 the trademark was changed to a long rectangle with a lower case “m” and the name, “MUELLER FURNITURE CORPORATION”. In the 1970s and ‘80s the company was identified by the name “mueller’ in lower-case block letters, with the “u” connected to a reversed “e” and the second “er” also connected. After 1990, “A Haworth Company” was added underneath this trademark.
Mueller & Slack Company
1892 – 1920
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Originally, manufacturer of Turkish leather upholstered furniture including rocking chairs and couches, davenport sofas, parlor suites, library seating,
and occasional furniture. By the 1910s production had switched to caned and upholstered period revival sofas, chairs, and suites for the living room and library.
Successor to Grand Rapids Parlor Chair Co.
SEE ALSO Grand Rapids Parlor Chair Co.; Strahan & Long Co. (Listed below)
COMPANY HISTORY
1892: Company formed from Grand Rapids Parlor Chair Co.
1920: Name changes to Mueller Furniture Co.
Grand Rapids Parlor Chair Company
1891 – ca. 1892
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Upholsterers of parlor suites and lounge frames for wholesale only.
Successor to Strahan & Long.
Predecessor to Mueller & Slack Co.
Strahan & Long Furniture Company
1886 – 1891
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Manufacturer of parlor suites and lounges for wholesale only.
Incorporated as Grand Rapids Parlor Chair Co. in 1891.
The source, with permission of the author, is Grand Rapids Furniture: The Story of America’s Furniture City by Christian G. Carron, published by the Grand Rapids Public Museum. 1998.
