Antique Tapestry Arm Chair

Karpen Furniture Tapestry Hall Chair, circa 1900-1920
measures approximately: 45 3/4" H (top of seat back) x 22 7/8" W (seat back) 27" W (legs) x 24 1/2" D x 18" H (top of seat) About Karpen Furniture (adapted from Immigrant Entrepreneurship's website) Karpen Furniture, Chicago 1880-1951. Started as S. Karpen & Bros (nine brothers). Solomon Karpen founded S. Karpen & Bros, which he named after himself and his brothers – in anticipation of bringing them into the business. He started this venture in August 1880, after only eight years in America. At the time, Chicago had not yet become a center for furniture manufacturing, and the city had fewer than forty firms that produced upholstered pieces. Solomon opened a workshop in the basement of a building a few blocks from the family home. Using hand tools, he and his brothers produced upholstered parlor suites and chairs, which Solomon then sold to retail furniture stores and department stores in Chicago. Oscar was the first of the Karpen brothers to join Solomon. Oscar had already worked as a furniture gilder (a skilled craftsman who applies gold leaf to ornate furniture). Brothers Isaac (“Ike”) and Michael (“Mike”) were still teenagers when they joined the business. In its first year, S. Karpen & Bros. realized profits of more than $7,000 (approximately $154,000 in 2010), kept moving to larger workshops, and added a showroom. In 1882, Adolph, who had graduated from the Chicago College of Pharmacy, owned a drugstore, and was a leader in pharmaceutical associations in Chicago and throughout Illinois, brought his marketing and financial skills to the company. S. Karpen & Bros. quickly expanded its business by employing traveling salesmen in the South and the Midwest. Michael Karpen became one of these traveling salesmen, while Wilhelm (“William, Will”) joined the company as its bookkeeper. S. Karpen & Bros. gradually became better known. The company began publishing elaborate furniture catalogs that were distributed to retail furniture stores and department stores throughout the Midwest; it placed advertisements in national furniture trade journals and also garnered frequent mention in those publications. Adolph took a leading role in furniture manufacturers’ trade organizations in Chicago, and he represented Chicago furniture interests on the national level. Solomon continued to bring his brothers into the business until all nine were involved. Benjamin (“Ben”) left the cigar business to work as an agent and salesman in the Northwest, and Leopold (“Leo”) began as a clerk. Julius, the youngest, worked part time during his undergraduate studies at the University of Chicago and then during law school. Oscar ran the woodworking department, and Isaac became the factory superintendent. Adolph oversaw the showrooms, the traveling salesmen, and marketing strategies. Solomon oversaw the factories and purchasing. He travelled to the East and to Europe on extended trips to seek out new fabrics and trends. Solomon expanded the company by buying a frame factory, and afterwards S. Karpen & Bros. began manufacturing its own frames for upholstered furniture. After an 1887 fire in the building that housed the factory and showroom, Solomon decided to move his showrooms closer to Michigan Avenue, the center of the city’s wholesale furniture trade. The new location also had the advantage of being near the railroad stations and the commercial hotels that served visiting furniture buyers. Solomon entered the growing market for commercial commissions and started manufacturing furniture for office buildings, churches, schools, libraries, clubs, lodges, hotels, and railroad observation cars. As the company needed more production capacity, he opened an even larger factory with more than 250 employees. Furniture manufactured by S. Karpen & Bros. attracted local and regional exposure through exhibitions organized by the Chicago Furniture Association. Even more importantly, the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 put Karpen furniture in the national spotlight – the company’s parlor suite won first prize, a gold medal, for design and workmanship in the upholstered furniture category. By 1899, S. Karpen & Bros. had become the largest upholstered furniture manufacturing company in the world. Among other factors, the company’s success was attributable to its emphasis on Old World craftsmanship and its utilization of forward-thinking marketing strategies. At the turn of the twentieth century, S. Karpen & Bros. became the first upholstered furniture manufacturer to advertise in national mass market (as opposed to trade) magazines and journals. It also made history by affixing a label, which carried with it the Karpen guarantee, to every piece it manufactured. S. Karpen & Bros. expanded its advertising campaigns and began running ads in magazines like National Geographic, Harper’s, and House & Garden, which were read by middle- and upper-middle-classes. The advertisements, some of which were in color, depicted furniture in elegantly decorated rooms. In 1916, Solomon expanded the Karpen product line by purchasing a Michigan City, Indiana, company that manufactured rattan and fiber rush furniture. To serve its growing East Coast markets, S. Karpen & Bros. also built a large East Coast factory with direct railroad connections in Long Island City, New York. By this time, the company had developed important markets in the West as well. To serve that region and to enter the bedroom and dining room furniture market, Solomon bought a large factory near Los Angeles in 1927. He also started a transportation seating division to serve the growing bus, rail, and ocean liner sectors. For the first time, he sought non-family members to lead that division, and it prospered. Over the decades, the number of brothers active in the company dwindled as the family was struck by a series of tragedies. In 1896, Benjamin, a company salesman, died of typhoid fever. Julius, who was being groomed for the company leadership, died in 1907 after being thrown from his horse. William, who had retired for health reasons, died in 1915. Isaac, the factory superintendent, died in the influenza epidemic of 1918. Thus, Solomon looked to the next generation of Karpens to fill leadership positions. Since so few of the nine Karpen brothers had sons, they had to integrate their sons-in-law into the company. The members of this generation did not attend college; they were trained in the company for leadership roles. S. Karpen & Bros. was always a privately held corporation with shares owned by family members. In 1926, the company boasted more than $10 million in annual sales (approximately $123 million in 2010) and employed 1,800 workers in three factories. The Depression put an end to the company’s phenomenal growth, however. The Indiana factory was closed in 1933. After decades of owning its showroom buildings, Karpen Bros. leased 18,000 square feet in the Chicago Merchandise Mart. Solomon and Adolph were elderly and ill. Adolph died in 1935, and Solomon passed away in 1936. Since Oscar had retired from the company in the early 1900s, Leopold and Michael were the only brothers who remained with the company. They continued to work with members of the younger generations. In the 1950s, the company had annual sales of about $8 million (approximately $72.4 million in 2010), and it owned five factories. After Michael’s death, S. Karpen & Bros. was sold in 1951 to International Furniture Co. (a manufacturer of lower-priced furniture) for $3.5 million (approximately $29.4 million in 2010). As Time Magazine reported, “Karpen… has always catered to the luxury trade” and the sale “brought the Cadillac and the Chevrolet of the furniture business” together. The end of S. Karpen & Bros. was not unique to that company; rather, it was a story shared by other Chicago furniture companies. The Depression, World War II, and postwar austerity measures made it more difficult for the middle class to buy quality furniture. At the same time, cheaper non-union labor, the lower cost of living, proximity to natural resources, and new modern factory plants drew companies that produced furniture for the masses to the South. Additionally, like other Chicago furniture manufacturers whose founding owners had died, S. Karpen & Bros. “lost momentum in the hands of a second or third generation.”