A Vis to Berkey & Gay Furnure Co., 1878 | Furnure Cy History

Contents:

• BERKEY & GAY FURNURE CO.
• BERKEY & GAY FURNURE
• BERKEY AND GAY FURNURE CO. - BAXTER, 1891
• HOW MUCH IS BERKEY AND GAY FURNURE WORTH
• A VIS TO BERKEY & GAY FURNURE CO., 1878
• TRA TALOGS OM BERKEY & GAY FURNURE CO.
• IS BERKEY AND GAY FURNURE VALUABLE
• BERKEY & GAY FURNURE STYLE BOOK
• BERKEY & GAY WARDROBE, INTERR
• BERKEY AND GAY

BERKEY & GAY FURNURE CO.

Gay be partner Berkey Brothers & Co. ; name is changed to Berkey Brothers & Gay. 1873: Company is rporated as Berkey & Gay.

1876: Berkey & Gay is one of three Grand Rapids pani to w an award for s display at the Philalphia Centennial Exposn.

1911: Berkey & Gay acquir Oriel Cabet Co. Are merged wh Berkey & Gay as the Consolidated Furnure Compani. Of Chigo acquir Berkey & Gay’s $10 ln assets, cludg 5 Grand Rapids plants wh 1.

BERKEY & GAY FURNURE

1931: Sal cle sharply; Berkey & Gay forced to clare bankptcy. 1935: Berkey & Gay re-opens unr new management. Gay, the son of an early partner the bs, Gee Gay, beme a proment lear of both the pany and the muny, and sat on the boards of m any banks and civic anizatn.

Cabetmaker John Frohberg (or Froburgh) may have created signs for Berkey & Gay the early 1870s. John Keck of Ann Arbor, Michigan, signed Renaissance Revival, Neo-Grec, and Eastlake-style piec on ntract for Berkey & Gay the 1870s.

BERKEY AND GAY FURNURE CO. - BAXTER, 1891

Frerick Koskul and John Mowatt signed for Berkey & Gay between 1877 and 1879. Arthur Kirkpatrick, who grew up Grand Rapids, received formal art trag before he beme a signer at Berkey & Gay. Adrian Margant signed piec Goln Oak and Colonial styl for Berkey & Gay om 1898 until his ath 1914.

Many Berkey & Gay signs required a nsirable amount of hand craftsmanship, so the pany cultivated large partments of rvers and rators. Some cludg Fred Weber and Chris Haraldstadt, grew up Ameri but me om regns of Germany and Norway that were known for their rvg tradns, and worked for forty years or more at Berkey & Gay.

Others, like Florente master rver Leopold Baillot, and Japane rator Fugi Nakamiso, were reced through Amerin foreign embassi to brg their experience overseas, to work for Berkey & Gay. Bee of the pany’s size and longevy, llectors seem to enunter Berkey & Gay products more equently than those of any other Grand Rapids pany. Berkey & Gay palized on the public’s tert whole su of “sus” of furnure, which clud everythg need for bedrooms and dg rooms.

HOW MUCH IS BERKEY AND GAY FURNURE WORTH

In fact, Berkey & Gay’s products of this perd have bee synonymo wh the term “Grand Rapids furnure” the mds of many llectors.

It also noted that Berkey & Gay did not make s own parlor am, but purchased them om Holton & Hildreth of Chigo, then pleted the upholstery for s own retail tra. 1890 – 1915: As nsumer style preferenc changed, so did Berkey & Gay, but the feelg of massivens and strength s furnure remaed.

A VIS TO BERKEY & GAY FURNURE CO., 1878

Berkey & Gay’s Goln Oak piec have very high relief their rvg, which ranged om grottoque fantasy creatur to swirlg French flourish.

TRA TALOGS OM BERKEY & GAY FURNURE CO.

A few Arts and Crafts style su were troduced the first of this century unr nam like “English Morn, ” but generally speakg Berkey & Gay passed on the whole movement.

1915 – 1931: The era between World War I and the Great Deprsn was Berkey & Gay’s zenh of productn. Upholsterg was spun off to subsidiari like Wallace Upholstery and Grand Rapids Upholstery, so Berkey & Gay ncentrated on livg room and bedroom su.

1934 – 1948: Berkey & Gay had ventured to Morn or Art De signs before was closed 1931, and ntued to produce both “tradnal and morn” l when re-opened. Popular enzy over the novel and movie Gone Wh the Wd spired Berkey & Gay’s “Old South Le” the late 1930s.

IS BERKEY AND GAY FURNURE VALUABLE

Both the Grand Rapids Public Mm and the Grand Rapids Public Library have large llectns of advertisg piec and pany histori as well and tra talogs om Berkey & Gay. A Berkey & Gay table, cir 1875, the llectns of the Public Mm bears a black stencil of the pany name on the unrsi of s stretchers. Paper labels that read “From Berkey & Gay Furnure Co.

By 1905 Berkey & Gay had adopted a new tramark nsistg of a seri of ncentric rgs. A circular le surrounds the words “BERKEY & GAY FURNITURE” which surround a “C” wh the “O” as the center.

1866: Gee Gay jos as a partner, name is changed to Berkey Brothers & Gay.

BERKEY & GAY FURNURE STYLE BOOK

TleBerkey & Gay Furnure Co.

The firm rporated as Berkey & Gay Augt 1873, unr the management of Juli Berkey, Print; Geo.

Gay, Treasurer; and, John A.

BERKEY & GAY WARDROBE, INTERR

Durg the last quarter of the 19th Century, Berkey & Gay produced furnure all the popular Victorian Revival styl such as Gothic, Ro, Renaissance, Neo-Greek, Eastlake, and Empire. The only popular style that Berkey & Gay did not produce any great quanty was the “Missn Style, ” popularized by Gtave Stickley. By 1929, Berkey & Gay were operatg 5 productn plants Grand Rapids wh 1.

Of Chigo, but sal began to cle as the Great Deprsn epened, forcg Berkey & Gay to clare bankptcy 1931. Berkey started aga at the same place, and ntued the bs alone till November 1862; th practilly, though not foreeg such an oute perhaps, layg the foundatn for that lossal stutn, the Berkey & Gay Furnure Company's factory, which now stands among the leadg furnure factori the Uned Stat. Gay purchased half the tert of Wm.

& Gay.

BERKEY AND GAY

The Berkey & Gay Furnure Company proper was rporated Augt, 1873, wh a pal stock of $500, 000 and has been practilly unr the same management ever sce s anizatn, the officers beg: Juli Berkey, Print; Gee W.

Gay, Treasurer; John A. Berkey and Gay furnure is worth a lot of money. If you are lucky enough to fd a piece of Berkey and Gay furnure that is good ndn, is likely to be worth a lot of money.

If you’re lookg for high-qualy, well-ma furnure, then Berkey and Gay is a brand you should fely nsir. How much is Berkey and Gay furnure worth?