Thomas Moser, Innovative Furniture Designer and Woodworker, Dies at 90

The founder of Thos. Moser Cabinetmakers who took classic wooden Shaker designs to contemporary looks, died earlier this month at age 90.

Moser’s seemingly simple interpretations of classic Shaker looks were the foundation of his long-running cult-like brand, founded in 1972 and recognized as “galvanizing a broader revival of American craft traditions,” according to Architectural Record’s tribute on his passing. His furniture line, which included chairs, benches and tables warrantied for life, became a national brand over the years.

“In his designs, Moser embraced an unadorned functionalism derived, in part, from the 18th-century wood frame houses that surrounded him in Maine,” the magazine wrote. “He rejected artificial coatings, preferring to finish his pieces with oil and wax rather than ‘suffocating wood with plastic,’ as he described the most common alternative. His work derives much of its power and appeal from its visible mortise-and-tenon joints and the contrasting hues between different species of American hardwood, each employed in accordance with its structural properties.”

Working with his wife, Mary, who co-founded the company and handled the marketing, and later his sons Aaron, David and Andy, Moser opened showrooms in large cities and, in the early 1990s, found success in the contract furnishings market.

The magazine’s tribute said Moser “judiciously incorporated CNC machinery into the manufacturing process at the company’s plant in Maine, (managing) to keep prices relatively affordable.”

“His lasting legacy was the ability to make commercial furniture with details reminiscent of small shop care and detail,” Edward S. Cooke, Jr., a professor of art history at Yale who focuses on American decorative arts, said in the tribute.

“His core beliefs remained steadfast,” said his son Aaron, who developed the company’s contract business and later served as its CEO. “Quality and product were always the most important things to him. Employees, number two, and customers, number three.”

In January of this year, the family sold the company to Chenmark, which describes itself as a family-owned firm that acquires and operates small businesses and which will continue to run Thos. Moser under its management.

Images: Thos Moser on Instagram

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