Allen and Brother, Philadelphia furniture makers

Magazine Antiques, May, 1996 by Page Talbott

The competition from these larger enterprises forced many trained and skilled cabinetmakers to quit the field, but others persevered, building businesses that continued to emphasize custom work even as their factories expanded and the number of employees grew. Among these was a handful of prosperous Philadelphia furniture makers, including Allen and Brother, George J. Henkels, Anna and Henry Lejambre, Thomas Moore and Joseph Campion, Daniel Pabst, and Gottlieb Vollmer.(2) The owners of these businesses had been trained as cabinetmakers, unlike many of their peers, who, according to Henkels, knew not "the first principles of (furniture) manufacture Since the introduction of what is called 'Garret Bosses' and steam-mills, any one can become what is called a cabinet-maker."(3)

Acclaim came to the Allen firm, the subject of this article, consistently and effusively throughout its long history. In 1869, Isaac L. Vansant declared in The Royal Road to Wealth: An Illustrated History of the Successful Business House of Philadelphia: Among the many great first-class Furniture manufactories, for which Philadelphia is justly famous, that of Allen and Bro. is the most noteworthy.(4)

William Allen Sr. (d. 1869), a furniture maker and dealer in fancy woods, founded the firm in 1835. Joseph (b. 1818) and William Allen Jr. (d. 1865) were apprenticed to their father and in 1847 took over the business, which in that year was listed in the Philadelphia directories as W. and J. Allen, Furniture, 119 Spruce Street. William Jr. ran the business and managed the showroom, while Joseph was in charge of the factory. Another brother, James C. (b. 1825), joined the firm in 1861, when the company was called W. and J. Allen and Brother or simply "Allen's" [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 3 OMITTED]. By 1865, the year the firm became Allen and Brother, William Jr. had died. The two remaining brothers continued as partners until 1896, when James C. took over the business, assisted by Joseph A. Allen Jr.(5)

Like so many cabinetmaking establishments in Philadelphia, Allen's had numerous addresses over the years. An advertisement from about 1856 [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 6 OMITTED] shows the interior of the showroom at 136 South Second Street, above Spruce Street, their address between 1853 and 1857. Illustrated are portions of a parlor suite in the rococo style, with elegant damask upholstery and florid carving; the copy refers to the firm's "Cabinet, Chair & Sofa Warerooms." The advertisement, like virtually all references to the Allens' furniture over the firm's long history, emphasizes the high quality of their products. In 1875, Charles Robson wrote in his promotional volume on Pennsylvania manufactures:

All the work [by the Allens] is hand-made and of the most elaborate designs, no machinery being used....The most skilled workmen to be obtained in Europe or America are employed, and they are of various nationalities. Their work is strictly of the custom class and they have but one price - that decided upon in their first estimate. Their reputation was founded by their superior work, and they never undertake to do "cheap" work, or, in other words, inferior - work. Their workmen are of the most skilled and best paid, and in busy times they employ about 115 in the various departments of their manufactures.(6)

The frequency of references to the firm in auction notices of the period further suggests the name value of the company and the goods it produced.(7) The firm was also admired by their fellow mechanics: they were winners of prizes at the Franklin Institute's Exhibitions of American Manufactures in 1854 and 1874.(8)

From these comments, one can surmise that the survival of the Allen firm can be attributed to the direct and continuous involvement in the business of members of the family, and even more importantly, to the availability of clients who wanted custom furniture long after mechanization had become commonplace in the industry. Support for this thesis can be found in the Philadelphia Board of Trade's annual report for 1880:

In the line of costly, superior, artistic and elegant furniture made to order, the local manufacturers retain their ascendancy; and as the popular taste has advanced very fast with the growth of wealth and luxury, all the first-class furniture establishments do a large business in specialties, in unique furniture, original designs, in copies of celebrated styles, sets and models.(9)

The fame of Allen and Brother grew after they exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition of 1876 in Philadelphia. There they were "commended for originality of design, method of construction as tending to durability, and superior workmanship and finish."(10) While no view of the Allens' display at the exhibition survives, four examples of their work were pictured in two major volumes published at the time of that great world's fair. Walter Smith's volume on the industrial arts described and illustrated a sideboard [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 7 OMITTED] and a pair of doors [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 8 OMITTED]. Of the former Smith wrote: