Thomas Moser, a self-taught woodworker who give up his job as a school professor in 1972 to discovered a furnishings firm in Maine after which spent 5 many years resurrecting conventional American kinds with an unmatched consideration to element and craftsmanship, died on March 5 at his dwelling in Harpswell, Maine. He was 90.
Aaron Moser, certainly one of his 4 sons — all of whom have labored on the firm — confirmed the demise.
Thos. Moser Furniture, which Mr. Moser and his spouse, Mary, opened in an deserted grange corridor in New Gloucester, Maine, was a throwback to the Arts and Crafts motion of the late nineteenth century, although in its kinds it reached again one other 100 years, to the easy types of Shaker chairs and tables.
It additionally pushed towards two dominant, intertwining developments in American furnishings making: the commodified blandness of midcentury modernism and the substitute of small workshops with company manufacturing amenities, a lot of which have been abroad and used unsustainable supplies and practices.
Mr. Moser was a businessman in addition to a craftsman, and he drove his firm to develop. Finally it moved to a bigger area in Auburn, Maine, the place right this moment some 60 craftspeople prove about 10,000 objects a yr.
Each Thos. Moser piece is made by hand; the wooden — primarily ash and cherry — comes from inside just a few hundred miles of his workshop; and every merchandise is completed merely, with oil and wax, by no means varnish or paint, so the grain of the wooden and the precision of the joints are evident.
