"Bargains Are Expensive"

Photo courtesy Flickr

Albert Sack. Fine Points of Furniture. Crown Publishers, Inc., New York, New York. 1950. Forward by Israel Sack.

In 1950, this book was in its eighteenth edition. I first learned of the Sack family’s importance to American culture when I caught an interview with Albert Sack on Martha Stewart’s show. He led a tour of his warehouse in New York and pointed out the difference between the knees of American furniture and of English: American knees do not bow.

Albert’s father, Israel Sack, trained as a cabinet maker in Lithuania and worked in an antique store in Boston at the turn of the twentieth century. He repaired furniture for dealers, collectors, and families of privilege.

"As I worked on the fine American pieces which came into the shop for repair, I became very attached to them. I did not care who made them or how old they were, but … they appealed to me as having stately lines and a quality for which I soon developed a deep and sincere attachment...

Time meant nothing to me in those days. I was only twenty-one; and besides starting to work at six every morning, I spent my evenings and Sundays visiting the antique scouts...

Up to [October, 1907, the Metropolitan] Museum had exhibited mostly foreign furniture...because it was very difficult in those days to purchase anything American inasmuch as very few of our wealthier people cared anything about Americana. Few people realized what wonderful furniture had been made in this country by the early settlers…

The idea of buying antiques for actual use in homes was a new one which people of ordinary means knew nothing of...The simple New England pieces...were not made for palaces…

There were marvelous cabinetmakers...great masters who worked into their furniture a combination of fine craftsmanship and durability, and a wonderful sensitiveness to woods which, after one hundred years, have blended together giving these pieces a charm which no new piece can have...because of the difference in our standard of living which demands that everything be done in a hurry…

It had taken a long time for the descendant of the early settler to realize that things could be done as well in this country as abroad...every good cabinetmaker was trained so that he could create his pieces practically from the log to the finished product…

Bargains are expensive…

Some dealers are not satisfied with any transaction unless they can put something over, even though they could make money legitimately…

Innumerable choice pieces were absolutely ruined by poor restoration. There is nothing which hurts an early oak piece so much as planing, scraping, and finishing….they...kill all [the] charm…

If an article of fine quality likewise has an interesting and absolutely authentic history, I should consider it priceless for anyone who could afford to own it…"


John Meredith Graham II:

"The satisfying appeal of good American furniture is based on honesty of line and distinction of design that has withstood, and gained added recognition by, the critical test of time...the best quality of furniture was made for prosperous men of affairs who demanded simplicity and dignity in their furnishings and eschewed the foppery of contemporary Europe. The tendency to cover up weak structural forms with superfluous ornamentation was minimized as a result…"


Albert Sack:

"My father has never tolerated mediocrity…

the beauty, originality, vigor, and spirit of independence...is reflected in its finest furniture. It can only be fully understood by those who appreciate the American spirit…

During colonial days there were few ways to make use of wealth except in the home and its furnishings...every item was ordered individually, with exacting specifications as to selection of well-seasoned lumber, careful construction and fine detail. The craftsman was an honored member of his community…"


Suggested additional reading: Larry McMurtry. Cadillac Jack, a novel about an antique scout. I just love this book.







BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB