Baumritter

If the name Baumritter doesn’t feel all that familiar to you, try Ethan Allen and you’ll probably conjure up images of classic Traditional dressers or quaint French Country chairs. Well, Ethan Allen was actually founded as Baumritter Corporation in 1932, by brothers-in-law Nathan Ancell and Theodore Baumritter. It started out as a housewares manufacturer before expanding to produce furniture in 1939, where it first adopted the Ethan Allen name for its Early-American furniture collection. Their designs quickly caught on and they grew to own 14 factories in the East, and stores all over the world by the end of the 1960s. The wild success of Ethan Allen furniture led them to officially rename the company to Ethan Allen in 1972. Ethan Allen furniture under Baumritter featured mostly wood designs, with sturdy case goods cementing the company’s reputation as a provider of quality home furnishings. In the 1950s, Baumritter did produce one line of furniture that maintained the Baumritter name: Viko Baumritter. The Viko Baumritter collection was much more modern, but only had around 150 pieces. These featured steel, as opposed to the woods of Ethan Allen furniture, and had a more industrial look. However, it’s the bright, solid-colored upholstery that really set Viko Baumritter furniture apart.