Antique Maple Conant Ball New England Drop Leaf Pedestal Table Plant Stand 29"

Description

Antique Conant & Ball drop leaf pedestal side table / plant stand / nightstand. Made of maple featuring two drop leaves and two drawers supported by long turned legs. Conant & Ball were famous for reproductions of old New England Furniture.

Conant, Ball and Co Hisotry
Back in the mid-1800s, furniture factories were springing up all over Gardner. In many cases, the manufacturing firms grew out of associations with other shops and industrial concerns.

Such was the case with Aaron B. Jackson and Aaron L. Greenwood, who ran Jackson & Greenwood chair shop on West Broadway. They were later succeeded by brothers Abner and Leander White, who changed the name to A. White and Co.

In 1862, John R. Conant joined the firm, and two years later his brother, Charles, also became a partner. After the two White brothers left the company, the business was continued as Conant Brothers and Co.

Carlos E. Ball was admitted to the firm in 1868 and assumed charge of the Boston branch of the business before it was relocated to 36 Richmond St. in Gardner. In 1875, the firm name became Conant, Ball and Co.

In 1888, the business was moved from West Broadway to its more familiar location on West Lynde Street into a building originally owned by L.H. Sawin & Co.

John Conant died in 1891 and Ball in 1909, however, between those years Charles C. Brooks became a member of the firm. In May of 1909, a Massachusetts corporation was formed under the name Conant Ball Co.

The former Conant Ball factory location in Gardner, which today is home to the two-deck parking garage on West Lynde Street. Among the first products made by the new company were cane seat chairs. Later, the factory produced bedroom and dining room chairs of mahogany, cherry and walnut. By the 1920s, dining room and bedroom furniture in the early American design were manufactured.

Over the years, many members of the Brooks family assumed control of Conant and Ball Co. Charles Brooks and his sons, Herbert and Charles Jr., purchased the business in 1936.

After the death of their father in 1949, Charles C. Brooks Jr. was elected president and Herbert Brooks treasurer. The following year, Stephen Brooks, the son of Herbert, was elected vice president, while Rachel Brooks, sister of Herbert and Charles, was assistant treasurer.

For the next three decades, Conant and Ball became one of the leading manufacturers of solid rock maple furniture in the early American design. Around 1971, the major emphasis switched with the introduction of its clean-lined Sierra group made of solid oak, which heralded a new generation of product design.

As was the case with many other Gardner factories that outsourced some of its work to other places or relocated altogether, Conant and Ball continued to operate in other parts of the United States and Canada.

In 1986, Conant Ball laid off many of its workers after it was acquired by Shermag Inc. of Sherbrook, Quebec. However, Conant and Ball continued to manufacture furniture under its own name until 1990 in the midst of the nation’s recession.

A fire in one of the vacant buildings in 1992 hastened plans to demolish the buildings on West Lynde Street. Later, another fire – this one of suspicious origin – occurred in September of 1997. A month later the buildings were razed.

It was announced in 2000 that the lot would be targeted for the Levi Heywood Memorial Library, which was completed in 2004. The completion of the double-deck parking garage on West Lynde Street further developed the area, a true benefit to the new Rear Main Street corridor, once home to both Conant and Ball and Commonwealth Manufacturing.

Condition

Good antique condition, wear and distressing commensurate with age and use, few marks.

Dimensions

17" x 17" x 29" h ; leaves up 33" w