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Monday 8:30am - 4:30pm Tuesday 8:30am - 4:30pm Wednesday 8:30am - 4:30pm Thursday 8:30am - 4:30pm Friday 8:30am - 4:30pm

Tappan Chairs, LLC

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North Sandwich, NH
Tappan Chairs, LLC

Traditional New England furniture, handcrafted in Sandwich, NH. Visit our website to see our complete line and place your order: www.tappanchairs.com

Begun in the early 1800's and carried on over nearly two hundred years by seven successive stewards in the small New Hampshire town of Sandwich, Tappan Chairs are simple and elegant. Similar in many ways to Shaker furniture, Tappan Chairs developed independently yet concurrently to that movement as a secular statement of handmade, homespun craftsmanship.

08/23/2021

08/18/2021

Be one of the best and support the New Hampshire Food Bank by grabbing a Best of NH Tappan Chairs, LLC raffle ticket. This is your chance to help feed your neighbors – and win a CUSTOM DESIGNED Tappan chair!
Raffle tickets are $20 and can be purchased here: https://e.givesmart.com/events/ng8/

Now through August 31, the New Hampshire Food Bank is raffling off a custom-made Tappan Chair. The lucky winner will be able to select any style chair, in any combination of available woods, finishes, seating tapes and weaves.

09/02/2019

Dogged appeal! Thanks to local Sandwich, NH sketch artist Don Mayer for sharing with us the first in a series of inspired drawings! People often ask if we do chair caning... but Don seems to have cornered the market on chair canining...

08/14/2019

It was a genuine pleasure to welcome US Congressman Chris Pappas to our shop for a tour yesterday afternoon, and we gratefully received from him a copy of the statement which he read into the 116th Congressional Record of the United States, honoring our bicentennial this year! Thank you, —It was wonderful to meet you, and we are honored by your interest in our story and history in Sandwich, NH! @ Tappan Chairs, LLC

08/06/2019

Painted, in the Corner...House! A capstone to our Tappan Chairs Bicentennial Party this week was the delivery of this set of 20 Tappan Chairs to our own downtown , and it is therefore with tremendous gratitude that I want to give a huge shout-out to Lexi Townsend, who purchased the restaurant earlier this summer. No sooner did she open the doors under her ownership than she came us, wanting to give us patronage as a sibling local business--and thanks to her, you can now see Tappan Chairs--the quintessential, historic, two-slat-style Tappans, which date in town back to at least 1850--in the front room of the Corner House Inn each and every night. Thank you, Lexi! #603 @ Corner House Inn

08/04/2019

Our huge thanks to the 150+ visitors from near and far who stopped by yesterday for our “official” Tappan Bicentennial Celebration, including State Executive Councilor Mike Cryans—it was wonderful to visit and share our story with everyone!

Stay tuned for all the news that’s still developing this year, including our purchase and relocation of the Shaker Workshops and Cohasset Colonials brands of historic reproduction furniture, and our shift to a benefit corporation business structure...
..and for all those Tappan collectors out there, don’t forget that the first of our “this year only” special edition Tappan Bicentennial Rockers gets raffled tonight for the benefit of Advice to the Players at their Gala in town!

08/04/2019

Visit Sandwich during its 121st Old Home Week...and be sure to stop by!

08/01/2019

A very HAPPY BIRTHDAY today to Gunnar Berg (left), sixth generation Tappan Chairmaker and my predecessor in the business!

During our bicentennial this year, we’ve highlighted our past makers from time to time and “cogitated” on if they might have ever thought we would still be here, and how it would be different if they weren’t.

Well, this one is far less esoteric than that...without Gunnar, we would not be here as a business, and I would not be at its helm, period. Gunnar not only revived the business, but he chose to wait many years and turned down many chances to sell it here, there, or everywhere, in order to (unknowingly) wait for me—and then somehow saw fit to place it in my hands.

It is because of him that I not only have a vocation, but a calling, and that rare thing in a job that not only provides one’s livelihood, but also joy on a daily basis.

Happy Birthday, Gunnar, and Thank You!

07/25/2019

Shop, sign, and sun: summer morning... #603

07/21/2019

Today I thought I’d take a gamble and try my luck on the slat machine....
...when I’d rung up my total, I’d done so well I just had to post about it.

Address

379 North Sandwich Road
North Sandwich, NH
03259

Opening Hours

Monday	8:30am - 4:30pm
Tuesday	8:30am - 4:30pm
Wednesday	8:30am - 4:30pm
Thursday	8:30am - 4:30pm
Friday	8:30am - 4:30pm

Website

http://www.tappanchairs.com/

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Celebrating Our Bicentennial 1819-2019!

Begun in the early 1800's and carried on over two hundred years by seven successive stewards in the small New Hampshire town of Sandwich, Tappan Chairs are simple and elegant. Similar in many ways to Shaker furniture, Tappan Chairs and their traditional ladder-back design developed independently yet concurrently to that movement as a secular statement of handmade, homespun craftsmanship.

A Brief History

The first Tappan Chair was crafted by Abraham Tappan in the year 1819; Abraham was a resident of Sandwich his entire life, having been among the first settlers of the town in 1768. Abraham’s son Daniel, along with his wife Rhoda, raised 15 children in Sandwich as well, and each had a hand in the chairmaking business. Sons Walter and Winthrop continued the business after Daniel’s passing in the 1880’s, and rather than end the family tradition when he retired in the 1930’s, Walter chose instead to sell the business to Doc Quinby and Al Hoag, who continued the trade for two decades in affiliation with the Sandwich Home Industries--the original incarnation of the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen.

The business changed hands in the 1950’s, passing to Sandwich resident Cy Blumberg after his return from WWII. Cy made other furniture, and even cut hair, alongside his chair work. When Cy passed away in the 1960’s, Tappan Chairs nearly vanished as a business when his estate went to auction. But rather than letting the equipment and patterns be parted out, again a Sandwich resident intervened, purchased the lot, and stored the business until Gunnar Berg, a Sandwich cabinetmaker, discovered it and brought it back to life in the 1980’s, becoming the first maker to establish a national market for the chairs.

In 2013, coinciding with Sandwich’s 250th anniversary, Gunnar continued the tradition of passing on the business to yet another Sandwich resident, Adam Nudd-Homeyer, making him the seventh generation in Tappan Chairs’ line of craftsperson-stewards. It is under Adam’s tenure that Tappan Chairs now celebrate their 200th anniversary--a celebration which had an early start in 2018, with Tappan Chairs’ move into the former, historic, and long vacant Sandwich General Store building, turning it into an open workshop, showroom, and history exhibit, and marking the first time in the business’ long history that it has had its own free-standing building.

Accolades

Tappan Chairs have long been known and renowned for their durability and style, lasting often for generations, and in addition to their earlier affiliation with the nascent League of New Hampshire Craftsmen, both Gunnar and Adam have become juried members.

Under its current ownership, the business launched a successful 2014 Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign which was designated a Kickstarter global “Project of the Day”. On the heels of that effort, Tappan Chairs developed a national marketing partnership with Chilton Furniture of Maine, and through that connection Adam became introduced to the last living Shakers who reside in Sabbathday Lake, ME. As a result of that introduction, Tappan Chairs has become the only commissioned chairmaker in the world for the living Shaker Community, and crafts a number of models on their behalf annually.

Adam has also continued a tradition begun over previous generations--that of using Tappan Chairs to help raise money for a number of local, regional, and national nonprofits, and since 2013 alone, donations of Tappan Chairs have raised over $50,000.

Bicentennial Events and Celebratory Activities

With the beginning of 2019, Adam is announcing a number of celebratory activities for this important year, and the first is one of the most significant. In celebration of the generations of townspeople who have supported and nurtured the business, making it what it is today, Tappan Chairs is donating 10% of all retail chair sales this year to be divided among the Sandwich Historical Society, Sandwich Home Industries, and Sandwich Children’s Center, celebrating thereby the stewards of the “History, Heritage, and Future” of the business in town. Adam intends to also use the occasion to challenge the many other businesses in the community to match Tappan Chairs’ contributions in this year, and help reach thereby as many other important cultural and social nonprofits and charities which serve the town and its population as possible.

As the year progresses, many more events lie in store. Tappan Chairs is currently seeking a formal celebratory proclamation from the Governor of NH, and has invited him to attend their official “Tappan Chairs Birthday Celebration” on August 3 in Sandwich, kicking off Sandwich’s renowned Old Home Week. Also in store is the publication of a “Spotter’s Guide to Tappan Chairs”, the expansion of their museum exhibit to feature biographies and photos from the many generations of Tappan Chair makers and their helpers, as well as historic chair examples and patterns from the different periods of their manufacture. Finally, Tappan Chairs looks to release an all-new chair design to symbolize and and celebrate their many generations of makers.

We at Tappan Chairs not only invite you to join us in this special year, but encourage you to help us share this special story that we have become, and which deepens with every year!

Tappan Chairs, LLC

08/23/2021

08/18/2021

09/02/2019

08/14/2019

08/06/2019

08/04/2019

08/04/2019

08/01/2019

07/25/2019

07/21/2019

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Celebrating Our Bicentennial 1819-2019!