Background
He was born on September 15, 1883 in Kaunas, Lithuania, the son of Abraham Zak, a businessman.
(Volume 2 of a 9 volume hardcover reprint of the complete ...)
Volume 2 of a 9 volume hardcover reprint of the complete line of Israel Sack catalogs from c.1960, illustrating each of thousands of the most important pieces of American furniture sold in the last 50 years; an invaluable resource guide for the collector, museum & student.
https://www.amazon.com/American-Antiques-Israel-Sack-Collection/dp/B003Q25V3U?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B003Q25V3U
He was born on September 15, 1883 in Kaunas, Lithuania, the son of Abraham Zak, a businessman.
To the dismay of his parents, Sack left school at the age of fourteen and became an apprentice to a cabinetmaker. Two years later he received a diploma.
His plan to work in England was interrupted when he was conscripted into the Russian army; but he escaped to Germany and then went to England, where he was employed as a woodworker in London and Birmingham.
He decided to move to the United States; and on Nov. 15, 1903, he arrived in Boston, where he became a cabinetmaker's assistant. Two years later Sack opened his own business in Boston, at 85 Charles Street. He successfully studied his customers' tastes and knew immediately, for instance, if a person wanted Chippendale or Queen Anne. He also repaired furniture for dealers and collectors, and visited other antique scouts during off-hours.
Sack's skill as a cabinetmaker helped him develop an eye for quality in American antiques. When Charles Street was widened, the city of Boston paid Sack $30, 000; he was thus able to enlarge his inventory and move next door to 89 Charles Street. By this move he enlarged his showrooms and thereby became the major retailer of antiques in Boston.
It is not surprising that Sack and H. Eugene Bolles, another collector, explored remote areas of New England in search of "loot" - antiques considered too obscure and humble for museum curators or American art and history students. After helping the New London, Connecticut, manufacturer George Shephard Palmer acquire a significant collection, Sack bought back the collection in 1928. With the opening of this American Wing in 1924, the legitimacy of collecting American antiques was established.
With his business flourishing in the 1920's, Sack established branch shops in Marblehead, Massachussets, New London, Connecticut, and New York City. In 1923 Henry Ford bought the Wayside Inn (built in 1684) at Sudbury, Massachussets, and asked Sack to furnish it. Thereafter Ford was one of Sack's most important clients, buying historical items such as Longfellow furniture and an early eighteenth-century highboy that had belonged to Mary Ball Washington.
In 1928 Sack was commissioned by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. , to acquire American and English antiques for the Colonial Williamsburg collections; this project lasted two years. By 1931 the antiques business in general and Sack in particular had begun to feel the debilitating effects of the Great Depression.
In order to avoid bankruptcy, he had to sell Sack Period Hardware (reproductions of brass hardware) and drastically reduce his stock of antiques. In 1934 he moved his business to New York City and turned its management over to his three sons. Thereafter he concentrated his attention on the liquidation of estates and the commission business.
During the next decade, attitudes toward collecting changed and interest in antiques became much more broadly based. Sack remained fairly active in the field as a scholar-dealer of the highest order until 1955. Sack died in Brookline, Massachussets
With the growing regard for American antiques as superb models of preindustrial craftsmanship, Sack played a major role during the 1920's. He influenced the public's taste in antiques and helped both private collectors and public institutions amass their collections. Throughout his life Sack appreciated America's cultural heritage. Sack was commissioned by Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. , buying historical items such as Longfellow furniture, American and English antiques for the Colonial Williamsburg collections.
(Volume 2 of a 9 volume hardcover reprint of the complete ...)
He thought that the best American antiques were made by the finest craftsmen for the colonists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He also found remarkable rarities and capitalized on the acquisitive mentality of the millionaire collector. He believed that the passing of time and the changing of styles only add to our understanding of the beauty and significance of the arts of the past.
On January 6, 1910, he married Ann Goodman; they had four children.
