A British mahogany sectional bookcase,

Gunn Furniture Company

The Gunn Furniture Company’s origins were in Grand Rapids Michigan. William S. Gunn was the company’s founder from 1874 when he added a furniture workshop to his hardware products. After his death in 1909, the general management of the company passed to his son, William A. Gunn.

The company’s initial products were folding beds. As early as 1893 folding beds began to decline in popularity, so the company changed its name and its products to roll-top desks, sectional bookcases, letter filing devices, and similar goods. By 1896 the company boasted that it produced 80 styles of desks. In the 1910s and ‘20s the company produced sectional bookcases that included a module with pigeonholes and a fold-down desktop. Cases were made in walnut, mahogany, imitation mahogany, and quartered oak. In the mid-1920s Gunn introduced its trademark “Lino” desks and cafeteria tables, which had wood frames and black linoleum surfaces.

The piece is stamped “Gunn” and an original label found in the drawer has Gunn as a "William Angus & Co". Company – with a strapline “Entirely British”. Perhaps Wm Angus & Co. was an importer or was making the Gunn sectional bookcases in a licenced arrangement – competing with Globe Wernicke who had also crossed the Atlantic from Michigan and were producing in London and elsewhere. Angus were a top-quality furniture maker, originally from Scotland but had a large London premises at 44-52 Paul Street, London EC2.