Wright Auction

Throughout the entirety of his over 50-year career, architect and designer Samuel Marx maintained an impressively high level of quality and consistency in his furnishings. This was thanks, in large part, to his partnership with Chicago furniture maker William J. Quigley, whose studio served Chicago’s premier architects and was dependent primarily upon emigrant craftsmen from Europe. It was common for local architects to commission entire houses of furniture from the company, resulting in potentially long waits for orders to be completed. Quigley had established himself as a master craftsman known for reproducing English and American antiques prior to meeting Marx, but by the 1950s it was Marx’s seemingly endless supply of orders that was almost single-handedly keeping Quigley in business. His craftsmen employed only traditional, hands-on techniques, which resulted in superbly detailed, well-made, and sumptuous furniture perfect for Marx’s elite clientele.