Kittinger Company

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kittinger Company
Type	Family business
Founded	Buffalo, New York, 1866
Headquarters	Buffalo, NY, USA
Industry	Furniture
Products	Residential and Contract Furniture
Owner	Raymond Bialkowski, President / CEO
Website	www.kittingerfurniture.com

The Kittinger Company is an American maker of colonial reproduction furniture.

The company was founded in Buffalo, New York in 1866. From 1937 to 1990, it was the chief furniture reproductions maker for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation^[1], and sold a Williamsburg-style look to visitors from the home of the Williamsburg Reproductions program, the Craft House^[2]. Like Biggs Furniture of Richmond, Virginia, it served an upper middle class market in search of mostly mahogany reproduction furniture of equal quality to the originals, done to museum standards. The product was mainly crafted in the Queen Anne, Chippendale and Hepplewhite styles.

A number of Kittinger reproductions can still be found in the West Wing office area of the White HouseWhite House in Washington, DC. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation interior designers were commissioned by President Nixon in 1970 to redo the interior design of the President's offices. Kittinger Company furniture was used extensively in the redesign since this company was the sole licensee of furniture for the Colonial Williamsburg Folundation's famous program to produce exact reproductions of 18th century antiques^[3]. Included in the redesign was a new conference table and chairs for the cabinet room. President Nixon wrote a personal check to pay for the new cabinet room table custom made by The Kittinger Company and donated it to the White House. The company continues to manufacture in Buffalo, NY.