Journal
The Edo Collection
Lasting from 1603 to 1868, Japan’s Edo period was a time of great cultural growth and dedication to craftsmanship. This era was noted for peace and stability, as samurai set aside their swords and embraced philosophy and art. Artists and builders valued balance, restraint, and respect for their materials, turning simple materials such as wood, ink, and paper into lasting works of beauty through careful carving, layering, and finishing. The architecture of the time reflected these values, with every part having a clear function and authentic beauty emerging from honest construction. A torii gate. The wide horizontal lines of torii gates, the strong wooden frames of temples, and the repeating patterns of traditional buildings all show a belief that beauty comes from structure, careful proportions, and precision, rather than added decoration. The Edo Bench Inspiration Behind the Edo Collection Introduced in 2006, the Edo Collection by David Moser was inspired by a profound respect for Japanese architecture and craftsmanship, particularly the wabi-sabi ethos, which values the authentic beauty of handmade objects. Instead of simply copying decorative details, Moser drew from the structural principles and traditions of Japan’s Edo period, blending them with modern American furniture-making and the Thos. Moser style. The result is furniture that looks both timeless and modern—unique, understated, and true to its roots. Above: The Edo Stool Form Built From Structure Architectural shapes are a key feature throughout the Edo Collection. Angled supports evoke temple gateways, and wide horizontal surfaces seem to float above well-designed bases. The Edo Trestle Table exemplifies this idea, with a sculpted base that looks light but is very stable, allowing chairs and benches to fit easily underneath. Similarly, the platform bed’s low height creates a sense of calm in the bedroom. Each piece stands out for its clean lines, thoughtful design, and simple, natural proportions. The Warmth of Natural Materials The collection also reflects the Japanese love for simplicity and authenticity. Rather than overpowering the material, each design highlights the natural qualities of sustainably sourced North American cherry and walnut. The grain, color changes, and warmth of the wood are integral to the design. Sharp edges, smooth lines, and careful proportions further bring out the beauty already in the material. The Edo Chair is a prime example, blending Japanese design, Scandinavian modernism, Shaker style, and American craftsmanship into one unified piece. Details in Design Throughout the collection, a signature square tenon joint reflects traditional Japanese methods. Edo chairs, with their gently carved crests inspired by torii gates, offer both comfort and sculptural beauty. Each seat is deeply carved to bring out its shape and provide ergonomic support, while the natural finish enhances the wood’s grain and color. Above: The Edo Bed and Studio Dresser A Shared Philosophy Although inspired by Japan, the Edo Collection is unmistakably Thos. Moser. Each piece is handmade in Maine with traditional joinery and sustainably sourced North American hardwoods. Instead of copying old designs, David Moser brought forward the values behind them—clarity, craftsmanship, and careful proportion—into furniture made for modern life. Almost twenty years after its introduction, the Edo Collection still feels current, its roots in timeless architecture proving that good design and honest materials always belong in the home.
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The Anticlastic Curve
In 2014, aboard a ferry from Portland, Maine, Thomas and Mary Moser headed 185 nautical miles northeast to Nova Scotia. On the morning they were due to disembark from the ferry, they sat down to enjoy a light breakfast. But it wasn’t the scenery that caught his eye; it was the simple cafeteria chair he was sitting in. The steel and plastic chair felt as though it molded to conform to Thomas’s back. “It wasn’t bad looking, but it was strictly industrial and not very well-made. However, it was incredibly comfortable, particularly in the way it captured my back. That was what impressed me,” recounts Thomas. Above: Mary Moser on their trip to Nova Scotia. The chair was incredibly comfortable, particulary in the way it captured my back. That was what impressed me. -Thomas Moser Above: Auburn Stool in cherry A Chair Inspired by Ferry Rides & Pringles Several months later, Thomas and Mary visited an exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum, and Thomas noticed another chair featuring a similar curvature to the back. The shape, known as an anticlastic curve, is created when two curvatures move in opposite directions from a given point. The convex curve, which arches upwards, runs along the longitudinal plane. In contrast, the concave curve, which dips downward, runs along the perpendicular plane, creating a shape that moves from its center in opposite directions, horizontally and vertically. Thomas took time to thoroughly digest this extraordinary shape, especially when he noticed it in everyday items, from jewelry to architecture and even Pringles! He began sketching a design he hoped would ultimately transpire into a wooden chair offering the same flexible experience as the plastic cafeteria chair. When applied to the backrest of a chair, Thomas discovered that the anticlastic curve perfectly mirrors the curvature of the human back. Supporting the lumbar in two directions, the chair’s solid wood back sits below the shoulder blade and terminates just above the lower back, creating a chair that indeed mimics the flexibility Thomas found in the plastic chair. To create this shape from solid wood, three staves of wood are joined together, clamped in place, and allowed to cure overnight. From here, the rough form of the anticlastic curve begins to appear through refined handwork. When the chair's back has received its final touches, the craftsperson perfects the fit into the legs, creating a sweeping monolithic structure that appears as though it is sculpted from a single piece of wood. The Anticlastic Curve: Unexpected Inspiration. A Pringle may be the last thing that comes to mind when thinking of design inspiration. However, when popped from a can, the similarities are striking. It’s hard to pinpoint the true inspiration that would breathe life into the Auburn chair’s design and its anticlastic back— perhaps it was divine intervention, a lifetime of studying familiar shapes and forms, or the perfect lunchtime accompaniment. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, which is what Thomas saw in the metal and plastic cafeteria chair. But, for a chair that Thomas designed in his eighties, he honed in on this vision and created perhaps, in his words, “My most comfortable solid wood chair yet.” Above: Auburn Chair, Eastward Table, & Wing Hall Table
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Building Beyond Time
“I was overwhelmed by the amount of tools he had,” Nate Blackwell, craftsman at Thos. Moser, since 2023, recalls. As he and his father unlatched the door to his grandfather’s woodshop, they discovered stacks of old woodworking books with dog-eared pages and scribbled notes. The walls were lined with an encyclopedic collection of perfectly placed hand tools. Power tools and machines stood frozen in place from the last time they had been used, and piles of rough-sawn lumber were stacked against the walls. Nate’s grandfather, a self-taught woodworker, was enamored with the Shaker style of furniture making. He loved the simplicity of the designs and prescribed to the Shaker notion of using local wood, often building pieces in apple wood, maple, or oak. “The more character, knots or wormholes, the wood had, the more likely my grandfather was to use it,” he says. His grandfather was a prolific furniture maker, building chairs, dressers, side tables, bookshelves, and the dining table for his home. It's about making something out of nothing... creating form out of raw materials. -Nate Blackwell During the early 1970s, his grandfather joined a local woodworking club that met in New Gloucester, Maine. The club would get together every month to have coffee and talk shop. It was in this group that Nate’s grandfather met Tom Moser. Tom’s business was still in its infancy at this point, and, ever the student, Tom saw the woodworking club as a place to learn new techniques and approaches to working with wood. Nate recalls a story his aunt shared with him, saying, “There was a trestle table that my grandfather was working on and just couldn’t get it right. He mentioned this project in the woodworking group, and Tom told him to bring it to the Grange Hall shop, and they would work together. As Tom had more space and tools, Nate’s grandfather happily accepted the offer, and they finished the table together.” Nate doesn’t recall the extent of Tom and his grandfather’s friendship, but knows that the few times he spent in the Grange Hall shop and those woodworking club meetings were meaningful to him. It's not just about the technique—its about the artistry in shaping it. Above: The Grange Hall Workshop in New Gloucester Nate’s journey into woodworking began in his grandfather’s workshop. “I grew up in my grandfather’s wood shop, mostly just bothering him,” Nate laughs. “I remember holding things while he clamped or did a glue-up, but I was mostly sneaking away from my parents to get an A&W Root Beer. We were never allowed to have a soda as children, but when I helped my grandfather, he would let us have a soda. The smell of root beer still brings me right back to my grandfather’s shop.” Above: Nate works on shaping the arm of the Thos. Moser Continuous Arm Chair After spending a decade in agriculture, Nate decided to carve out a new career. He still wanted a job that allowed him to work with his hands, and when the opportunity at Thos. Moser arose; he knew he had to take it. As an integral part of the chair department, Nate creates the iconic arms of the Thos. Moser Continuous Arm Chair, in addition to building a vast catalog of chairs and benches. “It’s almost like sculpture,” he says, drawing from his background in 3D art. “There’s something incredibly satisfying about working with your hands to bring out a shape in the wood. You take a raw material, something square, and turn it into something graceful and functional. It’s not just about the technique—it’s about the artistry in shaping it.” Above: Photographs of his grandfather's furniture. When his grandfather passed, Nate salvaged much of the wood and hand tools from his shop, storing them away for a future he could barely imagine. “I never would have guessed I’d end up using his tools like this,” he says, “But here I am, using them to make furniture in the same style that inspired my grandfather’s work.” Above: A small collection of his grandfather's tools. The tools, the furniture, the techniques—they all carry a piece of him, and I want to keep that alive. -Nate Blackwell While it’s clear Nate is passionate about his craft, his emotional connection to his grandfather's tools runs deep. “Using his tools, it feels like he’s right there with me,” Nate shares. “They’re not just tools—they’re part of his legacy. When I look at the furniture I’m making now, I can’t help but think about how proud he’d be.” That feeling of connection extends beyond the tools themselves. For Nate, the idea of heirlooms has taken on a new meaning. “I’ve got pieces of his furniture in my home. My parents have more,” Nate says. “It’s not just furniture—it’s history. It’s his history, and now it’s my history.” Every piece I build, I think about how it might one day be passed down. Its about leaving a lasting mark—just like my grandfather did. For Nate, working at Thomas Moser isn’t just a job; it’s a continuation of a family tradition. “I’m building furniture that’s going to last,” he says with a smile. “And I’m doing it with the same tools my grandfather used. It’s like we’re building together, even though he’s been gone for years.” That sense of a family legacy is not lost on him. “When I signed my first piece of furniture here, it felt amazing,” he says. “Not just because I was proud of the work, but because my name is now on something that could last generations—just like the pieces my grandfather made.” Above: Nate's Grandmother and Grandfather.
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The Thos. Moser Continuous Arm Chair
When Tom Moser embraced furniture making, he revived the Windsor chair with a modern design that became iconic for Thos. Moser.
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The Harpswell Chair
Tom and Mary Moser didn’t fall in love with Maine the typical way. Before the arrival of their second son, they packed themselves, a tent, and a few provisions into their car for a long weekend. Being unfamiliar with the area and exhausted from a day of driving, they pulled over for the night and pitched their tent. Much to their chagrin, they awoke to a man’s voice saying they were blocking his driveway. Instead of being curt, the gracious man helped them move their tent aside and invited them to stay. They stayed for four days, and nearly thirty years later, they planted their roots on a spit of land not far from where they landed on that first trip to Maine. Above: Table Minimus - Oval & Harpswell Arm Chair with Back. Developing A Classic Around 1990, Tom strolled down the driveway to his Harpswell workshop and began working on a new chair design. He created a round chair with a quarter-round back, but he wasn’t happy with the initial result. After a bit more tinkering, the rounded seat became a U-shaped seat. “Eventually, I added a curve and tapered back leg,” Tom recalls. “And one day, I discovered that the round cafeteria chair I began making in my shop a few years before had morphed into this very pleasing piece.” The new design’s most magnificent appeal was an exuberant back carved from a solid piece of wood that intentionally displays the wood's natural beauty, where no two are alike, revealing the mark of an heirloom. Eventually, the chair would incorporate an upholstered slip seat that rests directly in the chair’s frame and an often-requested upholstered back. Above: Tom Moser in his workshop. From Humble Beginnings to Dignified Design Aptly named after the location of his home studio, the Harpswell Chair was introduced in 1992 and became an instant classic. Its modest cafe chair design and refined details bring quiet distinction to any space. The versatility of the durable Harpswell Chair has made it a favored choice for countless family dining rooms, community colleges, and Ivy League libraries. In 2008, the Harpswell Arm Chair would be selected as Papal seating and chosen as the signature piece to grace the George W. Bush Presidential Center in 2013, where, during the dedication, five living presidents would be comfortably seated. Above: The Harpswell Chair at the opening of the Presidential Library and the chair for the Papal visit. Incorporated in 1758, the town of Harpswell boasts the longest coastline of any town in Maine. This rugged coastline, purchased with a pound of tobacco and a gallon of rum, has cultivated generations of self-sufficient families who worked with their hands; fishers, farmers, shipwrights, and now, a furniture maker. From the humble beginnings of a simple cafe chair to a dignified design sought after by Popes and Presidents, the Harpswell Chair is a natural fit for every home and any occasion. The expressed growth rings found in the crest celebrate the weathered-tested years of a strong tree and embody the spirit of a community nestled along this section of granite coastline known as Harpswell. Tom and Mary Moser at their home in Harpswell.
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The New Gloucester Rocker
A rocking chair emanates nostalgia, a sense of comfort, relaxation, and a lulling quality made for front porches, tucked-away corners, and quiet nurseries. Seemingly encoded in our DNA, this gentle rocking motion has immediate palliative effects. Perhaps that is why, in 1982, a serendipitous commission allowed Tom to explore a design he had been toying with for several years. Above: Thomas Moser hanging the sign of our first Portland Showroom. At this time, we had our showroom in Portland on Cumberland Ave., and there was a wonderful antique store in the Old Port section of town. Well, I walked by the shop window one day, and there was a Windsor-style fan-back chair with a narrow crest and a wide seat. Almost all Windsor chairs are the opposite,” says Thomas Moser. “Well, this fan-back Windsor was the reverse; I had never seen anything like that before, and I can’t say as if I have ever seen anything quite like it again,” says Tom. “That chair really influenced me.” There were several forms Tom could draw inspiration from; a Shaker ladder-back rocker, the Boston Rocker, Salem, or mission-style rockers of California. The most well-known style in New England was the Boston Rocker. Contrary to its name, the first Boston rocker was built in Connecticut around 1825 by a man named Lambert Hitchcock. Hitchcock’s design took the Boston chair, a traditional fan-back style chair, and placed it upon two runners or rockers. The Boston rocker is most notable for its ornate carvings or floral paintings along the crest and decorative turned legs and spindles attached to a curved arm. The Salem rocker followed the Boston rocker in design with a slightly lower back and more angled seat. “I thought,” Tom says, “Why not do a Boston rocker where the spindles come into a smaller crest rail and engulf the sitter?” Other notable refinements to Tom’s “Boston Style” rocker include the floating arm. “I wasn’t particularly interested in creating a sack-back style rocking chair. That is to say, I didn’t want the arms to attach to the back of the chair,” he says. To maintain the light and airy profile, he designed a floating arm attached by wedged tenons to the front three spindles that barely touch the back, giving the illusion that the component is floating atop the spindles. As the chair needed to be big enough to hold a full-grown man, Tom knew he needed to create a wide seat. The seat of the Boston Rocker was narrow and scrolled. “The Salem Rocker had a much flatter and wider seat, and aesthetically, I was drawn to this simpler design,” says Tom. The final refinement to the design was the rockers themselves. Many early rocking chairs had short and thin rockers. Creating a balanced, sculptural, and robust rocker was paramount for a chair designed to withstand years of use. “The Shakers had what was called a suicide rocker. It was a ladder-back chair with very short and thin rockers, and if you went back far enough, you would topple over backward. So the detail in our design brings the chair back to the center, preventing that from happening. This detail exists on all our rockers,” notes Tom. “Since the chair was designed and built in our New Gloucester workshop, we called it the New Gloucester Rocker, and it became one of our signature pieces,” says Tom. The rocking chair, in its somewhat modern-day form, dates back to the early 1700s when the rockers were formed by attaching the blades from ice skates to the bottom of a chair. Since then, the rocking chair, a uniquely American design, has come a long way from its primitive beginnings. Today’s forms are modern and sleek, and complement any decor, creating a timeless heirloom for a contemporary space.
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More Than Ink on Wood
Mason Faucher’s eight-year journey at Thos. Moser, starting in 2015, showcases his evolution from a woodworking graduate to a skilled, versatile craftsman.
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A Golden Guide to Interior Design
The Golden Ratio, often seen as the 60/30/10 rule, guides interior design to create balanced, cohesive, and inviting spaces.
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