Journal

Inside the Thos. Moser Workshop

Design

Inside the Thos. Moser Workshop

Step inside the 80,000 sq ft Thos. Moser workshop in Auburn, Maine, where every piece of our furniture begins its journey.

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Design

"Hang On!"

On a hazy morning, in the early 1950s, with an ocherous sun rising above fields of dew-drenched corn, Tom and his cousin tore down a dirt road on a 1945 Harley Davidson Knucklehead motorcycle. As a kid from the city, Tom relished the weeks he spent out on his Aunt and Uncle’s farm in Wisconsin during the summer. Tom’s younger cousin, Walter, as he recalls, was a “wild kid.” The two of them would spend their mornings blazing past neighboring farms on their way into town to run errands for his Aunt. Reminiscing on the days of riding the motorcycle with his cousin, Tom says, “Walter would let'er rip. It seemed like we were going 100 miles per hour down these dirt roads, and it would scare the living daylights out of me. I’d wrap one arm around his torso and my other hand, white-knuckled, grasping the chrome panic bar. I finally convinced Walter to let me drive the bike one day, and I was even worse. We had a hell of a time on that thing.” Thomas Moser as a young man and the motorcycle and seat that inspired his Bowback Stool Design Like the Harley and Davidson families, Tom and his cousin Walter were enchanted by new forms of transportation. Tom, no stranger to crafting, even from a young age, says,” I always felt the compulsion to build and create something real and physical with my hands, and I was always drawing and sketching on any paper I could find. I built a glider out of two-by-fours and fell through a greenhouse while attempting to glide from the garage roof to the backyard. Every kid had a scooter made of an old, separated roller skate nailed to an orange crate, but mine had to be painted with a tin-can headlight and a mechanical brake. This activity was constant.” A constant dictation of Tom’s designs is by drawing upon historical antecedents and pushing them a step further. The look of the Bowback Stool is no stranger to this formula. The signature backrest of the stool is a wooden permutation of cousin Walter’s motorcycle panic bar. Recalling the hours spent gripping this bar while racing down dirt roads, Tom employed a laminated rail — constructed with layers of flitch cut veneer to mimic the convex curve of the motorcycle’s chrome rail. The design includes four slender spindles attached to the rail with our signature wedged tenons, providing superior strength and beauty to support the rail. The seat draws inspiration from the prized and indispensable milking stools of the early 19th and 20th centuries. The seats of many early milking stools were carved from elm and featured three legs made from ash. The ingenuity of the three-legged stool provided stability on uneven ground and seated comfort from the back-breaking work of milking the herd in the field twice a day. As time passed, the milking stool’s look transformed from solid seats to seats with a pommel, and even to a half-moon-shaped wooden seat with three tapered pegged legs, complete with mortise-and-tenon joinery. Like the legs of the Bowback Stool, the legs of the milking stool pierced through the top and sanded smoothly to match the seat’s surface. The Bowback Stool is indeed the product of an all-American design inspired by an active and robust childhood. Wisconsin’s country roads indeed take our Bowback Stool back to the place where it all began, at least in Tom Moser’s creative mind and capable hands. .

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Design

Our History

Very few of us can remember a turning point in our careers as vividly as Thomas Moser did. It was a cool September morning in 1971 as the brilliant late summer sun beat down on a table he had just built and brought up from his dingy cellar workshop. Freshly finished with boiled linseed oil and hand-rubbed wax, the table practically glowed. A friend's wife stopped by, saw the table, and offered to buy it on the spot. It was just one moment, but it was also an epiphany in the truest sense of the world. In an instant, at age thirty-six, Tom knew he had enough artistry to produce something people would appreciate and buy. It wasn't long after that that he said to his wife, Mary," I am going to quit teaching. I am going to make things out of wood." She fully agreed. Thomas Moser standing outside the Grange Hall in New Gloucester, Maine. A Leap of Faith In 1972, Tom left his tenured teaching position at Bates College and, with his wife Mary by his side, opened a small woodworking shop in an old Grange Hall in New Gloucester, Maine. They called it Thos. Moser Cabinetmaker. There was no formal business plan, only an abiding love of wood and a belief in honest craftsmanship. From the beginning, each piece carried a promise—a satisfaction guarantee reflected Tom’s conviction that furniture, when made by hand with care and integrity, should last a lifetime. By 1973, with Mary Moser at the helm of marketing, among a laundry list of other duties, Thos. Moser placed its first advertisement in Down East magazine and The New Yorker, introducing a wider audience to furniture built with purpose, restraint, and heart. A Vision for the Future Throughout the 1970s and through the 1980s, the workshop quietly established its foundation. Innovation was never pursued for its own sake—it existed only to serve integrity and craft. In 1977, Thos. Moser began hand-signing every piece, a tradition that endures today as a mark of accountability and pride. That same year, Tom designed the Continuous Arm Chair, a form both sculptural and inviting, which became one of the company’s most enduring designs. As demand grew for Tom's designs, so did the workshop. The first showroom outside of Maine opened in the early 1980s, and in 1987, the company moved into a larger workshop in Auburn, Maine, which remains our home base to this day. A Name Known Beyond Maine By the 1990s and 2000s, Thos. Moser furniture reached far beyond New England. Tom’s son, David, joined the design process, introducing collections such as Vita, Pasadena, Wing, and Chaise, while classic pieces like the Harpswell and Auburn chairs became quietly iconic for their balance, restraint, and comfort. In 2007, the company launched the Customer In Residence program, inviting customers into the workshop to build their own furniture alongside master craftspeople—a testament to the belief that making deepens connection and appreciation. Thos. Moser furniture has been requested for official ceremonies by Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, chosen for presidential libraries by both Reagan and Bush, and now graces Ivy League campuses, public libraries, private schools, and homes worldwide. In 2018, the New York Public Library commissioned a chair that has become an enduring symbol of the institution. Passing the Torch In 2016, leadership passed to the next generation when Aaron Moser was named CEO, guiding the company forward while remaining rooted in its founding principles. In 2022, Thos. Moser marked its 50th anniversary—five decades of building furniture defined by thoughtful design, traditional joinery, and individual workmanship. In January 2025, after more than half a century of family stewardship, Thos. Moser entered a new chapter under a Maine-based company that aligned with its values of craftsmanship, sustainability, and long-term vision, ensuring the work remains grounded in place and purpose. Crafted for Generations From a single Grange Hall in New Gloucester to workshops, showrooms, and homes around the world, Thos. Moser's story is more than one of growth. It is a philosophy made tangible: that beauty lies within restraint; that integrity reveals itself over time, and that objects we live with should be built to last a lifetime.

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Design

Ash: The Right Wood in All the Right Places

Renowned for its strength and resilience, ash wood lends both durability and comfort to Thos. Moser’s chair legs and spindle backs, blending beauty with lasting support.

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