Reaser Furniture Sideboard

Q:I have a sideboard with a label that reads “Reaser Furniture Co., Manufacturer, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.” It is 65 inches wide, 36 inches high and 21 inches deep. We are interested in its history and value.

A:Your sideboard was made between 1907 and 1918. In 1907 Clayton S. Reaser purchased the two-year-old Engle Furniture Company, part of the Gettysburg Manufacturing Company and renamed it Reaser Furniture Manufacturing Company. They made buffets, sideboards, hall racks, dressers, wash stands and library tables, most of oak or mahogany. Reaser later purchased the remaining stock of the Gettysburg Manufacturing Co. and together his companies were known as Gettysburg Furniture Company. Reaser died in 1918 but his company was expanded to include the Gettysburg Panel Co. in 1920 to provide veneer and the Gettysburg Chair Co. in 1923 to make chairs. In 1951 the factories were sold to Sidney Rose of Cincinnati, and they closed in 1960. Your sideboard is worth about $300-$400. Clayton Reaser’s brick Victorian-style house in Gettysburg, which was built in 1913, is now a bed and breakfast called the Keystone Inn. A few of the rooms feature furniture made by the Reaser Furniture Co.