David Zork Co.

Founded in 1914 by David Zork (1875-1957), the David Zork Company of Chicago, Illinois, was a retail and manufacturing business. Zork, a native of St. Louis, worked previously as general manager for W.K. Cowan & Company, also of Chicago, which manufactured mahogany and walnut reproductions and adaptations of colonial and Empire furniture with a line large enough to furnish homes entirely giving them a harmonious appearance. Zork's line was similar, consisting of antique furniture and reproductions made specifically for his shop as well as imported decorative accessories. Manufacture of period reproductions was managed by Frank Wagner, a Hungarian art furniture maker, beginning in 1919 at the Zork Manufacturing Company, a subsidiary of the retailer. When Zork opened a new store in 1921, he claimed in an interview in Furniture Journalthat "I go to a great deal of expense and trouble to get exquisite little things used in the home ... to have what the other stores have not..." The company continued until Zork's death in 1957.