The furniture and mattress industries are like Hollywood with lots of bold personalities that are entertaining and very individualistic. Few are dull because you must be a marketer to succeed.
One of my favorite personalities changed the residential furniture industry by introducing a new style category that became the biggest volume leader for two decades.
The best-selling licensed collection in recent decades was “The World of Bob Timberlake,” which had total shipments of $2 billion topped by furniture manufactured by Lexington Home Brands but sold with a massive assortment of accessories including miniature furniture, drums, canoes, rugs and other items that reflected Bob’s diverse interests including his much loved art.
But the largest, best-selling design originated with a French furniture manufacturer that was knocked off by Bassett’s high-end wood division, National/Mt. Airy.
Sherwood Robertson came into the showroom with HUGE binders filled with detailed drawings, photos and documentation behind his new design, Louis Philippe. Why did some of the carving appear to be filled with gray wax? Many saw their first sleigh bed. Clearly it was the talk of the market.
Sherwood himself was a unique character who grew up in Crewe, Va., not far from me. For a small-town boy, he was sophisticated and well-read. He loved fine-dining and sending disappointing meals back to the kitchen.
He liked to surprise you, too, like the time we were in line for dinner at the country club one night, and to my shock, Sherwood sat at the grand piano and played a perfect show tune. Everyone applauded in surprise. He loved vacationing in rural Great Britain with his beautiful wife Pat. He truly loved the furniture industry but not as much as he loved Pat.
We lost Sherwood in December, but he remains in thousands of American homes bringing French country flavor everywhere. He truly changed our industry.