Eldred Wheeler: A Collector’s Guide
Eldred Wheeler: A Collector’s Guide was published in 2005 with the intent of providing a brief history of Eldred Wheeler as well as a describing the design, construction, and authentication of its pieces.
The stories behind designing and crafting several of the company’s initial prototypes are described in a section titled Prototypes: A Look at Several Examples. The company also made a variety of other products over the years, which included numerous other furniture forms as well as a variety of accessories.
Eldred Wheeler pieces are increasingly finding their way into a number of auction galleries so, not surprisingly, there is a growing interest for additional information on both the company and its products. Since the book is out of print and relatively expensive on the resale market, I felt it would be helpful to provide a free PDF copy for reference (click the link above that is highlighted in blue).
The book only discusses the company’s history and products prior to 2005, so one of the goals of this site is to provide additional information that was not included in the book. I have been told that purchasers like hearing about the design and craftmanship behind pieces they have bought. Therefore, this site focuses on providing expanded product background and details that were not discussed in the book.
There is an Appendix in the book that lists the company’s products and quantities produced up until 2005. You can click the following to view that section only Appendix . (To best view the Appendix, you should view it in the two-page format by selecting it from the page view icon in the Adobe Reader’s header section).
Eldred Wheeler Catalogs
The Eldred Wheeler catalogs are a great reference source for individuals looking to purchase Eldred Wheeler pieces. The company closed operations at the end of 2019 after more than 40 years of operation. I thought it would be helpful to make available four Eldred Wheeler catalogs that span the entire period the company was in business (1978-2019). These catalogs picture and describe the majority of the company’s core products. This section is divided into two parts: (1) a copy of a catalog that is representative of those printed after 2010; (2) copies of three catalogs that were printed before 2005.
The following PDF (Eldred Wheeler Catalog)contains a copy of a 2010 Eldred Wheeler Catalog. It was beautifully done by David McCarthy shortly after he repurchased the company. The catalog is in full color and a little over 100 pages in length. It should be a helpful resource in that it describes and pictures all of the products the company was offering at that time. By 2010, several new pieces had been added to the product line. Many of these were variations or adaptations of some of the earlier products. Others were original designs that Dave and his staff created based on customer input. Of course, some of the early products described in the Eldred Wheeler book had been discontinued over the years.
The catalog is an interesting read, not only as a product reference, but also because it describes the company’s philosophy and core principles. However, for those wanting to “cut to the chase”, I put together two specific PDFs. One picturing and describing only the products listed in the catalog (click here for Eldred Wheeler Products) and the other focusing on the bed collection (click here for Eldred Wheeler Beds).
As noted above, the catalog does not list all of the products that Eldred Wheeler crafted over the years, but it does highlight most of the core period-style ones.
Early Catalogs (pre-2005)
There are PDFs of the three catalogs above that cover the period 1982-2004. Supplements and price lists are also included for the two earliest catalogs (1982-87 and 1990-99). The full color, comprehensive catalog format (1999-2004) was championed by Dave McCarthy after he took over the company in 1992. The links to the catalogs above are as follows (left to right):
Redesigned, expanded catalog (1982-87)