The Lineage

Four craftsmen, one bench, in order.

Every hand at this bench was trained by the one before it. That is the entire business model, and it has not changed since 1929.

  1. 1929

    Martin Nelson

    A wood craftsman and sculptor. He started the shop in the barn the year the Allied Arts Guild was founded, and worked it for forty-five years.

  2. 1974

    Albert Kieninger

    He served in the Mediterranean during the Second World War aboard a U.S. Navy tug, pulling survivors out of the water from lost ships and aircraft. Nelson took him on afterward, and he took over the shop in 1974.

  3. 1987

    Tom Kieninger

    His father trained him from boyhood. He has run the shop since 1987, and his are the hands in most of the photographs here.

  4. Now

    Luke Kieninger

    The fourth hand, apprenticing under Tom, so that what Martin Nelson knew reaches one more generation of customers.

Archive photograph: Martin Nelson carving a large wooden figure, beside Albert Kieninger working at a machine in the barn.
Tom Kieninger seated in the workshop, and Luke and Tom Kieninger standing together at the bench.