About A. Brandt Co.
A. Brandt Ranch Oak Furniture was made for nearly fifty years in Fort Worth, Texas and has been out-of-production for more than two decades. A. Brandt Company, Inc., debuted the Ranch Oak furniture line in Fort Worth in 1938 and continued manufacturing Ranch Oak into the 1980s. In 1986, the Brandt family sold the furniture company, which went out of business not long afterwards. In the fall of 1988, the entire contents of the factory sold at auction. Patented "Ranch Oak" furniture was one of many lines of furniture produced by A. Brandt Company, Inc.
German immigrant August Brandt established A. Brandt Company, Inc., in 1900, but it was August's son Paul who engineered the Ranch Oak furniture line more than 30 years later. Paul Brandt served as company president for approximately 50 years. He passed away in 1999 at age 87.
Many of the earliest furniture designs depicted icons of ranch life carved into oak. Pictorial carvings included horses, horse heads and horseshoes, longhorns, campfires, saguaro and prickly pear cactus, and even a western scene of a cowboy riding a bucking bronco. By 1970, it seems likely from looking through factory catalogs that very few if any western motif-carved pieces were still being produced. However, some of the longhorn (or steer head) and horse head lamps are still seen in some of the later 1970s catalogs.
Fortunately for new and old collectors alike, a variety of styles and types of Ranch Oak pieces can be found steadily trickling onto the market today. Both the older and much newer pieces made for dining room, living room, bedroom and game room can still be had for those who are willing to search and wait. A. Brandt also produced a number of decorative Ranch Oak accessories to compliment Ranch Oak furniture such as picture frames with reproduction art by well-known artists, waste baskets, coat racks, mirrors and lamps. Mainstay household furnishings range from dining tables, buffets, hutches and corner cabinets to sectional sofas, divans, couches, lounge chairs, end tables and coffee tables. Night stands, chests, dressers and beds remain popular although king and queen headboards are more difficult to locate. Reliable information about exact production numbers of factory items is scanty at best, but it is said that at the height of factory output, some 50,000 pieces per year were made.
Many pieces were produced under government contract to furnish military bases around the U.S. A number of national park lodges and motels are also known to have selected Ranch Oak furniture as an attractive, durable, rustic type of decor for their guests to enjoy. Of course, there were many dozens of retail furniture distributors spanning the country that carried the popular A. Brandt Ranch Oak furniture line for several decades.
