Date: Fri 13-Mar-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: LAURAB

Quick Words:

Sack

Full Text:

Donald Sack To Rejoin Israel Sack Inc.

With One Cut

NEW YORK CITY -- Ending speculation about the future of the most blue chip of

American furniture concerns, Israel Sack, Inc, has formalized plans that will

take it into the next century with a younger generation of management at its

helm.

Harold and Albert Sack, who over six decades have expanded their father's

legacy with significant contributions of their own, last week announced that

Donald Sack, Albert's son, had rejoined the family firm. His wife, Dale Sack,

has returned as an administrator.

Israel Sack, a Lithuanian-born cabinetmaker who became America's most

influential antiques dealer, arrived in Boston in 1903. His sons joined him in

business after he moved his shop to Madison Avenue in New York in 1933. In

1993, the company moved to its present location at 730 Fifth Avenue.

In 1968, after a tour of duty in Vietnam, Donald Sack, now 51, joined Israel

Sack, Inc. He worked alongside his father and uncles, Harold and Robert, until

1987, when he left to start his own business. For the past decade, the younger

Sack has sold antiques by appointment from his home in Buck Hill Falls, Penn.,

and has exhibited at shows. He has lectured widely and produced two videotaped

guides, The Process of Examination.

"My father would be delighted by the news," Albert Sack said by phone last

week. "Harold and I are not going to live another 50 years. Donald is coming

in as a veteran, not an ingenue. We will have a strong arm working in the

current scene. The competition is fierce and new and challenging. We are going

to meet that challenge together."

He continued, "Our name and our 57th Street location can be intimidating. We

intend to maintain our high standards but hope to break down barriers by

offering superior objects at competitive values and by making ourselves

accessible to beginning as well as advanced collectors." The senior Sack said

he planned to join his son at this year's Philadelphia Antiques Show, where

Donald Sack is an exhibitor.

"Just recently, Harold and Albert called and asked us to come in. We had a

couple of nice conversations, and they asked us to return," said Donald Sack,

who called from the Winnetka Antiques Show in Illinois.

"The experience of being out on my own and learning more about the business

was great. I saw it from many perspectives, and from a younger perspective,"

said Sack, who will once again live in Manhattan.

"There is an enormous group of collectors who we wouldn't know if we didn't go

to shows. My goal is to bring those people into 57th Street. New collectors

need to know that they don't need to have a million dollars to buy something.

They have to feel comfortable and know that they can move up on their own if

they feel so inclined. Israel Sack, Inc's quality will remain the same, but we

will have a greater mix of things," Donald Sack said.

Asked why he had left the firm, he explained, "There were many reasons, but

one of them was that I didn't want to be the kid. Everyone needed a little

room." Albert Sack also briefly left Israel Sack, Inc, in 1953. "I had an

identity crisis and went out to Cincinnati. I came scurrying back the next

year. You have to prove things to yourself."

The old adage "Harold sells, Albert buys, Robert delivers" is no longer in

force and will not be rewritten, Albert Sack said. "This is a new team for a

new time."