Term: Gaar, John 1887 - 1973

Definition:

Master Cabinet Maker. Gaar immigrated to Milwaukee with his wife in 1929 from Neudau, Steirmark, Austria. He owned and worked out of a shop on Ogden Avenue, Milwaukee, but after an increase in business, he moved the shop to a brick house on Curtis Place. In 1949 he moved to a small farm on 2480 Pilgrim Road in Brookfield, where he erected a shop in 1950. An expert inlayer, Gaar studied both Dutch and French marquetry antiques. Much of Gaar¿s work involved restoring European cabinetry and creating professional reproductions. He designed his own work and sold many pieces to clients such as John Cudahy, Samuel Butler, William D. Van Dyke Junior, William A. Norris, Edmund Shea, Richard Jones, Rudy Matthews, Henry Reuss, Heber Stout, Donald Slichter, Serge Troubetzkoy, Irving Mantey, and Dorthy Brown, all of Abbot Row, Milwaukee.