Phil and Julian were the Virtue Brothers.  In 1923, they were working full time at S & M Lamp Company in Los Angeles, doing manual buffing and polishing for after-market driving lights for cars.  Phil was 17; he may have finished high school (we don’t know for sure).  Julian was 14.  He never finished 10^th grade.

The brothers were ambitious and skilled.  In 1926 they left the lamp company to form their own business in their L.A. backyard.  This business eventually became Virtue Brothers.  With grit and frugality and a fundamental sense of value, their business prospered through the Great Depression and provided many families with kitchen tables, dinette sets, and casual furniture that was so well-made, some of it is still in circulation, almost one hundred years later.

They didn’t set out to make heirloom, collectible furniture.  They simply made quality products they would be willing to put in their own homes, at what they considered a fair price.

That legacy continued to Virco, the school furniture company that Julian founded in 1950, after he and Phil couldn’t agree on the future direction of Virtue Brothers.  With no high school diploma and no formal training, Julian anticipated the Baby Boom as returning servicemen started families and record numbers of students began matriculating through America’s public schools.

The Virtue Brothers story came full circle after Virco bought back the assets and trademark rights following Phil’s death in the 1960s, followed by a succession of non-family, corporate owners who lacked the brothers’ commitment to absolute quality.  Our return to the home market and “kitchen table issues” brings the Virtue Brothers story full circle.  Today, the Virtue Brothers products are made in Virco’s U. S. factories with some of Julian’s original equipment dating from the 1950s.  The same heirloom quality is still there, a hundred years later.  Some designs are new or updated; others are literally from original drawings in the pre-war years.

And because these products are made in Virco’s fully integrated U.S. factories, we have the upholstery, chrome plating, woodworking, and frame painting capabilities to offer refurbishment services for legacy furniture that might benefit from a re-fresh.  Not all pieces can be re-worked.  Not all pieces justify the freight costs of pickup and return.  However, for true sustainability, there may be no better use of original inputs of labor, energy and materials than to take one of those old tables or chairs from a corner in the garage to return it to full time, family use.

When people talk about kitchen table issues, it’s our tables they’re talking about.  We look forward to sharing the legacy of Virtue Brothers with you and your family.

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