J. Gordon Perlmutter
1922 - 2020
Joseph “J.” Gordon Perlmutter was an American furniture design who worked with the Laurel Lamp Company in the mid 1960s.
Perlmutter was a native of Plainfield, New Jersey and the son of Dora and Morris Perlmutter.
Perlmutter attended Plainfield High School in New Jersey and went on to receive his design training at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn where he was awarded the Walter Scott Perry Scholarship.
Perlmutter joined the Air Force and fought in World War II as a pilot before focusing on furniture design. According to the obituary of one of Perlmutter’s contemporaries, Tom Hassett Sr., Perlmutter formed the design firm Perlmutter, Snyder and Hassett.
On December 30, 1955 public records show Perlmutter formed the “J. Gordon Perlmutter & Association” more commonly known as J. Gordon Perlmutter & Associates at 105 E. Seventh St. Plainfield, New Jersey. Perlmutter lived at 1005 Ironbound Ave in Plainfield New Jersey.
Photo of designer J. Gordon Perlmutter (center) from the Chicago Tribune (June 9, 1957)
Photo of J. Gordon Perlmutter from the Courier-News Bridgewater, New Jersey (June 20, 1961)
J. Gordon Perlmutter & Associates Clients:
The Beachley Furniture Company
Brandt Cabinet Works
Butler Specialty Company
Laurel Lamp Company.
Thomasville Chair Company
United Wholesale Building Supply Company
Westinghouse Electric Corp.
In the early 1960s, the Laurel Lamp Company began working with J. Gordon Perlmutter and his design team to update their lamp designs. One of Perlmutter’s designers, Richard Barr eventually began designing for the Laurel Lamp Company independently in the mid 1960s.
Other designers who worked for J. Gordon Perlmutter in the later 1950s included Richard “Dick” Barr, Anthony Priolio, Madelon Kaplan, Walter Wyles, George Sereni, Tom Wilson, Martin “Marty” Leiman, Dudley Moore Sr., Dick Barrow, Irving Sabo and Tom Hassett Senior.
Mr. Perlmutter and his wife Kathy had three children, Richard, Barbara, and Tom.
“The designer’s job in the furniture manufacturing field is not to sell a design but to keep the factory busy.”
— J. Gordon Perlmutter (1961)
Richard Barr (left) pictured with J. Gordon Perlmutter (right) at J. Gordon Perlmutter’ & Associate design studio (Chicago Tribune, June 9, 1957)