Gump's is a luxury American home furnishings and home décor retailer, founded in 1861 in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. The company was acquired by the Chachas family in June 2019 and announced that it would be opening a San Francisco location for the holiday season as well as an e-commerce business.

History

S & G Gump was founded in 1861 as a mirror and frame shop by Solomon Gump and his brother, Gustav. It later sold moldings, gilded cornices, and European artwork to those recently made wealthy from the

California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...

. The business flourished; the store sold products ranging from

jewelry Jewellery (or jewelry in American English) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment such as brooches, ring (jewellery), rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the ...

made from

jade Jade is an umbrella term for two different types of decorative rocks used for jewelry or Ornament (art), ornaments. Jade is often referred to by either of two different silicate mineral names: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in t ...

, precious gemstones, and cultured freshwater pearls to products from luxury designers such as

Hermès Hermès International S.A. ( , ) is a French Luxury goods, luxury fashion house established in 1837. It specializes in leather goods, silk goods, lifestyle accessories, home furnishings, perfumery, jewelry, watches and ready-to-wear. Since the ...

and Buccellati. Customers included

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

, who bought model ships and smoking jackets there, and

Sarah Bernhardt Sarah Bernhardt (; born Henriette-Rosine Bernard; 22 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including by Alexandre Dumas fils, ...

, who bought a 17th-century bronze Chinese snake in preparation for playing

Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (; The name Cleopatra is pronounced , or sometimes in both British and American English, see and respectively. Her name was pronounced in the Greek dialect of Egypt (see Koine Greek phonology). She was ...

. It was eventually passed on to Solomon's son Alfred Livingston Gump. The fire following the 1906 earthquake destroyed the store and all of the merchandise, but thanks to Dodie Valencia, A.L. received $17,000 for one of his paintings, which allowed funding for the rebuilding and restocking of the store. A.L. was fueled by his passion for Oriental art and began selling his exotic collectibles from the Far East. He sent his buyers to

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, bringing back exotic rugs, porcelains, silks, bronzes and jades to California's new millionaires. Richard Gump, one of A.L.’s three children, eventually became president of Gump's after his father's death in 1947. He continued the family legacy, running the company's overall operations until his retirement in 1975. Gump's was sold to publisher Crowell Collier, which after further mergers became

Macmillan Publishers Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd in the United Kingdom and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC in the United States) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be on ...

. By June 1989, Gump's had again been sold,Isadore Barmash
"Business People; Gump's Specialty Stores Said to Fill Top Position"
''The New York Times'', August 1, 1989. this time to an investment group including Japan's Tobu Department Store and the Charterhouse Group. In 1993, Gump's was in financial trouble when the catalog company later known as Hanover Direct bought it. They reduced the product lines, holding a liquidation sale on May 24, 1993, and revived the business, then in 2005 sold it to an investment group for $8.5 million.Sophia Kunthara
"With Gump's closed, beloved Buddha statue pulls vanishing act"
''San Francisco Chronicle'', December 25, 2018. The company began catalog sales in the 1950s and , more than 75% of its sales were through the catalog or online.Roland Li
"Gump’s, a 157-year-old SF retailer, files for bankruptcy protection"
''San Francisco Chronicle'', August 4, 2018. Gump's filed for

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, w ...

on August 3, 2018. On August 10, final liquidation sales began on the retailer's official website and at its remaining storefront in San Francisco; the store closed on December 23, 2018. In 2019, the Chachas family reopened Gump's in its former long-time location, 250 Post Street in Union Square. However, the Chachas closed Gump’s for an indeterminate period in 2020 due to the City of San Francisco's regulations during the COVID-19 pandemic. As of 2022, Gump’s is now open Monday through Saturday.

Buddha statue

A statue of

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...

was displayed inside the San Francisco store. The original statue was bronze, acquired in 1928; in 1949 Gump's donated it to the San Francisco Parks Department in memory of Alfred Livingston Gump, and it is in the Japanese Tea Garden in

Golden Gate Park Golden Gate Park is an urban park between the Richmond District, San Francisco, Richmond and Sunset District, San Francisco, Sunset districts on the West Side (San Francisco), West Side of San Francisco, California, United States. It is the Lis ...

.Bill Van Niekerken
"A history lesson from the Buddha at SF's Japanese Tea Garden"
''San Francisco Chronicle'', July 7, 2015, updated December 10, 2018. It was replaced at some point by an unusually large

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

gilded wood Buddha. This was carved in the Chengde Mountain Resort, the summer capital of the Qing Emperors in the early 19th century, and was the largest of its kind outside a museum. It was bought by one of the 2005 purchasers, New York investment banker John Chachas, who loaned it to the store until the liquidation.

Notes

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References

External links

* {{commons category 1861 establishments in California Buildings and structures burned in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake Companies based in San Francisco Furniture retailers of the United States Retail companies based in California Union Square, San Francisco Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018