Edition: U.S. / Global

Nathan S. Ancell, 90, Ethan Allen Co-Founder

Published: June 3, 1999

Nathan S. Ancell, a co-founder of Ethan Allen Inc., who pioneered the concept of selling furniture in room-style settings, died Monday at his home in New Rochelle, N.Y. He was 90.

Mr. Ancell, who grew up in New York City and graduated from Columbia University, established a small housewares company in 1932 with his brother-in-law, Theodore Baumritter.

A few years later, they bought a bankrupt furniture factory in Beecher Falls, Vt. Soon, Mr. Ancell once recalled, they ''fell hopelessly in love'' with Vermont and its history of craftsmanship.

In 1939, they introduced a line of ''early American'' furniture under the name Ethan Allen, the leader of the Green Mountain Boys in the Revolutionary War. Eventually, they adopted the name of the company's most popular line as the corporate name and moved the company's headquarters to Danbury, Conn.

Besides the appeal of its colonial-style designs, the company's innovative sales techniques helped Ethan Allen grow.

Previously, stores typically displayed furniture in rows of chairs, beds and tables. ''But Nat Ancell understood that people really wanted to see how furniture would look in a designed environment -- that people are not buying furniture, they are buying life styles,'' said Farooq Kathwari, the current chairman of Ethan Allen. ''This placing of furniture in life-style settings is known as the gallery concept.''

The company first employed this method of displaying furniture in coordinated roomlike settings in department stores and, later, in the 1960's, developed the concept further in its Ethan Allen stores.

Mr. Ancell succeeded his brother-in-law as chairman in 1970. Ethan Allen was bought in 1980 by Interco Inc. of St Louis for $150 million. Mr. Ancell continued to run the company until 1985, when he handed over the day-to-day management to Mr. Kathwari, who led a management group that bought the company back from Interco in 1989.

Throughout the ensuing years, Mr. Ancell remained an adviser to the company. Today, Ethan Allen is one of the nation's largest furniture companies, with more than 300 dealers and 21 manufacturing plants in the United States.

Mr. Ancell is survived by two daughters, Susan Darley and Penny Randall, and six grandchildren.

Photo: Nathan S. Ancell (Joseph Kugielsky, 1980)