Carl and Carol Canner

Our History

For nearly 60 years, Carvers' Guild has been a labor of love. Owners Carl and Carol Canner have created an internationally renowned company that fosters old-world craftsmanship and exceptional design. In a time of burgeoning imports, Carvers' Guild mirrors have been proudly Made in the USA since 1970.

This lifelong collaboration began in the summer of 1961. Carol, a painting major at Rhode Island School of Design, opened a portrait gallery in Provincetown on Cape Cod. Studying Geology at Harvard, Carl also found a job on the Cape, framing Carol’s portraits! They were soon married.

Carvers' Guild was founded in Boston in 1964 when Carl installed mirrors into his first shipment of hand-carved picture frames from South Korea and sold them to the furniture trade. They took off. Carol made her first foray into designing and manufacturing soon expanded from South Korea, to Taiwan, Belgium, and Italy.

When lightening struck their Boston workshop in 1970, Carvers' Guild and the Canners found a permanent home in a complex of cherry red 19th century mill buildings, nestled on a wooded peninsula in West Groton MA. They stopped importing and have since manufactured everything on site. Directly controlling the means of production has been essential for Carvers' Guild's consistently exceptional quality.

Today, Carvers' Guild produces over four hundred exceptional mirrors, including the Carol Canner Collections and licensed reproductions for the Newport Society in Rhode Island and Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. Made to order in the USA and in the true "family spirit," each Carvers' Guild mirror is an heirloom to be treasured by generations to come.