The Kittinger Company was founded in Buffalo, New York, in 1866 as "Thompson, Colie & Co." Around 1870 the company began crafting hand-made upholstered furniture and by this time had changed its name to "Colie & Son" after George and Oliver Colie took control. The furniture business proved so successful for the Colie's that in 1885 they built a factory specifically for the crafting of furniture. Advertising in 1904, Colie and Son illustrated one of their armchairs, that showed they were still making furniture in the free Colonial Revival style for their "snappy, original styles in Parlor Suites, Odd Chairs, Divans, Easy Chairs etc." Reproductions more closely based on original American 18th-century pieces of furniture would come to characterize the firm's production under George Colie's son-in-law