"[3] Born into a Lithuanian Jewish merchant family in Kaunas, Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire, Sack left school at age fourteen to become a cabinetmaker.

Sack soon established his own cabinetmaking business on Charles Street in Boston and quickly earned a nationwide reputation for locating, restoring, and delivering top-quality antiques to private collectors and museums.

[2][3] His aesthetic approach to American furniture, which prized line, form, and proportion over the more ornate decoration favored by European furniture-makers, shaped America's antiques market.

Albert Sack codified his father's approach in Fine Points of Furniture: Early American, published in 1950 and reissued in 1993 as the "first practical guide to connoisseurship in the field.

[2] Harold also served as an advisor to Henry Francis du Pont, chair of the committee that presided over the redecoration of the White House under the direction of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

[3] Israel Sack, Inc., went out of business in 2002, still "regarded as the preeminent specialist in antique American furniture and a model of ethical and aesthetic standards.