John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Nov 29, 2011, 1:39 pm
It’s not often that you can definitively identify a maker for a particular piece of Victorian furniture and equally rare is identifying a piece’s original customer.  When lucky enough to have some of this information, you usually get one or the other. Although this piece is not on the “rare�...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Oct 17, 2011, 12:27 pm
There are a lot of methodologies that people use to identify a particular piece’s maker, but few of them drive me more bonkers than “based on the quality of the work it surely was made by so and so”.  Relative to what?  How is quality being defined, compared? This is probably the least scien...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Sep 19, 2011, 1:51 pm
You don’t come across a signed, Rosewood Alexander Roux bed for $2k that often (current price with no reserve).  It’s not an overly grandiose bed in size or sophistication of design, but the carvings are  exceptionally well done as would be expected of one of the best furniture makers in NY at...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Sep 1, 2011, 3:15 pm
I recently purchased this original George Hunzinger receipt from 1900, which is two years after George Sr’s death. Notice the “& Son” in the logo. I assume that this is an example of Hunzinger wholesaling to another furniture company, Lederer Furniture of Cleveland, Ohio. Copyright
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Aug 5, 2011, 11:54 am
There must have been a few bidders that REALLY wanted this Victorian-era terrarium.   Either they know something about it that I don’t know or they had some excess money on hand that they wanted to part with. This terrarium just sold at Skinner’s in July for $4,594 – 61 times their top estim...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Jul 12, 2011, 12:45 pm
I know that I have been very silent in past weeks so I thought that I would give you an update on what’s going on and give away a copy of a recently published book that will be of interest to many of you. My life has changed greatly in the past year as I
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - May 20, 2011, 12:27 pm
press release: The following Monumental R.J. Horner Figural Mahogany Dining Room Set. 12 Pc. Figural carved set will be offered at Fontaine’s Auction Gallery in Pittsfield MA, on May 21st 2011 at 11am EST. The set includes a selection of the best American carved pieces of its time. The set is in a...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - May 9, 2011, 4:33 pm
I get a lot of offers to buy Victorian furniture and recently I’ve been passing on them personally and handing the opportunity on to you.  Here is a Neo-Grec three-piece parlor suite that I have not run across before.  It is very well carved and is not your run-of-the-mill Renaissance set.  The...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - May 5, 2011, 4:20 pm
After having been in a private collection for 36 years, you can now own a piece of the Cummins Diesel estate from Columbus, Indiana. Possibly made by Leon Marcotte of New York in the 1860s, this credenza has all the high-end attributes of the best makers’ work at the time. Rosewood, Birdseye Maple...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Mar 27, 2011, 10:22 am
Here is not one, but a matching pair of John Henry Belter settees in an early, seldom-seen grape pattern from the applied crest era of his work. Notice the scrollwork has a ridged pattern instead of the usual flat “taffy” profile. Thanks to Kevin for sharing his photos with us. Right Now on eBay...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Mar 8, 2011, 8:58 am
I don’t think that I’ve ever seen a brass chair before aside from those depicted in books.
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Feb 21, 2011, 10:58 am
Some might be tempted to put a New York attribution on this Neo-Grec cabinet, including myself, but not so fast this time. This one was made in Manchester, Massachusetts by John Bigwood in 1875.  We know this because he took the time to sign it as such in a hard-to-reach spot in a hidden compartmen...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Feb 3, 2011, 2:49 pm
This credenza was bought at an estate sale, misidentified as an Italian piece, and now is coming up for sale at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers as lot 122 this weekend. Fortunately, it has been properly identified as a piece by Herter Brothers and it’s relation to this cabinet pictured below in the Her...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Feb 1, 2011, 8:37 am
One my favorite cabinetmakers, Allen & Brother from Philadelphia was profiled in the May 1996 edition of the Magazine Antiques and a desk very similar to this one appraised below on the roadshow is shown on page 723.  The attributions appear to be related to the the desk locks in the article having...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Jan 30, 2011, 3:34 pm
I thought that I’d share this M. H. Schrenkeisen factory drawing from an October 1880 Scientific American cover.  It depicts the full cabinetmaking process beginning with raw logs coming into the factory and in the lower right you can see finished Eastlake-style furniture.  I guess Home Depot an...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Jan 3, 2011, 10:20 am
I’ve always liked perusing Ebay for Victorian Antique finds because you never know what will pop up at a reasonable price. I believe that I have run across an authentic Alexander Roux cabinet (auction completes on 1/4/11 – link will expire in about 7 days) that compares very favorably to other l...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Dec 19, 2010, 12:19 pm
JohnM posted some photographs in the forum of a 12′ tall Renaissance Revival bedroom suite that must be seen to be believed.  It lives out it’s existence in the Brennan House (built 1868), originally the home of a wealthy tobacco trader in Louisville, KY.  It was sold to Thomas Brennan in 1884...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Dec 8, 2010, 11:47 am
Unfortunately, identifying an antique’s manufacturer is sometimes an art and not always a science.  It is not often that a 19th Century item has a patent existing to help us easily identify the maker as does the “lollipop chair” (as we call it today – he never did) by Hunzinger, above.  Ab...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Dec 8, 2010, 9:38 am
I thought that this Rare Victorian blog had quashed the rampant Hunzinger mis-attributions out there with our global reach, pervasive presence in the antique community and from me being featured on the cover of Magazine Antiques. Kidding. A recent email from a visitor with a link to a seller’s “...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Dec 5, 2010, 4:56 pm
Antique Value Having a blog that is well entrenched into the Google search results leads a lot of new site visitors here that send me photos of their items asking, “what is the value of this antique?”  The problem is, it depends where they would be selling it, when they’d be selling it (the l...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Dec 3, 2010, 11:23 am
As I always say, one cannot have too many Elijah Galusha reference photos lying around for that emergency Rococo furniture identification that always pops up.  This set is from a Galusha settee at the Rensselaer Historical Society in Troy, NY that I haven’t put up yet. He seems to have been fond ...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Nov 26, 2010, 9:45 am
It’s high time I selectively whittle my Victorian antique collection down as I have bought and bought and ran out of space to put it all in. Therefore, the Rare Victorian Antiques Store has been born! I will be adding more items to the inventory in the coming days, but we are open for business! 
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Nov 22, 2010, 11:13 am
One of my first late-19th century table purchases was a real beater, but I bought it because at the time I felt it was probably a table by Merklen Brothers.  I thought that I’d get around to repairing and refinishing it as I did with this other Merklen.  Repairing this one, however, would cost w...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Nov 18, 2010, 1:34 pm
Neal Auction is preparing for their annual Louisiana Purchase sale this weekend which includes a full representation of styles from the early 19th Century through the early 20th. One of the more interesting items is a Gothic Carved Rosewood Center Table, c. 1845, after a design by Alexander Jackson ...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Oct 31, 2010, 10:28 am
Be sure to stop by my other blog, Old House Tours, for the latest installment of the Armour-Stiner House in Irvington, NY.  I’ve posted almost 50 images of the interior and exterior of this important property. Also, If anyone has some ideas on other properties that I can tour and photograph for t...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Oct 28, 2010, 8:39 pm
Continuing from where I left off with my Victorian cliff-hanger – I was about to unveil the name written under the upholstery of one of my Egyptian Revival chairs. I was pretty excited when John Hutchinson of Rose Valley Restorations called me and told me that under the upholstery were several are...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Oct 27, 2010, 6:27 am
A few years ago, I purchased a three-piece Pottier & Stymus Egyptian Revival set.  There was strong evidence to back up the attribution that I had made – the set was pictured in many of the reference books and labeled as so.  More importantly, almost all the hardware was marked on the back with ...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Oct 16, 2010, 7:01 am
Here is a really unique Aesthetic Movement chair for sale incorporating a spiderweb, spider and butterfly caught in the web.  The design of the back also includes a pair of what appear to be palm fronds, a wreath, a ribbon and hand fan.  Quite an eclectic combination of motifs.  The wood appears ...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Oct 14, 2010, 11:49 am
(ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa.) – The contents of the Conewago Manor Inn – an historic structure dating back to an original 1742 grant from the William Penn family, founders of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania – will be sold without reserve (everything goes, regardless of price) in an on-site auction sla...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Sep 24, 2010, 8:31 am
Saturday, Sept. 25, beginning at 10 a.m. It will be an unreserved estate auction (everything sells, regardless of price), featuring over 650 fresh to the market items offered in two sessions. Sold will be a fine Newport, R.I., Ocean Avenue estate (name withheld per request of the heirs). All items w...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Sep 20, 2010, 10:14 pm
From time to time I hear from descendants of the great 19th Century cabinetmakers and it is always fun to hear their family stories. This one is from the great-granddaughter of Frank N. Otremba, a highly-skilled Hawaiian cabinetmaker from the period who is noted for his Koa wood furniture and plaque...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Sep 8, 2010, 4:27 pm
A Rare Victorian reader contacted me about a chair that they have below with a badly damaged label, but a label nonetheless.  It is clearly from a Cincinnati cabinetmaker (or retailer), but the question is: Which one?  It appears to begin with the Letter “R” and then followed possibly by a cap...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Jul 24, 2010, 5:56 pm
I was contacted by a Rare Victorian visitor about a Shupe & Noble bed that they would like to sell and I thought it would be good to share with everyone for two reasons: 1) the maker is known and is not one that I’ve run across before, and 2) it is one of those
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Jul 1, 2010, 10:43 am
I was contacted by someone who was curious if the Rare Victorian community could take a look at this newly found, rare photo of Emily Dickinson. It was previously believed that there was only one of her in existence, but research in to the verification of this new image is proving to be promising th...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Jun 29, 2010, 12:39 pm
If you are a R.J. Horner Renaissance Revival fan, you should hop over to RJHorner.com and read the two latest Horner attribution-debunking posts: Another Horner is actually Robert Mitchell There Is No Horner Egg Moving onto another genre, the Aesthetes in the audience may be interested in this eboni...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Jun 21, 2010, 9:49 pm
I just spent the past two days scanning two disintegrating Robert Mitchell catalogs into Adobe Acrobat format and have made them available for sale via immediate download. They represent a look into the ca. 1890-1910 furniture styles of the time and one catalog in particular (#66) shows a few pieces...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Jun 20, 2010, 10:34 am
Available for sale is this nightstand with original marble top and “A” key, attributed to the famous Philadelphia cabinetmaking shop of Allen & Brother. All four sides have decorative birdseye maple panels.  These panels have an outer layer of maple and inner layer of a darker wood R...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Jun 18, 2010, 10:17 am
The name George Schastey has popped up in relation to the unidentified museum cabinet from the prior post.  I think it’s important to raise his profile and become a little more familiar with this important cabinetmaker and his history.  His work is up there with the best of the best and if I...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Jun 13, 2010, 9:28 am
I received an email from a Rare Victorian visitor recently of a find in an as-yet-unnamed museum. He provided pictures of a cabinet that the museum staff was not sure of what they had. This RV visitor took some pics and went away thinking it was quite “Herter-ish”. I agree. It appears to...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - May 29, 2010, 1:58 pm
The great, great, great-grandson of John Henry Belter contacted me seeing if I could help locate a John Henry Belter desk available for sale: “My father, aunts and uncle have many pieces of his furniture in their houses and my wife would like a secretary desk”. If anyone is aware of one,...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - May 7, 2010, 12:10 pm
Offered for sale are two J & JW Meeks Hawkins Pattern parlor sets. Each has a settee, arm and sidechair, or they can be combined into a single six-piece suite.  One of the settees requires reupholstering. I can put interested parties in contact with the owner of the sets for more information at the...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - May 5, 2010, 10:48 am
Aesthetic brass beds don’t pop up often to my recollection, nor to “aesthete”, who alerted us to the bed in the forum.  This one is being offered on Ebay at an asking price of $4,300 and considering how infrequently you run into one, that may not be an unrealistic price.  I’...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Apr 16, 2010, 10:36 am
Springmeyer Brothers – Partners to John Henry Belter Ever see a piece of furniture in the Renaissance Revival style with J. H. Belter’s name on it? I hadn’t until I saw this piece coming up for sale at Martin Auction Co. in Anna, IL. As most of you know, the Belter name is far more
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Apr 15, 2010, 1:17 pm
A Herter Brothers cabinet commissioned by J. Pierpont Morgan in the early 1880s  is coming up for sale during a May 8th and 9th auction at Stair Antique Auctioneers and Appraisers in Hudson, NY.  The painted and gilt cabinet is a signed and numbered piece and can be seen in the photo above.  More...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Apr 10, 2010, 12:11 pm
Tom Thumb and his wife, Lavinia Warren’s personal sofa made by John Henry Belter was mentioned here on Rare Victorian once before.  I think this is the final story on the sofa – it has landed at the Ringling Museum – a gift from Howard Tibbals in October 2009.  I think it is only...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Apr 6, 2010, 11:25 pm
This antique wall cabinet is in the same shop about 15 feet away from the Kimbel & Cabus cabinet profiled in the prior post, so I thought that I would pass on the fact that it is also available for sale.  These cabinets are fairly popular with collectors and can be affordably acquired when you
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Mar 29, 2010, 9:40 am
If you are a Kimbel & Cabus collector, you may be interested to know of a cabinet that is available in Narberth, PA.  I was given a tip by a Rare Victorian visitor that “Antiques at 236″ has some interesting items in stock, one of which was made by Kimbel & Cabus.  I always take
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Mar 28, 2010, 12:26 pm
I picked up this Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition promotional hand fan at an antique store earlier this week. Although it has Japanese themes, it makes no mention of being directly associated with that portion of the exhibition. The names and locations across the top of the fan all refer to hotel...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Mar 25, 2010, 5:29 pm
Book Review: “Jacques & Hay 19th Century Toronto Furniture Makers” by Ruth Cathcart Jacques & Hay is a name that pops up frequently in the Victorian-era furniture world within Canada.  It reminds me of how the Jelliff, Belter, and Herter names always pop up here in the U.S.  When attr...
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John W. posted an article on Rare Victorian Furniture - Mar 23, 2010, 9:58 am
John Henry Belter Cornucopia pattern up for sale on Ebay?  Yes, it happened. Say what you will about Ebay and eschew it at your own buying risk.  A John Henry Belter Cornucopia armchair popped up several days ago, seemingly in half decent condition.  I corresponded with the seller and got this in...
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