I hope everyone had a great holiday break as did I, but it’s time for us all to get back to normalcy.  Let’s kick off year 3 of Rare Victorian with a little furniture analysis triggered by a recent series of emails from Zeke Feldhaus, a Rare Victorian regular contributor who purchased the chair to the right.

George Hunzinger patented a chair design, #88,297, on March 30th, 1869 that he felt was superior to conventional chair designs in it’s structural rigidity.

George’s patent provided the following reasoning for his design:

The backs legs of chairs are very liable to become loosened at the point of connection with the seat.  This is particularly the case with the more expensive character of chairs, where there are not any side rails between the back and front legs.  This looseness arises from pressure against the back of the chair, and from tipping the chair backward upon the hind legs.

My invention is to strengthen the chair; and consists in a brace running on each side diagonally from the upper part of the chairback to the lower part of the front legs, and connected near the middle with the side of the seat or seat-frame.  By this construction the back of the chair is braced to the sides of the seat, and the front legs are similarly sustained, so that one part aids in sustaining the other under the strain to which it may be exposed. Continue Reading »

Tags: Chair, design, George Hunzinger, patent, renaissance revival

Sometimes in the Victorian era of furniture making, you can see the confluence of two styles in one piece simultaneously as you can see with this sidechair to the right. Both Gothic Revival (spires, arches, crockets) and Rococo Revival (serpentine & foliate seat, cabriole legs) are represented at the same time.

This Rosewood chair design pops up fairly regularly at auction and is often attributed to J & JW Meeks, though I’m unaware of any watertight attributions on this chair based on documentation.  It is represented in the wonderful book, “The Gothic Revival Style in America, 1830-1870″ by Katherine Howe and David Warren for the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.  I don’t recall where I’ve seen this chair in reference material otherwise, but if someone does, please let me know. Continue Reading »

What I wouldn’t give to have one of these babies sitting amongst my Victorian antiques in the parlor.  I’m in the process of selling my ca. 1999 pool table whose removal will open a new swath of floor real estate for Victorian antiques!

If I wanted this antique slot machine to take some of that space, I’d need to be prepared to spend between $54,000 and $108,000, which is the expected price range for the sale of this one according to governmentauction.com. Continue Reading »

I thought that you might be interested in seeing a 20 foot clawfoot table that I captured from my camera phone in the Fry’s electronics store in Los Angeles.  The original marble top has been replaced with a modern glass surface and it appears to have been refinished.

A quick mention that there is just a day left on a music/map rack on Ebay that bears the original Mitchell & Rammelsberg stencil.  It’s not often that you find these with their original maker names on them, let alone M&R.  As I’ve stated in the past, these are great for storing magazines and books and this one has a drawer underneath the main compartment.  More at the listing.