Sometimes my auction searches by keyword bring up some interesting items such as this Pabst table …

Pabst Blue Ribbon table that is – yes, the beer company. My search is intended to identify antique Daniel Pabst items coming up for sale but today’s search brought up something not by the famous Philadelphia cabinet maker, but by Pabst the beer company. The funny thing is that this Oak table is actually antique 1880s Victorian with shallow Eastlake incised carvings. And it is even stamped by Pabst Blue Ribbon! Too funny. We antique shoppers search (mostly in vain) to find markings, stamps, or labels denoting the cabinet maker for the pieces that we buy. Most of them have nothing for us to hang our hat on, but the beer company thinks ahead and stamps their table.

For those beer drinkers out there, you might notice the handy beer shelves under the table to keep your drink out of harms way when the gambling gets rowdy. Or maybe that shelf is a spot for you to review your cards in private.

Bidding starts at a frothy $1,200. More details and images here.

I learn something new every day as I glean the Internet for memorable furniture. This form of dressing table can apparently be referred to as a “Duchesse” due to the curved back form. My initial research on the term Duchesse only turned up furniture such as this one which is a form of daybed. Dictionary.com also says that the term is used to describe a daybed, but I assume that Neal Auction is correct in their usage in the context of this table and is teaching me something new here.

This is a beautiful Meeks (attributed) dressing table, almost in the form of an etagere. The fretwork shelves in the curved back form suggest to me that this piece would have fit right in at the Batcave. There is a carved open basket on the stretcher, which is comprised of C-scrolls. The material is Rosewood with a Maple-lined drawer and apparently the marble is original.

Bidding starts at $10,000 and expected range is $15,000 to $25,000.

Technically this American Classical sideboard that is attributed to Anthony Quervelle is pre-Victorian, probably 1825-1835, but that is close enough for me to profile this beautiful piece in the Rare Victorian.

Anthony Quervelle was a Philadelphia cabinetmaker of French origin. He was born in Paris in 1789 and was working in “Philly” by 1817. He had a successful “Cabinet and Sofa Manufactory” by 1835 at 126 South Street. His work was widely favored and he attracted notable clientèle such as President Andrew Jackson who commissioned Quervelle to produce three marble-topped center and pier tables for the East Room of the White House in 1829. Today his pieces are in several museums including the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. You can read more about Quervelle here.

From what I have seen of other Quervelle sideboards, the segmented fan panel is one common to his designs. The carved cornucopia brackets are apparently common to Philadelphia designs of the period. Neal Auction is selling this piece during the December 1st and 2nd sale and bidding will start at $4,000 with expected range of $6,000 to $9,000. More details at the listing.

I’ve also provide a picture of a Quervelle (attributed) sofa that is being sold during the same sale. Beautiful lines and proportion. You can click on the image for more details.

This Merklen chair (my attribution) is buried under a “Gothic Revival” description with no mention of either Hunzinger or Merklen and is posted with an expected range of $250-$350. Considering the last nice Merklen chair fetched $3,250, someone might be able to get a deal on this lot since the usual buyers of these pieces may not find it.

The chair is composed of the typical Merklen brass/wood ball and claw feet, the trademark spirals and a seat common to their designs, but this one has some extra brass: lion head finials and diminutive supports joining the seat bottom and back.

This chair will sell on December 2nd and will start at $125. More images for your review at the listing.

For Jelliff fans out there, it doesn’t get much better than what is coming up for sale during the December 1st and 2nd Neal Auction sale. Two tables and a parlor set that have been attributed to Jelliff will go up for bid.

The table to the right is identical to the Jelliff table in the Newark Museum that was bought by Frederick Tuttle in Chicago from W. W. Strong and still bears the retailer’s label. Tuttle purchased several pieces of parlor furniture from W. W. Strong, some of which are identical to other documented Jelliff pieces, so the table is “guilty” by association as being a Jelliff. The carved busts on the feet are exceptionally well-carved relative to some of the busts found on sofa arms where this figure is often seen. This museum table can be seen along with the other Tuttle furniture in the “Century of Revivals” booklet.

The table on the left is also attributed to Jelliff and is being done so due to the similarities in the carved bust on the skirt to other known Jelliff tables like the one on the right.

This rare sofa form in the bottom image is part of a 3-piece parlor set being sold that is attributed to Jelliff. An identical sofa is referred to as a tête-à-tête in the “Styles of American Furniture” book on page 32. Tête-à-têtes are usually small sofas, designed for conversation between two persons and many times were in the form of an ‘S’ shape. Tête-à-tête literally means “head-to-head” in French. The original Schrenkeisen catalog shows the use of the nomenclature “tête-à-tête” on sofas of 4 feet in length or less, while “sofa” was generally 5 feet or greater. Due to the small section in the middle of this sofa, it is probably only comfortable for two.

More info on the lots can be found in their listings:
Left Jelliff Table
Right Jelliff Table
Parlor Set

On a side note, I recently had an “a-ha” moment during the writing of the Jelliff bio that I’ve started here. I learned that Jelliff had fallen ill with a stomach problem and retired from his shop in 1860. 1860 is generally regarded as the earliest year that Renaissance Revival pieces began to be produced, so it is likely that Jelliff produced very, very few Renaissance Revival pieces (if any). That means that much of the Renaissance Revival furniture by Jelliff’s shop was produced after he retired, including the pieces above assuming they are from the 1870+ time period that these particular pieces have been dated to. Henry Miller managed John Jelliff and Co. starting in 1860.

If you are familiar with RSS, you can get updates on John Jelliff pieces for sale on Ebay automatically as they are listed. Just subscribe to my Jelliff RSS feed from the www.JohnJelliff.com site. If you are not familiar with RSS, you should become so – starting with this. I am revamping the auction pages which you can find links to on the left side of the Rare Victorian blog, adding maker biographies and RSS features. Several of them have the RSS subscribe feature already added including Belter, Roux, and Hunzinger with more coming.