This Modern Gothic dresser/secretary has a central drawer that pulls out and the front panel drops to expose a desk surface. The design elements of this piece are primarily Eastlake due to the shallow incisings, grooved panels, and rectilinear design. The finials and “dormers” on the piece bring a modern gothic accent to the piece. The seller suggests that this is done in the manner of Daniel Pabst, and I can see their point.

This cabinet reminds me of another cabinet I ran across that is signed by Herts Brothers (not Herter Brothers). They are another New York cabinet maker probably most remembered by their bedroom display at the Philadelphia Exhibition of 1876. I don’t believe the two pieces are necessarily made by the same maker, but the Eastlake elements employed are the same (tiles, incisings, grooved boards) except for the added bling of the strap hinges on the Herts piece a la Kimbel and Cabus. Seeing the one triggered the memory of the other.

The Herts cabinet is being sold by Architectural Antiques Exchange out of Philadelphia. The dresser/secretary is to be sold on December 13th by Go Antiques Live.

Congratulations are in order for Jason Flatt (you may have seen him as “1881Victorian” in the forum) who was the winner of the Century of Revivals giveaway. Thanks go out to all of you who registered to participate and I will be giving away more Victorian furniture-oriented items away in the future. Maybe some day this site can afford to give away furniture! We’ll just have to find a nice dealer out there who will want some extra exposure.

I am unsure as to whether this chair was produced by George Henkels as the seller prescribes. I have profiled this identical form of chair from another seller previously and now that I have seen a few of them, I’d like to know who truly produced them.

As is often seen with spiral-turned furniture being over-attributed to George Hunzinger, pierced-carved chairs with circular backrest cushions are always attributed to George Henkels. See pages 88-89 in American Furniture of the 19th Century by the DuBrows and you will see several chairs that represent this form.

The problem I have is that the chairs attributed to Henkels in these reference books are often much simpler in design than this particular chair. The pierced-carvings in the books look somewhat 2-dimensional, as if a jigsaw cut them out. The carvings on this chair are more naturalistic and 3-dimensional. The skirts on the chairs in the books are simpler and do not have the Belteresque carvings on the front of the skirt.

What is impressive about this particular chair is the side bolster carvings. They are substantial and unique to this chair. There are no arms - only beefy pierced carvings to surround the person when seated.

I’m not saying this isn’t Henkel’s work - I just have nothing to use as a reference to confirm or deny.

Apparently, Samuel Sloan’s Homestead Architecture book (Philadelphia 1861) has images of Henkel’s furniture so I will need to take a look at it the next time I visit the Winterthur Library. I have also just snagged an October 1973 edition of The Magazine Antiques featuring Henkels, so in a few days I may have more information.

An interesting footnote about Henkels is that he was a big opponent of steam-powered machinery. He wrote in Household Economy (1867) that: “Hand-made work is much better than machine-work, and all cabinet-makers of reputation have their own designs, so as to have a pattern exclusively to themselves. The machine-work is sold mostly by those who have no factory, but merely keep the furniture stores. Persons who understand this prefer to pay the price for good hand-made work.”

More info on this particular chair at the listing.

Just a quick note to point out that a Hunzinger rocker with the duplex spring popped up for sale in the San Francisco area (they’re saying no shipping). It appears to be in good condition and has nice spiral turned frame elements. Bidding starts at $425 and ends on the 9th.