This is a late 19th century spiral turned chair but there are at least two things about this chair that are out of the ordinary  for this particular form by this particular maker.

I’m heading out for the weekend, but will leave you all with this puzzler.

For the person who first leaves a comment on this post (don’t email me) detailing the maker and also details the most aspects of this chair that are unusual, I will send you a Victorian Style book as the victor.

I may not be able to post all your comments until I return, but they will be stored in order received.

Have fun

I don’t run across many Cheval mirrors that I would like to own save for a few nice Renaissance Revival and Merklen-style spiral-carved varieties, but this one with Gothic details caught my eye. This one is large – 7′ x 4′ and 2′ deep. The seller is characterizing it as Aesthetic Movement with Gothic carved crest, but in my mind there is more Gothic than just the crest and I’m not sure what is Aesthetic about it (gilt incising?). There are trefoils and crockets in the feet, incised Gothic arches in the stand arms. The feet themselves are arched in a flying buttress form and there are pointed arch finials at the bottom trim area.

The support stand incorporates Elizabethan style hollow and solid spiral-carvings that would rival any Merklen Brothers work, though is dissimilar to their style.

Elizabethan and Gothic resurged in Europe in the 1890s, so it is possible that this explains this combined design and suggests a timeframe and place for it’s manufacture.

More at the listing.

A Belter sofa for $1.00? That is what it is currently bid up to with no reserve price. This Belter furniture pattern is sometimes referred to as “Simple” or “Scroll” due to the smooth simplicity of the carvings. We often see Belter’s over-the-top work and his simple pieces often go unnoticed without much fanfare. The reality is, these sofas in today’s market have a hard time making it to $1,200, which is around what I paid for mine a while back. This Rosewood sofa sports the Belter lamination process and you can see the resemblance to his Rosalie pattern, shown here with a rarer laminated Rosewood back.

If you’re a fan of Belter but haven’t yet worked up the budget for a $28,000 Henry Clay pattern, then here’s your placeholder. For me it was a cost-effective way to add to my Belter collection as well as have another piece to provide a first-hand view of his impressive laminations.

If you’re new to the site or are unfamiliar with John Henry Belter, start here with his Bio and shopping page, and then you can go through all the back posts here to see the full array of his work.

Click on the image above to go to the listing for the sofa currently up for sale.

Taking a quick glance at this set, many Victorian antique collectors familiar with the turn-of-the-century gods of Renaissance carved furniture (Horner, Flint, etc.) would assume that this piece was by R.J. Horner. Fortunately this set is labeled and we can be sure that it was made by Oriel Cabinet Co. from Grand Rapids, MI. It was constructed in 1911 of Mahogany and demonstrates some of the best carving done in America at the time. In my mind, this is an important find since all furniture that resembles this style of furniture carving always gets labeled a Horner and the skill involved in these pieces rivals Horner’s best work.

In addition to this dining set, there will be many other famous-maker pieces, labeled and attributed, going up for auction by Meeks, Belter, Allen and Brother, Herter Brothers, and Mitchell & Rammelsberg. You can peruse the photos at the sale page here.

This Oak armchair’s side chair equivalent is featured in the John Henry Belter book in figure 23. This book is not directly attributing it to Belter in the caption but it seems to lay out the foundation by which this attribution could be made.

In figure 27 and 27a of the book, a slipper chair with many the same serpentine design elements in the chair back is shown in a laminated Rosewood construction. Imagine a Rosalie with Grapes crest added to the top of the above chair, a cluster of grapes in the center of the back, a pair of leaves and a pair of acorns also added and that is what you have in figures 27 and 27a. The serpentine elements are identical.

I believe a strong case can be made to attribute the chair in figures 27 and 27a, as well as figure 28, to Belter. By association I will then attribute the above Oak chair to John Henry Belter.

Although we are used to seeing only Rosewood Belter pieces, it is documented that he also worked in Oak, but considered it “cheap” wood and preferred Rosewood.

This chair will start at $250 with an expected range of $500 to $800. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it only reach $400 since the Belter name is not being tagged to this particular sale.