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John Jellif Furniture Prices Dropping or Anomaly?

ArmchairJohn JelliffNeal AuctionParlor SetSofa

John Jellif Furniture Prices Dropping or Anomaly?
John Jellif Furniture Prices Dropping or Anomaly?

John Jelliff Sofa

I will be checking the results of the above attributed John Jelliff 4-piece parlor set after the July 12th Neal Auction sale is over. The 8-piece set that recently sold at Cowan's drew a disappointing $2,600. Maybe there was a structural issue with one or more of the pieces as was mentioned in the forum or maybe it was something else. You might be interested to see a closed-arm version of this sofa here. I'm wondering if the fact that it was 8-pieces vs. 4 or 6 was a deterrent in this particular case. I commend Cowan's for keeping the large set together and not breaking it up across multiple lots. I would guess that not too many households have the space to accommodate a matching 8-piece set. I would have cleared out my Parlor of mismatched sofas, chairs, and sell the pool table to make room for a matching 8-piece set if I knew it was to be sold for $2,600.

Pair of John Jelliff Sofas

There will be a few more data points for us as well coming up in the Neal sale. A sofa design that had previously sold for $5,750 alone at their December 2007 sale will also be coming up again and is pictured below. Pre-auction estimate is set at $1,500 to $2,500 and I don't expect it to reach anywhere near the $5,750 of the prior sale due to a vast difference in upholstery quality.

John Jelliff Sofa

And if that is not enough, there is yet another sofa which is part of a broken up suite (chairs & armchairs) attributed to Jelliff coming up in this sale (below) and a separate pair of armchairs. Last time Neal had such a flurry of Jelliff-attributed pieces, the sale saw very strong prices.

John Jellif Furniture Prices Dropping or Anomaly?

On a parting note, Jelliff afficianados might appreciate this sofa attributed to him from a 2005 sale that looks like what I would imagine a collaboration between Jelliff and George Hunzinger would produce. I don't know if it truly is a Jelliff, but it is an interesting sofa nonetheless.
John Jellif Furniture Prices Dropping or Anomaly?
John Jellif Furniture Prices Dropping or Anomaly?
John Jellif Furniture Prices Dropping or Anomaly?

7 comments

  1. LISE BOHM
    Jelliff furniture in rosewood commands a higher price. I believe this set was walnut and not as desirable.
  2. RareVictorian
    Yes, true on the Rosewood. But even Walnut can be up there in some instances as the $5,750 sofa was Walnut.
  3. Charles
    I am wondering also if it is not just Jellif--will be interesting to watch as the economic issues continue to see if that is an underlying issue in the pricing of all high end antiques or if this is a Jellif centric issue.
  4. Michadi Antiques
    I believe that Charles may be correct. We specialize primarily in upper-middle to high end American Victorian Furniture and have seen sales drop to zero in recent months. Fortunately this is not my primary source of income, otherwise my family would be hurting. People tend to pull back on discretionary spending as the economy heads south, and art (which is really what antique furniture represents) certainly falls into that category. Michael
  5. james conrad
    yup, there are deals in antique furniture across the board if one believes the dealers i am in contact with. It doesnt seem to matter if its victorian, early american, shaker, colonial, etc. There has never been in my life time a better time to buy middle market antique furniture, no matter which style.
  6. Chris Zangari
    Hey guys I requested condition reports on the first couch pictured which had 2 broken back legs which scared me off and also the green or aqua color couch had a broken leg. I bought one of the pair of the Jelliff tables in the last december sale and the one in this december sale.Had either of the sets had been 100 percent I would have gladly bid.Go back to Neal Auction and look at these items again they were some of the best Jelliff items to come up.
  7. RareVictorian
    Neal has a habit of having great Jelliff sales. They've had the Jelliff table a couple of times.

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