My Antiques No. 401

Victorian Renaissance Revival Towel Rack

Victorian Renaissance Revival Towel Rack
Victorian Renaissance Revival Towel Rack

victorian-towel-rack

I try to avoid making my 1887 Victorian home a clutter-fest with all sorts of Victoriana dripping off of the walls and table surfaces. I have a bare minimum of art and some period statues, candelabras, Victorian wall shelves, clocks and that's about it. I'm trying to avoid the grandma-effect - that sense when you walk into a home that grandma decorated. Some of my friends would probably look at my home decorated 95% in Victorian and say that I've already lost that battle. One item I have been searching for for some time was a decent towel rack for the first floor powder room. I could put up a brass one, but there's no way I was going to put a modern Home Depot one in there. I ran into the one above a few weeks ago and considered my search over. I had to take it off the market before someone bought it and declared it having been done by John Jelliff due to the female bust in the crest.

3 comments

  1. Joe
    Nice find. Where did you locate it?
  2. RareVictorian
    I found it at a local antique shop in Chadds Ford, PA. She has a knack for finding these racks and Ren Revi and Eastlake mirrors.
  3. zeke
    Thats a nice one John, most are rather plain and just scroll cut walnut. The broken pediment, burl and Jenny Lind head add a great deal of elegance to it. Is the center panel needlework, its very cool! It would go great with this mirror I have in the bedroom: http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j285/zekenstein/Mirror.jpg Oh and c'mon, if you want authentic Victorian clutter is a must! Our house looks like the Adams Family's on a bad day.

Leave a comment

Antique Searches Fixed

I haven't been using the Antique searches here on Rare Victorian ("Buy Antiques" link at the top of the page) in a long while and what I didn't know as a result is that most of them were broken. eBay changed the way the

Daniel M. Karcher Bookcase For William S. Auchincloss

It's not often that you can definitively identify a maker for a particular piece of Victorian furniture and equally rare is identifying a piece's original customer. When lucky enough to have some of this information, you