I just received my copy of the December 2008 Victorian Homes magazine (yikes, Christmas trees already) and within the “Antiques” column was this extravagant piece of Victorian furniture, the 12 foot Robinson Crusoe sideboard, which was highly praised at the 1862 London Exhibition.  It is currently being offered for sale by M.S. Rau Antiques.

It was carved by Gerrard Robinson (1834-1891), who at the time was apprenticed to Thomas H. Tweedy who displayed the sideboard at the Exhibition.

Robinson started out on his own shortly thereafter, encouraged by the response to his work.  He created other masterpieces as well, such as the Shakespeare sideboard and the grandest of them all - the Chevy Chase sideboard, which M.S. Rau also had previously listed for $750,000.  According to “History of Furniture” by Michael Huntley, the Chevy Chase sideboard is the most famous piece of carved Victorian furniture in the world.

Unfortunately, as tastes changed in the 1870s and ornate carving horrified the design reformers, Robinson was left to carving pub signs, doing book illustrations, and the occasional furniture piece.  That didn’t discourage his son, William, who also became a woodcarver and whose work is displayed in the Shipley Gallery as well as St. Nicholas Cathedral.

You can see more images of the Crusoe sideboard at the RauAntiques.com site.

Kathryn Bauer is offering the following antique Victorian furniture items for sale which you can view in the images to follow.

• A Henkels-attributed Rosewood sofa recently reupholstered.  Kathy has extra matching fabric if someone has chairs that they would like to match up with the sofa.  A modified version of this sofa design is depicted on page 116 in American Furniture of the 19th Century by Dubrow & Dubrow.
• A small settee with ivory damask fabric, recently reupholstered with original horsehair stuffing retained.
• A pair of marble-top Rococo Rosewood corner tables with markings of the original owner’s name and “Dallas” written on the underside of the marble SOLD
  

For more information, please contact me and I put you in contact with Kathy directly.

Click on the thumbnails below for a larger version of the image.

If you would like to feature your antique items for sale on RareVictorian.com you can find more information on how we can create a post like this for your items here.

Rare Victorian is please to offer for sale this original 1857 U.S. House of Representatives chair bearing the original stencil of it’s maker, Bembe & Kimbel.  It is identical in style to the chair that Abraham Lincoln favored as his photo chair and the design is depicted in the recently completed Thaddeus Stevens monument.  Only 131 of the Bembe & Kimbel chairs were ever made and it is not clear how many have survived to today.  For more information please continue on to the chair’s sale page.