It’s fun to see antiques put up for sale with low sale range estimates and see them hit prices 10-times what the auction house anticipated.  Harlowe-Powell put a very conservative $2,500 top range price on this set which proceeded to garner $23,000 plus buyers premium of 20%.

They were on the right track with an attribution of “possibly Jelliff or Herter” and the bidders agreed with the latter of the two which explains the final price.

I think that the set is most likely by Gustave Herter, dating to before his association with Christian when they became known as the “Herter Brothers”.  If this is a Gustave Herter piece, it would date to pre-1864 which is when the partnership started.

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In another installment of “For The Record” on Rare Victorian where I feature the work of low profile makers of the 19th Century, I’m pleased to present what I strongly believe is a Joseph W. Hamburger Prince of Wales chair.  An image from their ca. 1870 catalog below shows a model #33, “Prince of Wales” design.

I have been wanting to run across one of the Hamburger chairs in the flesh for some time now and luckily the opportunity arose on Ebay in the form of the one above.  It is currently up for sale and is listed as having been made by John Jelliff.  If this chair alone doesn’t teach us all to stop attributing all the carved female bust chairs to Jelliff, then nothing will.

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There is museum evidence that helps attribute this chair to two possible makers. Stop by the forum to read about this chair, submitted by a site visitor.

I have also added another feature to Rare Victorian - a quick reference to back issues of The Magazine Antiques in the Reference section to the right.  It provides the month/date of publication and the cabinetmaker or style/period covered in a particular issue.

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