In my opinion, Neal Auction is being a bit conservative in their attribution on this chair. I’m always very appreciative of Neal’s condition information and research that they provide with their listing and I feel they are consistently careful not to go out on a limb on attributing a maker unless they have a good case. I learn a lot from their catalogs which provide additional historical background on pieces that you will not necessarily get within their online listings.

In the case above with the Modern Gothic chair, Neal Auction has attributed it to Kimbel & Cabus. Judging by the image of the chair to the left from K&C’s 1875-ish catalog that the Smithsonian has, Neal has more than an attribution case.  I would say the chair is absolutely made by Kimbel & Cabus save for one concern: the incising on the sides above and below the seat appear to be missing on the Neal chair.  Hard to be sure from one distant image.  If it is indeed missing, it is likely a design variation for K&C.  Even the stretcher has a small notch in the center of both examples.  More at the listing for the chair.

Neal has a good sale coming up in 8 days and I’ll profile more items in the days coming.  In the meantime,  here’s a link to peruse the full online catalog.

Everyone have a great weekend!

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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.

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Coming up for auction within striking distance of my SUV is this Gothic Revival armchair ca. 1860. This chair is profiled in “The Big Book of Antique Furniture” by Lindquist (which I find to be a valuable reference for the $2.00 investment at Amazon.com) on page C-10. It’s nice to find the furniture you’re considering to purchase in books since you can find things that aren’t as they should be - as is the case with this chair. There is a missing finial at the topmost spire that is present in the photo from the book. You can see more detail on this chair at the listing, which associates this chair with the style of J&JW Meeks.

The “Big Book” calls this a “Gothic hybrid” due to the spool turnings and this design element puts it’s manufacture date at the end of the 1825-1865 date range associated with the Gothic Revival period. I have seen the Gothic Revival period being dated between 1825-1865, 1830-1850, and 1840-1865, so I will be conservative by saying it spanned all of those ranges. We’ve become accustomed to Meeks, Roux, Jelliff pieces in the Rococo and Renaissance Revival styles but they all produced Gothic Revival furniture as well during this era. We just don’t run across them as much as their pieces from the second half of the 19th century.

Speaking of Gothic Revival… A friend of Rare Victorian - David Marshall, owner of the Antique Room, has recently revamped his home decor, switching from Gothic Revival to Egyptian Revival. I know this because you can see it for yourself in the October issue of “Old House Interiors” magazine. Congratulations David on your house making the publication for the second time.

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