I had a late night delivery of my most recent purchase a few nights ago.  No, it wasn’t an Alexander Roux sofa ca. 1853 as is shown above.

Picture six heavily-laden cardboard boxes being shuffled into the basement under cover of night through the bilco door, an exchange of cash, and a vehicle driving away.

No, nothing nefarious was transpiring.  I purchased 300-400 (haven’t counted yet) copies of “Magazine Antiques” going back to the 1920s and had them delivered to my home.  I expect that I will find a fair amount of “lost” research that hasn’t made it into recent reference books and Rare Victorian visitors should be the beneficiaries.

I’ve only dug through one box so far and already I’ve separated out nine copies with 19th century furniture articles of interest.  I’m toying with listing the castaway copies for sale somewhere. Continue Reading »

Related items for sale - hover mouse for more information

When speaking of John Henry Belter and J & JW Meeks furniture, there are several “patterns” that were typically made by the makers as original designs or commissions for wealthy clients and subsequently produced again and again.

Some Belter pattern examples are “Tuthill King“, “Henry Clay“, “Cornucopia“, “Fountain Elms“, “Rosalie” and “Rosalie w/Grapes“.  You may not have heard about the Belter “Milwaukee Pattern” which doesn’t seem to show up too often.  Meeks examples are “Hawkins” and “Stanton Hall“.

If we are really lucky in this lifetime (and with the Swiss bank account that we have amassed), you get a chance to buy “THE” first/reference set for a particular pattern, which recently happened with the Belter Henry Clay pattern - $105,000.

Once the reference set was produced, the patterns adopted their name from an identifying feature (e.g. Cornucopia), name of the mansion (e.g. Rosalie), or person (e.g. Tuthill King).  Usually, these “patterns” represent the best that those makers had to offer at the time and since they were made for special commissions, tend to be fairly well documented, and thus, we know who made them.

Cut to the sofa in the “Bird Pattern” above, which leaves me scratching my head.

Continue Reading »

Related items for sale - hover mouse for more information