I enjoyed the video below of high quality antique miniature furniture produced by Antiques TV. These aren’t your ordinary dollhouse furniture pieces – they are very well made and use high quality materials.

Below are two of four patents that John Henry Belter secured (two more to follow):

Pat. 15,552 (Aug. 19, 1856) – John Henry Belter’s improved bedstead patent that seeks to address issues with bed construction prior, such as assembly, eliminating recesses where bugs could reside, and reclaiming lost space from the requirement of thick bed posts and other parts.

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Carlo Bugatti’s Art Nouveau furniture designs look more like they were designed for Batman’s home than for the homes of the turn of the 19th century when they were made (the firescreen above was is circa 1900).  Paul Tucker tells me that indeed Bruce Wayne’s bedroom furniture in one of the recent Batman movies was made by Bugatti, though I could not find a screen capture to show here.

If you are not already familiar with Carlo Bugatti, you may be at least familiar with his son Ettore’s car company that bears the family’s surname.  It’s not surprising that the car designs were not just functional but also works of art.  Carlo’s father was architect and sculptor Giovanni Luigi Bugatti, so design ran deep in the family roots.

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In a recent post I mentioned a John Henry Belter sofa design that integrated uncommon Belter themes of sea serpents, lion arms and carved paw feet.  Photos of this sofa can be found on page 65 of the Belter book and are shown in this post.  Another less common attribute of this particular sofa is Belter’s use of Oak construction (he also used Mahogany as a primary wood on occasion, which can be seen in a sofa on page 62 of the book).  Not only is this Oak, but laminated Oak in 7 layers with an open back frame rather than an enclosed, laminated back panel.

I’d like to order one of these in Rosewood, please.

Seriously though, something tells me that a Rosewood version may never have existed.  I’ve not personally seen an instance of this sofa design come up for sale, ever, which makes me wonder if it was unique.

Emily Rose, a Karpen descendent and author, tipped me off that there is a special exhibition going on featuring furniture from the S. Karpen & Bros. furniture manufacturing company at the  Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C.  The exhibition will continue through September 5th, 2009.

Apparently, a fair amount of this furniture trickled out in private hands as the office’s inhabitants availed themselves of the furniture over the years.  Now the Senate wants it back for the building’s 100th birthday.  Senate Associate Curator Melinda Smith said that she might make up a wanted poster to help people identify the furniture needed for return.  I’ve decided to make one for her and start the process.

I’ve also included a pamphlet from the Senate documenting the history of the furniture. Continue Reading »