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.

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