I’m encouraged by some of the prices realized at the Fontaine sale yesterday.  Here’s a sampling of some of the healthy results:

• Meeks Hawkins sofa – $10,000
• “Pottier & Stymus” Aesthetic Sideboard – $12,000
• Meeks  Rosewood Etagere – $50,000
• Belter 3-piece Milwaukee parlor set – $21,000
• Pierce-carved Belter slipper chair – $17,000 (expected $6-8k)
• “R.J. Horner” Library Table – $15,000 (interesting side-story)
  

Some of the items had some questionable attributions and the bidders affirmed that message with their bidding:

• Pair of Herter Brothers twin bedsteads – $1,250 for the pair
• Thomas Brooks marble-top table – $1,000

Some items did disappoint and Jelliff items were in that category:

• John Jelliff triple-back sofa – $1,750 (we’ve seen it sell for $5,750)
• Jelliff three-piece parlor set – $2,000

Following on my concern about some of the attributions, the basis of the Pottier & Stymus attribution for the sideboard was:

This piece has a 5 digit number on the back (10278) indicative of the work of Pottier & Stymus

I don’t know about you, but I can’t imagine that P&S were the only makers that had 5-digit inventory numbers of the tens of thousands of shops in the world at the time.

Overall, however, I think the sale showed that the good stuff is still selling well (despite Wall Street tumult) and anything below that level is scraping by.

Plenty of high-end Victorian coming up in the Fontaine sale in a few days with all the usual suspects: Belter, Roux, Meeks, Jelliff, Baudouine, Pottier & Stymus, and Horner among others.  The Meeks Hawkins pattern set above is expected to bring $35,000-$50,000 and a Belter Milwaukee 3-piece set, $20,000 to $30,000.  A surprisingly unassuming bedstead in the sale is signed A. Roux, which shows you that the best makers of the time absolutely made simplistic pieces for everyday use.

Quick post to address some of the comments on the previous post:

I now have the Egyptian Revival set by Pottier & Stymus in my possession and I’ve done some digging to see if the upholstery is original and based on a tip from Woodwright to look for tack holes other than those of the current upholstery, it appears the set indeed has the original upholstery (no other tack holes).

I found the “PS” markings to denote Pottier & Stymus under the mount on the skirt of the chair.

I will be receiving two additional mounts shown below and one of the missing feet in the mail shortly. I assume the two heads are from the sofa that is now no longer with us in this world

The red velour fabric is about 50% worn off of the set, there is significant fading or discoloration on much of the original tassels, and one of the chair backs is shattered and will need repairing so I am nearly set on reupholstering, while holding on to the original for posterity.

Much will need to be done to bring this set back to an acceptable state and it will take time, but I hope to bring you all along for the ride as the journey unfolds.

As regular visitors to this site are aware, I’ve been watching the health of the Victorian antique market recently for concrete examples of this trend and I thought I’d take another quick glance at some fresh auction results that speak to the decline that we’ve been seeing lately.

I’ll open by saying all is not in the dumps.  There is money still out there aggressively chasing select items, but I can tell you that there is no distinct pattern that we can extract.  Items such as the late English Victorian Jockey Scale armchair shown at the top of the page surprised me as it reached $10,000 via 25 bids.  Were you to remove the scale looking something like an antique sewing machine fastened to the side, the chair is fairly unremarkable itself.

Some items are seeing better prices than from only a few months ago, so the market is certainly schizophrenic.  This Laminated Rosewood bed by John H Belter saw a $19,000 price tag in February but a comparable bed recently fetched $29,000 at auction.  While the overall trend is down, a confluence of buyers at any moment in time can drive bidding up.

I was recently left a bit queasy by the $1,500 that this cabinet fetched at auction.  Months ago, in a stronger market, this cabinet would have fetched $4,500 to $6,000.

Pieces by J & JW Meeks appear to be caught in a time-warp, fetching near their usual pricing as if they are in a different market altogether.  This Meeks “Hawkins” pattern Rococo chair recently fetched $5,000, albeit at the low end of the range.

I recommend that you pick up a copy of this weekend’s edition of the Wall Street Journal or read the article here on the state of the antiques market, in general.  Aside from being an interesting article which addresses the broader antique market and not just the niche that we favor on this site, RareVictorian.com is also mentioned.

The article’s premise is that due to shifting tastes and economic pressure on consumers it is creating quite the buyers market for antiques.  I, for one, have been taking advantage of it whether my budget should be allowing me or not.

I was the recent high-bidder on this 3-piece Egyptian Revival set by Pottier & Stymus with marked mounts bearing “P&S” to confirm their maker.  It also appears they may have their original upholstery and purportedly came out of a famous Tarrytown castle formerly known as Carrollcliffe but known today as Equus.  I’ve never been so excited in my 4 years of collecting and will be picking them up tonight.

As I have captured the process of my recent Merklen Brothers restoration in high-definition video, stay tuned in the months ahead for the journey of restoring these Pottier & Stymus chairs captured in another video series on this site.

There is no recent auction activity on this fairly well-known chair design so I can’t compare the price I paid to “typical” auction levels, though I can compare it to retail levels of other comparable Egyptian Revival sets by P&S at $29,500.

As you can see, I am availing myself to the current pricing trends and will probably be curbing my sales in the meantime.

If you’re interested in following along in my journey to research and educate myself in the world of Victorian antiques, you can be notified of new articles automatically by submitting your email address here. If you prefer viewing blogs in RSS readers, the link is at the top right of the page.

You know I’ve been reading too many auction listings when fancy-schmancy decorative arts nomenclature like “parcel”, meaning partial, ends up in my blog post title. I can’t believe it popped into my head. Anyhow, in case there are some Egyptian Revival fans out there, I thought I’d mention this chair coming up for sale at Doyle’s in New York. I’ve seen similar style chairs done by Pottier & Stymus and Gustave Herter, though I haven’t done enough research to associate one of those names with this particular chair. Starting price on this chair will be $350 with an expected range of $750-$1,000. You can see the details at it’s listing.

Also coming up in the same Doyle auction will be the Belter sofa shown below. It appears to be a Rosalie with Grapes pattern. Expected range will be $4,000 to $6,000 and it starts at $2,000.

Both will sell on April 29th, but if you miss it you’ll get a second chance on this Belter sofa pattern since Flomaton will be offering one on May 3rd. I’ll be doing a post on the Flomaton auction as we get a little closer.