I hadn’t been paying attention. It took a couple years into my Victorian furniture “mindshift” for me to notice that some of the attributed John Henry Belter chairs had lions carved into the arms.  I had probably seen hundreds of photos of Belter furniture and had kept overlooking those with these rarer design variations where Belter employed animals into the carvings.  The chair above is from “American Furniture 1620 to the Present” by Fairbanks and Bates.

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I received a note from Joan Bogart about the table that was profiled in a few previous posts. It was documented in the book, “The Furniture of John Henry Belter and the Rococo Revival” on page 83.

Joan feels that the table is not by Belter.  In scrutinizing the photo caption, it seems certain that the intent was to suggest that it was likely made by Belter: “this simple piece was used with a bed by Belter in a home furnished from the Belter shop“.

Joan has had several of these tables in mahogany and one Rosewood over the years and does not sell them as Belter.  Most importantly, by her recollection she has had one labeled “Fanning”.

So for those of you who own the “Belter book“, you may want to put  a little asterisk on page 83.

Thanks, Joan, for passing on your experiences and thoughts on this table.

I’d like to get back to the series of posts on issues with using furniture books, catalogs, and ads as proof-positive sources for furniture maker attributions (Trade Catalogs Can Be Misleading; Don’t Believe All That You Read).

Another complicating factor is that many furniture makers were also retailers of other makers’ wares.  They augmented their personal offerings with those of others – both imported from abroad and from within the U.S.  We saw that in one example, Prudent Mallard of New Orleans resold Kilian Brothers tables, labeling it as a Mallard piece.  The Victorian Details book presents a theory that George Henkels may have resold furniture by Ignatius Lutz.  Alexander Roux imported furniture from France.  R.J. Horner imported furniture for resale … the list goes on.

Which makes me wonder about the chair that I own, shown above to the right. Continue Reading »

Sometimes in the Victorian era of furniture making, you can see the confluence of two styles in one piece simultaneously as you can see with this sidechair to the right. Both Gothic Revival (spires, arches, crockets) and Rococo Revival (serpentine & foliate seat, cabriole legs) are represented at the same time.

This Rosewood chair design pops up fairly regularly at auction and is often attributed to J & JW Meeks, though I’m unaware of any watertight attributions on this chair based on documentation.  It is represented in the wonderful book, “The Gothic Revival Style in America, 1830-1870″ by Katherine Howe and David Warren for the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.  I don’t recall where I’ve seen this chair in reference material otherwise, but if someone does, please let me know.

UPDATE: This chair was likely made by Klauder & Deginter.  Thanks to “curtywurty’ who left the comment with the information and “misslilybart” who found this document online. Continue Reading »

Are there any independent film producers out there?  I have  a new movie title for you to produce, “Stubby Finds a Home”.  Probably more of a Disney flick than a Tom Cruise action flick.

The new owner of the cut-down Rococo table that I profiled on Rare Victorian while it was up for sale wrote to share a picture of the table’s new home.

Charles had to say this about the table:

The church-basement-piano-color finish is gone, Stubby has a fresh coating of shellac, and he’s settled down to a life of domestic bliss.

So Stubby is all cleaned up and has a new abode with Rococo and Ren Revi friends.  Note the Belter book on top of Stubby.

I DO feel better that although Stubby is cut-down, he has not found himself in a landfill somewhere.  Maybe some day he can get some prosthetic legs.  Thanks, Charles, for the update.