Compare this 1872 catalog image of a J.W. Hamburger sofa, model “King William Suit”, to a 7-piece parlor suite currently for sale as a John Jelliff.

The overall form is strikingly similar and a few decorative elements are very close to being the same but there are a few key differences:

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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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Neal Auction will be selling the above Aesthetic sofa in the remaining day of the Louisiana Purchase sale today.  It is being attributed to Charles Tisch who was a cabinetmaker in New York starting in 1870, categorized himself as a “designer and maker of furniture” in 1886, and an “art dealer” in 1889.

1889 Charles Tisch Gift To The Met

Tisch gave one of his cabinets to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1889, stating in an accompanying letter that it:

Received the first prize at the New Orleans Exposition (18)84/85. It is a purely American production of my own Manufacture and consider it worthy of a place in the Museum

Fast forward 40 years – In an article  from the Magazine Antiques in January, 2000, there is a 1929 quote about Tisch’s cabinet by Joseph Breck, who was the curator of decorative arts for the Met at the time:

“I think I may safely say that [the cabinet] is a piece we will never want to exhibit.” [6] Despite another attempt to deaccession it in 1941, the cabinet remained in the collection until 1950, ostensibly because the museum was unable to trace Tisch or his descendants. In 1950 it was deaccessioned and put into off-site storage, but fortunately in 1957 James J. Rorimer (1905-1966), then the museum’s director, returned it to the American Wing, and in 1969 it was reaccessioned. [7]

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Neal Auction’s upcoming sale will feature several pieces of George Hunzinger furniture, including the above sofa and a chair that would match it, were they to be upholstered in the same manner.  I expect there to be a wide range of prices on these items with the one above probably leading the hammer prices (Neal estimates $4-6,000) down to the more diminutive side chairs that he produced which may fetch around $1,000.  The rocker may also end up in that price range as well.

I spent a good part of the weekend in Alexandria, VA this weekend with some long-time friends for a certain milestone birthday bash, and on the way to their house my wife and I did some antiquing there near King Street.

I will officially declare Victorian completely dead in Alexandria.  Yes, there are historic Victorian structures there but you wouldn’t know it from the merchandise in the local antique stores.  About the only thing that could whet my Victorian furniture appetite is this decidedly non-Victorian sofa, circa 1820-1830.

The sofa was labeled as attributed to Anthony Quervelle, so being a Quervelle fan I snapped a photo for some research when I returned. The dolphins as the lower feet were exceptionally well-carved and I think the basis for the attribution along with the overall Grecian style form.

There is no better book to hunker down and research the Quervelle attribution than “Philadelphia Empire Furniture” by the Boor family.  The book is almost 2 inches thick and is very inclusive of Quervelle furniture.

I found a similar sofa with identical dolphin feet in a photo in the book which can be found in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  Both sources consider it to be likely Philadelphia in origin, but will not give it the Quervelle moniker.  The Magazine Antiques, in March 1974, qualifies the differences with Quervelle work in another similar sofa by saying,

The general lines, arrangement of the ornament, and the details fo the foliage differ from those of the sofas attributed to Quervelle and the dolphin front feet lack the saucy air of Quervelle’s.

Knock $4,000 off of the price…