The Antique Victorian Furniture Blog

If you haven’t heard about the auction called American Furniture & Decorative Arts offered by Bonhams & Butterfields, which took place in New York City on January 22, you’ll want to take a look at the articles I’ve attached here.

There were over 300 lots at the auction, and total sales topped $2.3 million. Standing-room crowds gathered in particular to watch the auctioning of the Warner Brothers Studios collection of 15 pieces of furniture by the famed Victorian cabinetmakers Herter Brothers.

The prize lot was a Herter Bros bed — parcel-gilt, carved, inlaid, ebonized, and “considered by many scholars to be the finest American bedstead known to exist in the fully developed American Renaissance style.” It was originally commissioned as part of a bedroom suite for the master bedroom at Thurlow Lodge, home of former California Governor Milton Slocum Latham in Menlo Park, CA.

The final price of the bed was $326,000, purchased by collectors Max and Judy Foote of Louisiana, who also came away with a mirrored dresser ($103,700), a rare shaving stand ($61,000) and a pair of night stands ($23,180) from the same suite. The Footes already have in their collection a Herter Bros antique Victorian bed that appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s movie Psycho.

Many of the pieces at the auction, and not just those by Herter Bros, brought in sums far exceeding top estimates. Quite a few others failed to attract any interest at all.

There’s a lot to read about, and you’ll want to see the photos of the bed, the dresser with its massive mirror and other pieces.

I have two links here for you to follow. This one is to the article at Bonhams’ website and this one is to an article at Antiques And The Arts Online.

My thanks to Ben Mijuskovic (see my posts on Oct. 23 and Nov. 20) for bringing this to my attention. He tells me that the price on the Herter Bros bed is a record or near-record for any piece of Victorian furniture.

Technorati Tags: American, american renaissance, Antique, Antiques, art, Auction, Bed, bedroom suite, bedstead, cabintmakers, Collectors, decorative arts, Dresser, Furniture, Herter Bros, Mirror, night stands, shaving stand, Victorian

Back on Dec. 26, I wrote a post about a woman who felt like she belonged in the 19th century rather than the 21st and transformed her home accordingly. I just found another article in the Des Moines Register about a couple who feels the same way and who likewise have turned their home into a showcase of antique Victorian furniture and other furnishings.

Carolyn and Dan Rogers have gone for High Victorian, “where excess is OK” as Carolyn puts it. Because the Victorians considered it poor taste to have any bareness in a room, there is neither a nook nor a cranny of their 1903 home which isn’t “crammed.”

There’s a parlor with 24 working antique lamps, a master bedroom with a Victorian bed 150 years old, and a ballroom sized third story with a funeral parlor at the far end.

The article provides some photos that give you a good sense of it all. Quite striking. I love the detail of the Victorian mirror over their dresser.

You can see for yourself here.

Technorati Tags: 19th Century, Antique, Bed, Dresser, Furniture, Home, lamps, Mirror, Parlor, room, Victorian

I just came across a blog called Slip Into Something Victorian. Its most recent post is about Lizzie Borden. Mystery and the Victorian era sure do go hand in hand.

Denise Eagan, the author of the post, recently visited Lizzie’s Victorian home, which is located in Fall River, Massachusetts. It was in this house back in 1892 that Lizzie’s father and stepmother were found murdered in exceptionally brutal fashion. Lizzie was brought to trial but acquitted.

To this day the crime is unsolved, although Lizzie remains the primary suspect in the minds of many. The post gives a very nice summary of the circumstances of the mystery, with some interesting details about such things as possible sexual abuse and the miserly nature of Lizzie’s father.

And here’s something you probably didn’t know. The home today is a bed and breakfast. You can actually sleep in Lizzie’s room, in a nice antique Victorian bed, I might add! I don’t think I would shut my eyes for a second, and not just because I was admiring all the furniture in the room.

Slip Into Something Victorian contains a gallery of pictures, among which are an excellent selection taken at the Borden house. There’s a lot of antique Victorian furniture in there. You’ll see beds, chairs, mirrors, dressers, a dining room table, a striking medallion back sofa, and more – all within the confines of one of the world’s eeriest Victorian homes.

And maybe you’ll be inspired to visit the home and spend the night. I understand you’ll be treated to the breakfast the Bordens had that morning. The contents of Abby Borden’s stomach actually provided an important clue as to the time of her subsequent murder. Food for thought.

You can read the post here. If you have trouble finding the picture gallery, click here.

And here are some earlier posts of mine involving mystery of one kind or another: Nov. 24, Nov. 20, Nov. 17, Nov. 16, Nov. 13.

Technorati Tags: Antique, Bed, Beds, Chairs, Dresser, Furniture, Home, House, lizzie borden, Mirror, Mystery, Sofa, Table, Victorian

There are a lot of articles coming out these days announcing holiday home tours. It’s interesting how many of the homes in these tours are Victorian. But then, as yesterday’s post discusses, the Victorian era taught us how to celebrate Christmas, right down to the Christmas tree.

Here’s one article from the York News-Times about a woman in York, Nebraska named Vina Mody, who for 20 years has been decorating her Victorian mansion for the annual Holiday Tour of Homes. She sets up over 100 Christmas trees in her home! It takes her a month to get ready for the tour and another month to break it all back down. She says this will be her last year though. She can’t handle it anymore. So if you’re in the York area this coming Sunday, you’ll want to catch Vina’s final display.

Here’s another article, this one from the Tyler Paper in Tyler, Texas. This weekend’s tour in Tyler features a number of homes, one of which is an 1891 Victorian known as “The Judge Parker Home,” owned by David and Alva Kesler. If you only have a couple minutes, scroll down to the description of this home. It tells us that the Keslers have painstakingly worked to restore the house to its “Victorian splendor.” Indeed. Wait until you read this.

Just a taste here. The “judge’s den” has been converted into the master bedroom, complete with a four poster bed in brown silk, sitting in the center of the room on an antique rug. In the corner is a mahogany dresser with cheval mirror, circa 1890.

The article takes you room by room, and although there are no photos, the writing is good enough to allow you to visualize it yourself.

Maybe won’t be able to make it to York, NE or Tyler, TX this weekend. But is there a holiday tour of Victorian homes in your area? You never know. It could be your opportunity to see some splendid pieces of antique Victorian furniture while you’re getting into the Christmas spirit.

Technorati Tags: Bed, Christmas, Dresser, Homes, Mahogany, Tours, Trees, Victorian

I ran across this post in a blog aptly named Chair. The blog’s author, Roxanne, takes us a through a step-by-step series of photos as she quite expertly reupholsters a beautiful Victorian chair. We get a lot of good looks at the chair, springs and all. And the finished product certainly looks like a chair that Dresser would have said a user could sit in confidently!

Take a look.

Technorati Tags: Antique, Antiques, Chair, Dresser, Reupholstery, Victorian