The Antique Victorian Furniture Blog

The Press-Enterprise ran an article this past Saturday about a home in Riverside, CA that will be featured in an 8-page spread in the February issue of Victorian Homes magazine. The home, purchased four years ago in ramshackle condition by Tony and Wilma Burton, now “looks like it’s out of a fairy tale,” says Merrie Destefano, editor of Victorian Homes.

The home was built in 1893 by Civil War veteran David Gilson Mitchell, a founding father of Riverside County. The Burtons didn’t know its story when they bought the house, but they studied their history and then put over $100,000 into the restoration of the home. They purchased 19th century furnishings in antique stores, at estate sales, and on eBay.

The Burtons now live upstairs and “keep the first floor as a museum.” A photo of the dining room would suggest that this delightful “museum” is quite full of antique Victorian furniture. The music room features a period fainting couch, called by Victorian Homes an “ode in oak to Eastlake.”

We’ll have to wait for the February issue of Victorian Homes to get the full story. In the meantime, here’s the article from The Press-Enterprise.

Technorati Tags: Antique, Couch, Eastlake, Furniture, History, Home, Homes, Oak, Restoration, Victorian

I chanced on an entertaining and informative article by Fred Taylor in Auction Central News. It traces the human interest in animals and our use of animal imagery in art and ultimately in furniture.

You may not know this, but Egyptian furniture from as far back as 3,000 years ago has been found with legs that end in lion paws. The design of Egyptian beds was unchanged for 2,000 years. The beds typically had the legs of animals, from bulls to gazelles to cats. The Assyrians, Greeks and Romans likewise carved animal imagery into their furniture.

The practice largely disappeared, Fred tells us, until Thomas Chippendale in the 18th century, with his mix of French Rococo and Orientalia, brought it back. Thereafter, and throughout the 19th century, as Fred puts it, “the barn door was open.”

Fred treats us to a gallery, or shall I say menagerie, of photos of 18th and 19th century pieces, with a number of shots of antique Victorian furniture. Keep your eye out for the sideboard that celebrates the elements of the Victorian table.

You can read Fred’s article here.

Technorati Tags: 18th Century, 19th Century, Animal, Antique, Antiques, Chippendale, Furniture, History, Imagery, Rococo, Sideboard, Victorian

I bumped into an article written by Frank Herendeen of the Historical Glass Museum in Redlands, CA. The article is about a collection of Victorian knife rests that the museum received for display in September, but it’s also quite informative from a historical perspective, as it discusses the use of knife rests at the Victorian table.

Here are some of the things that Frank tells us.

Knife rests were part of the Victorian convention, along with fish knives, lettuce forks and individual asparagus tongs. Depending on whether the host or the butler did the carving, two large knife rests would reside either at the head of the table or the sideboard.

At the wealthier Victorian tables, each diner would also get a set of knife rests. These rests were frequently of cut glass to match the glassware pattern of the table overall.

Etiquette called for putting your knife on the knife rest as your plate was removed between courses. As you were eating, on the other hand, you put your knife down on your plate, not on the knife rest. And the knife would never be on the rest at the beginning of the meal.

Click here to read the full article and see the photos of the knife rests.

Technorati Tags: Antique, Antiques, History, Knife, Rests, Table, Victorian