The Antique Victorian Furniture Blog

What does James F. “Jimmy” Jones, Jr., president of Trinity College in Hartford, CT, have in the formal living room of his home? Antique Victorian furniture, of course.

The Hartford Courant has just run an engaging article on Mr. Jones’s life in a fishbowl on Trinity’s campus. Each morning he dashes outside, clad in his bathrobe, to get his newspaper. It’s usually early enough that none of the students or faculty sees him.

Mr. Jones and his wife Jan have lived in the president’s house since 2004. One of the challenges facing the Joneses when they first moved in was how to make their largely antique furnishings work in what was a modern, contemporary home. In the end it turned out to be a good fit.

The formal living room, home to the Victorian furniture which came from Jan’s great-grandmother, is where they often hold receptions. The one and only photo accompanying the article is fortunately of this room. The furniture (see if you can spot all the chairs) gives the space a remarkably comfortable and inviting aspect. The article calls it “warm and welcoming.”

It’s worth remembering what a social world the Victorians lived in. The furniture was meant to say “Welcome!” Furniture designed for function alone simply doesn’t speak to you in the same way.

Click here to see the article.

Technorati Tags: Antique, Chair, Furnishings, Furniture, Home, room, social, 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

Here’s some intriguing news. Kim Palmer of the Minneapolis Star Tribune has written an article on the recent appearance of Victorian elements of style in modern furniture design and home décor. “Victorian furniture is making a comeback,” we are told.

From avant-garde Dutch designer Maarten Bass and his “Smoke” chaise, to online retailer Brocade Home with their mass-marketed ornately carved beds, to Pottery Barn with their dragonfly bottle stoppers, Victorian is back in vogue.

Evidently it’s not so much nostalgia for the Victorian era itself as a return to femininity in high-tech times. Along with heavily carved furniture and mirror frames, we are seeing art with religious undertones, a shift in color from reds and greens to plums and pinks, and the reemergence of the silhouette.

A return to femininity? I don’t think there’s enough femininity left in our society to return to. But if Victorian elements are being put into pieces of furniture manufactured for the mass market, I’m left to wonder what the trickle-down effect will be on real antique Victorian furniture.

You’ll find the article here.

Technorati Tags: Beds, Bottle Stoppers, Chaise, Decor, Furniture, Home, Mirror, Style, Victorian

If you feel that you really belong in the 19th century rather than the 21st, you‘re not alone. A woman named Barbara Johnson, who lives in northern Baltimore County, is so sure of it that she has transported the interior of her 5,500-square-foot home back to Victorian times.

A recent article in the Baltimore Sun tells us that Mrs. Johnson has been reinventing her home ever since she and her husband bought it newly-built back in 1991. Today it’s full of antiques and collectibles such as toys, photographs, china and, yes, furniture.

The original dining room is now a train room showcasing a “Department 56 Snow Village” with over 30 buildings, trees, carousels, a snow covered mountain and sledding children. Her living room has become her parlor, with a camelback sofa and loveseat.

The living and dining area has been shifted into an elegant addition at the back of the house. The article says that the design and décor of this space is breathtaking. It features velvet draperies, two crystal chandeliers, and a 13-foot mahogany table that seats 18.

Where did Mrs. Johnson get her inspiration? She does have an interior decorator, but she also says that the key to decorating is to “create a presence; to go inside yourself for some kind of feeling.”

Click here to read the article and see some photos of the presence she’s created in her home.

Technorati Tags: 19th Century, Antiques, Chandeliers, Decoration, Dining Room, Furniture, Home, Loveseat, Parlor, Photographs, Sofa, Table, Victorian

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

Unable to resist articles about holiday events in Victorian homes (see my post on December 3), I came across this article in the Holland Sentinel about a Victorian Christmas Tea being offered at the Cappon House in Holland, Michigan. The event promises to be a step back in time for the attendees, with authentic Victorian delicacies being made according to period recipes. There will even be a pianist in period attire playing the popular tunes of 1900. But something else in the article caught my eye.

This house, built in 1873 for Dutch immigrant Isaac Cappon, a wealthy tannery owner as well as Holland’s first mayor, remained in the Cappon family all the way up to 1980. As a result, it is now “furnished with one of the country’s largest collections of early Grand Rapids furniture in its original setting.”

I took a look at the three photographs provided with the article. I was charmed by the sitting room and amazed by the massive mirror over the mantle. That was enough to set me off on the trail, and I found the site for the Holland Museum, run by the Holland Historical Trust, which owns the contents of the mansion somehow in coordination with the City of Holland.

On this page of the site you’ll see a photo of the exterior of the home. The house was designed by another Dutch immigrant, Jan R. Kleyn, in the Italianate style. It’s impressive, to say the least.

The first link provided from this page is Preserving the Past. Following the link we come to a page that gives the history of Isaac Cappon and his family. Mr. Cappon had eleven children by his first wife and five by his second (the housekeeper). Good thing he lived in a mansion!

Most of the furniture in the home came from Berkey & Gay and Nelson, Matter & Co., “two of the most significant early Grand Rapids furniture companies.” Both companies, along with a third Grand Rapids firm, won awards at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876.

Berkey & Gay supplied the mirror, parlor suite, center table, drapery and corner cornice for the parlor, the master bedroom suite, and the parlor suite and bookcase for the sitting room. There are a number of pictures provided on this page, one of which is a close-up of the arm of a Berkey & Gay chair. Photographs taken of the Berkey & Gay showroom back in 1870 show a mirror identical to the one over the mantle and chairs similar to the ones in the sitting room.

Another link to follow is Lessons from the Parlor. This page, along with providing two shots of the parlor, talks about how the furnishings of this particular room and of the home in general teach a lesson of immigration and assimilation during the Victorian era of 19th century America. This is a thoughtful little article, more insightful than much of what you get on museum promo pages.

I hope you enjoy all this. It falls right in line with my general endeavor to put antique Victorian furniture back into its own era. My compliments to the Holland Museum for their achievements in doing the same!

Technorati Tags: 19th Century, Antiques, Beds, Chair, Furniture, Grand Rapids, Home, House, Mirror, Table, Victorian

I am in awe of people who have the knowledge, energy, and other resources to restore homes that look to me beyond repair. In my quest to find the best material on antique Victorian furniture, I came across a site put up by a couple named Craig and Yvonne, devoted to the restoration of their 1875 Eastlake Victorian home.

It’s one of the best sites of its kind that I’ve seen. It goes room by room with countless photos and has a great mouse-over feature that allows you to see many of the areas in their pre-restoration state.

The house has 38 Victorian doors, and we are treated to a step-by-step gallery of photos as one of the doors goes from bleak to beautiful. Hat’s off to these two, both for the incredible work they’ve done on their home and for the exceptional site they’ve built to share it with us.

As far as furniture goes, you’ll see some nice pieces in the reception hall and the dining room. I’d love to get more of their thoughts on furnishing the home now that they’ve done such an amazing job of restoration.

Click here to see Craig and Yvonne’s restored Victorian home.

Technorati Tags: Doors, Eastlake, Furniture, Home, House, Restoration, Victorian

I truly enjoy posts written by people who are excited about finding just the right pieces of antique Victorian furniture for their homes.

Here is one by a woman in Wisconsin who is remodeling the 1898 home that she and her family are living in. She had been looking for an antique Victorian sofa for years but had never found one she could afford. Finally she came across this one on Craigslist “for a really great price.” She tells us that it’s from the late 1800s and seems to belong in the house. Note the comment on the date though.

You can find the post with photos of the Victorian sofa here. You’ll see why she’s excited about the piece. It’s a great find. I’ll add that her blog overall is well worth the visit, and I myself plan to return.

On another note, this is the second post I’ve written about someone who was thrilled to find the perfect piece of antique Victorian furniture on Craigslist. The first was about a woman who had just found an elegant suite there: a Victorian sofa, love seat and chair.

If you yourself are searching for that perfect Victorian antique, you may want to take a look over there.

Technorati Tags: 19th Century, Craigslist, Home, Remodeling, Sofa, Victorian