The Antique Victorian Furniture Blog

Long Sutton, as I have come to understand, is a market town in Lincolnshire, England. I’m geographically out of my element here, but what’s going on there very soon is something that will amaze any lover of antique Victorian furniture and Victorian antiques. Dealers and collectors will be licking their chops over this one.

An English woman named Edna Northam collected and dealt in Victoran antiques for more than 40 years and decorated every room of her house with an astonishing array of antiques.

She had ceramics, glass, china, porcelain, furniture, metalware, and taxidermy. Auctioneer Clinton Slingsby says, “This is one of the most remarkable collections I have ever seen and probably one of the best examples of Victoriana remaining in the country.” And that means England itself!

Every room in Mrs. Northam’s house was themed by color: cranberry glass, blue glass, green glass. Her Victorian furniture was in mahogany, walnut and rosewood.

I’ll let the article tell you the rest. It’s from a publication called Cambs Times 24, and it has a link to a gallery of photos. Wow. Click here to read it.

The sale takes place on June 16 and 17. A full catalogue will be online a week before the sale. Let’s keep our eyes out for it.

Technorati Tags: Antique, Antiques, auctioneer, catalogue, ceramics, china, collections, Collectors, Dealers, England, glass, Mahogany, metalware, photos, porcelain, rosewood, sale, taxidermy, victorian antiques, victorian furniture, victoriana, Walnut

On December 4 I wrote about a blog called A Victorian Passage Into Time, and I promised to share what I found there. How about some advice on how to furnish the parlor of your Victorian home?

The quote provided in this particular post instructs you to choose furniture with comfort rather than style in mind. If you want a “serviceable” wood for the frame, select ebony, oak, walnut, cherry, or mahogany. Think Turkish if you want keep up with the times.

Sets and pairs are out, but you can never go wrong with two easy-chairs placed opposite to one another. Put your divan in a central location, but forget about that marble-topped center table. If you read the passage you’ll also find out how to make your mantel mirror look effective.

What do you think about the date of this advice? It sounds rather late doesn’t it? Indeed, it comes from a work called Useful Information for Ladies, dating to 1897.

Click here to get the full story on how to arrange your antique Victorian furniture to its best effect in your parlor.

I myself unfortunately don’t have a parlor. I wish I did. Life without parlors is hopelessly unsociable and modern.

Technorati Tags: Chairs, Cherry, Divan, Ebony, Furniture, Mahogany, Mirror, Oak, Parlor, Table, Victorian, Walnut

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

Here’s a column from the Ottawa Citizen, written by antiques expert John Sewell. The column is another one that gives appraisal of antiques to readers who I assume send in their inquiries with photographs.

Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find the photos that go with this column. That’s odd. Unless I’m overlooking a link, it’s left to our imagination to supply an image of the pieces.

One of them is intriguing enough for me to have linked to the article despite its visual deficiency. Someone named Ron describes a “piece of furniture” that his mother brought from Ireland in the late 19th century. Mother? Late 19th century? Wow.

We learn from Ron that it came from a castle in Ireland, is solid mahogany, has its original finish and original mirror, and measures 236 centimeters high by 90 centimeters wide. Evidently, however, Ron doesn’t have all his information straight. Because Mr. Sewell replies that it’s actually North American, not Irish, and made of walnut rather than mahogany. No, at this point we still don’t know what type of furniture it is, except that it does have a mirror. I assume Ron wasn’t mistaken about that.

Are you guessing dresser? In fact, it’s an étagère, the French name, Mr. Sewell explains, for an open-shelved piece of furniture used to display ornamental pieces, common in hallways of grand Victorian homes. The style is Renaissance Revival, dating to around 1865 to 1870, worth at least $1,500 in today’s soft, buyer’s market.

The mysteries of antique Victorian furniture. What about that Irish castle? Did this North American étagère make two trips across the Atlantic in the late 1800s?

Click here to see the article, but not the étagère. If you do find a photo, please let me know.

Technorati Tags: 19th Century, Antique, Etagere, Furniture, Mahogany, Renaissance, Revival, Victorian