Perspectives on Antiques
Q: I thought this chair, which I bought for $40, looked very Limbert like. Does it look familiar to you, or is it just a generic wannabe? Someone re-covered it with this strange vinyl, but I think I can feel some tacks banding the edges underneath. Hope you can help.
Phil Biagini
Congratulations! This is a Charles P. Limbert & Company dining room side chair. It is cataloged as a No. 591 and is just one of the pieces that were produced with square cutouts. Certain forms in this line of furniture were directly derived from Charles Rennie Mackintosh and designers of the Vienna Secession, while other designs were unique to Limbert’s line. Through period advertisements and research done by Limbert scholars, it is believed that furniture with square cutouts was introduced around 1905. You’re right, the upholstery on your chair is not the original, which would probably have been leather wrapped around the seat rails with a row of decorative tacks holding the bottom edge
Q: Could you give me any information on this cellarette? The hardware is original, but I could not find a maker’s mark.
Damian
A cellarette is a cabinet that would conceal vices such as alcohol and tobacco. It would have space for a bottle and drink paraphernalia, and maybe a drawer lined in tin or copper that would act as a humidor for cigars or such. Yours is an interesting piece, but I think I would consider it more of a simple storage cabinet.
I don’t recognize the maker. The overall design is reminiscent of pieces produced by the Limbert Company, using flat boards to accent the tapering case. I also see dowels used in the construction, but looking closer you can see that they have a running-grain pattern rather than an end-grain pattern. This tells me that they are probably screw caps and not actual dowels.
The hardware is a bit puzzling. Its quality seems to far surpass the quality of the cabinet. My guess is that it was purchased by the original cabinet maker from another company, such as Gustav Stickley’s Craftsman Workshops, or has been added to the piece more recently.
This may have been made from plans supplied to a hobbyist. This was quite common. Years ago I purchased a sideboard from a gentleman in his nineties. Initially I thought it was a rare piece by
L. & J.G. Stickley. It was beautifully done and had all L. & J.G. hardware, from the strap hinges and door and drawer pulls to the hinges and locks. Only later did he tell me that he had made it while attending Central Tech High School in Syracuse, N.Y., in 1915. The collector that purchased it from me still refers to it as the “Mel Kelly.”
Enjoy your cabinet.
Q: I recently acquired this rocker and would like to know something about it. It appears to be from the Arts and Crafts period. It is small—33" tall and 25" wide. The leather seat is original and drops into the rocker.Any help identifying it would be greatly appreciated.
Joanne
When the editor forwarded your email and photos to me he attached a short note: “Stickley?” He guessed right. Your rocker is a classic, produced by the Stickley Brothers Furniture Company of Grand Rapids, Mich. Albert Stickley, one of the four younger brothers of Gustav Stickley, established this company in 1891, producing late-Victorian “Fancy” furniture. In 1902 the company began producing its “Quaint” line, of which your rocker would have been one model. The stenciled catalog numbers and the use of slats to support the upholstery are tell-tale signs of a Stickley Bros. piece. This probably had an oval paper label that was held on with a single small carpet tack.
Q: My son acquired this chair—one of four—at an auction in Los Angeles ten years ago. On the underside of the seat is a small stamp-like sticker that reads “Christie’s Scotland No. GLW 8 x 574.” We bought them for the kitchen of an Arts and Crafts–style home. I would like to believe they are by Charles Rohlfs. Possible?
Sallie Pasquinelli
Chicago, Ill.
After determining that your dining chair is not by Charles Rohlfs, although certainly considered Arts and Crafts, I chose to call a friend. John Levitties, of John Alexander Ltd., located in Philadelphia, has been a dealer of Reformed Gothic, Aesthetic, and Arts and Crafts design, along with choice examples of 20th-century British handcrafted furniture and decorative arts, for 20 years. I felt he would best be able to evaluate your chairs. He responded:
“It’s an English commercial chair from the turn of the century, perhaps as early as 1890. There is no designer (or, at least, no one of any import—someone in-house at a bulk chair manufacturer, I should think), and the manufacturer is equally anonymous.
“British furniture historian Pauline Agius cites the census of 1881 in identifying 15,000 people engaged in the manufacture of furniture in London’s East End alone in that year. This says nothing of the West End decorators and retailers and does not, of course, even touch on the many provincial manufacturing centers. High Wycombe, the center for chair manufacturing in the U.K. because of the wealth of beech trees in the area, was producing more than 21,000 chairs each week by 1890. Of course, most chairs produced were not in this rather ‘new art’ taste, but you can see the problem.
“Of interest to me is the degree of adaptability inherent in the design—typical of scalable manufacturing, I imagine, such that the stiles/rear legs are of
standard form, as are the front legs, seat rails and three of four stretchers. In order to create the ‘new art’ model, a specific slat and rails are added; nonstructural, decorative skirts are inserted beneath the seat rail; and a more decorative front stretcher is substituted, along with arms and supports. Pieces such as the diagonal members under the arms, which might not exist on other variants, are only applied. In this way, orders for more chairs in the Gothic taste or, perhaps, some provincial vernacular in any given season, required relatively few substantive changes in the manufacturing process.”
Sallie, I hope this helps and gives you a new appreciation of your wonderful chairs.