Transcript
Speaker: The auctioneer didn't know what it was and so cataloged it as a mace, which is a delightful, wholesome, beautiful works of art.
Speaker: They wanted to show that they were aware of history and......extra feature that distinguishes it among maybe thousands of deaths....all of the elements of this piece fall together so beautifully.
Speaker: The proportions......one of those rare outliers to find a piece that has never been touched.
Speaker: Chippendale design is flowing graceful line.
Speaker: Every top, every table made in New York is going to be exactly the same shape.
Speaker: Made in the 90th century...
Speaker: Welcome back to Curious Objects and the Stories Behind Them, brought to you by the magazine Antiques.
Speaker: I'm your host, Ben Miller.
Speaker: Before we start, I'd like to bring your attention to America's oldest auction house, Freeman's.
Speaker: Located in Center City, Philadelphia, Freeman's has been telling the story of valued objects and collections since 1805.
Speaker: Today, Freemans believes in a unique standard of one-on-one service, and their tradition of excellence has benefited generations of private collectors, institutions, advisors, estates, and museums.
Speaker: This April, Freemans will bring to auction the collection of Dorrance Dodo H. Hamilton.
Speaker: With works by Cezanne, Garber, and Audubon, the collection features fine European and American paintings, furniture and decorative arts, and jewelry from the venerable philanthropist and Philadelphia fixture.
Speaker: For more information, visit Freeman's online at freemansauction.com.
Speaker: This is part two of my double episode from the Winter Antiques Show at the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan.
Speaker: I have another eight dealers for you this time and a great slate of objects.
Speaker: Like always, you can see pictures online at themagazineantiques.com slash podcast.
Speaker: That's themagazineantiques.com slash podcast.
Speaker: And just a quick reminder, please send me your feedback at podcast at themagazineantiques.com.
Speaker: I'd really like to know what you're enjoying about the podcast and what you might like to see me do differently.
Speaker: And of course, suggestions for future guests.
Speaker: Also, a huge thank you to everyone who has left a rating on iTunes.
Speaker: That really helps me bring the show to new listeners.
Speaker: We're starting out today with an old New York firm called Bernard and S. Dean Levy.
Speaker: Frank Levy, one of its current owners, told me about a curious New York-made table from a group of furniture sometimes referred to as the Beekman Group.
Speaker: The Cliff Notes backstory here is that the group was made for the Beekman family in the second half of the 18th century.
Speaker: It was only in the 1990s that a researcher named Lauren Brunk discovered a record naming the probable maker of the group a fellow named William Proctor.
Speaker: You'll hear Frank mention a Winterthur student researching Beekman.
Speaker: He's talking there about Lauren.
Speaker: Let's jump in.
Speaker: We're talking about a five-legged table.
Speaker: And why does it have five legs?
Speaker: That's the question I was hoping you wouldn't ask because we don't really know.
Speaker: It's peculiar to New York primarily.
Speaker: I think there are a couple of English examples that have been mistaken as New York.
Speaker: that are out there, but it's peculiar to New York in this period.
Speaker: Which period is that?
Speaker: This is the Chippennail period.
Speaker: So these tables generally date from 1750 to 1775.
Speaker: What's nice about the fifth leg is that that's the swing leg.
Speaker: That's the one that moves, so that at all times there are four legs holding it up.
Speaker: So when you look at it from a distance, if it's open, you still see all the legs moving.
Speaker: supporting the table.
Speaker: Because the cover is, or the top is hinged so that it can fold out to make a table twice the size of the original table.
Speaker: Exactly, a games table.
Speaker: And actually this one is, it's hinged so that when you open it up, there's a felt or a bays on the interior, little cups, little scoops for your chips.
Speaker: People gambled on this table?
Speaker: People actually may have gambled on this table.
Speaker: I'm shocked.
Speaker: We think they played a game called Whist, W-H-I-S-T.
Speaker: Oh, sure.
Speaker: But I have no idea how that game is played.
Speaker: I mean, I know poker.
Speaker: I don't know Whist.
Speaker: Well, let's stick to the table then and leave the card games aside.
Speaker: What's the material?
Speaker: The material is the primary wood or the wood that you see is all mahogany, which had to be imported into New York to be made.
Speaker: The secondary woods or the inside woods, the guts of it, are a combination.
Speaker: The back rail, the rail that swings, that allows the leg to move is oak.
Speaker: And it's oak because that's a strong wood that can withstand all the movement and then the wooden hinge
Speaker: won't wear down and then you start losing legs or having problems.
Speaker: There's some tulip poplar in there, which is local to New York, and there's a little bit of white pine as well.
Speaker: And there's a group of tables that this belongs to, is that right?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: This is a table made in New York City, and there are four main groups of tables made in New York City.
Speaker: This belongs to a group that used to be called the Beekman Group.
Speaker: There were a pair of tables made for the Beekman family that used to be at New York historical and now in a private collection.
Speaker: They're made the same way this one is made.
Speaker: They all kind of look the same because every top, every table made in New York, doesn't matter who made them, is going to be exactly the same shape top.
Speaker: So somebody either had a template that was being shared or there's some guy making tops for these things.
Speaker: You know, not just the cabinet maker making the case, but there's
Speaker: top maker out there, one of those two possibilities.
Speaker: What's happened since the Beekman Group was called the Beekman Group is a Wineter student went through the Beekman papers, which are at New York Historical and are a treasure trove of information.
Speaker: She found a bill
Speaker: Not a bill, but sort of a receipt from the Beekman family to a man named William Proctor for one card table, one china table, and I think it's 11 Windsor chairs.
Speaker: The Beekman pair would make you think, well, there's only one table there, but the Beekman pair are two very different tables, clearly made as a pair to be next to each other, but made it two different times.
Speaker: So the fact that they're buying one table from this man, Proctor...
Speaker: I think means that he is the maker of this group.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Fascinating.
Speaker: Attribution in American furniture is always so difficult.
Speaker: It's very interesting to have a little bit of documentation around this one.
Speaker: It's a beautiful piece, and I'm grateful to you for sharing it with us.
Speaker: Pleasure.
Speaker: Thanks for asking.
Speaker: Next up is the only piece of jewelry in today's episode.
Speaker: You'll hear us talk about the jeweler's signature, which refers to a tiny mark either stamped or engraved on a piece of jewelry to identify the maker.
Speaker: Marks like this were rare in the 19th century when this piece was made, and as you'll hear, they can be an important feature to look at if you're trying to determine whether a piece is authentic or fake.
Speaker: Here's Joan Boning.
Speaker: I am fourth generation at James Robinson.
Speaker: We are a business that's been around since 1912.
Speaker: And currently, my son is also in the firm.
Speaker: So he's fifth generation.
Speaker: And you're here in New York.
Speaker: We're here in New York.
Speaker: We're at 480 Park Avenue, which is at 58th Street.
Speaker: And we're looking at a necklace and a brooch.
Speaker: Necklace and a Brooch by Carlo Giuliano.
Speaker: It's an exquisite piece of jewelry, the necklace, which it's unusual because it's set with multicolored zircons and diamonds as well as decorated in black and white enamel.
Speaker: It's very splashy.
Speaker: The colors do make it a little fun.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: It's lots of fun and I think it's quite wearable.
Speaker: But it kind of is an interesting piece because it's unique.
Speaker: I've never seen another one quite like it.
Speaker: All of the elements of this piece fall together so beautifully.
Speaker: The proportions, the colors, the way they are varied, but yet they connect to each other in a way that other jewelers weren't able to do.
Speaker: He just had better foresight in terms of putting things together.
Speaker: And give us a time period here.
Speaker: Well, this particular piece dates from around 1875.
Speaker: And actually, we purchased it from a woman back in the early 80s who came in.
Speaker: The piece originally was in a box.
Speaker: The box had a necklace and a blank space for a brooch.
Speaker: And the woman said, no, I don't have the brooch, I just have the necklace.
Speaker: And we purchased it and sold it to a collector.
Speaker: And I said to him, well, if by chance the brooch ever shows up, of course I'll call you.
Speaker: And never thinking that a few years later the lady's sister would show up and said, oh,
Speaker: my sister sold you a necklace a few years ago.
Speaker: I have the brooch."
Speaker: So I immediately purchased the brooch, immediately called my client, reconnected the two pieces.
Speaker: Unfortunately, the box was lost in a flood in their vault.
Speaker: I admonished him for not at least saving the box as badly damaged as it was because we also know that by having it in its original case, that would also increase its value.
Speaker: What else is there to say about this?
Speaker: Well, one of the rare things about it is not only the design of it and the wearability, but the fact that it has five signatures.
Speaker: Five signatures.
Speaker: Five signatures.
Speaker: And how many signatures do you normally see?
Speaker: Normally, I've only seen one, and I've only seen one other necklace that had two.
Speaker: One was on the clasp, and one was on the front of the piece.
Speaker: I don't know why this particular piece, other than it's wonderful, has five signatures, but it does make me wonder if many of the pieces began their life with more than one signature and somewhere along the way something happened or they were taken apart and other pieces were recreated.
Speaker: I can't confirm that, I just wonder why this piece, I've seen other wonderful pieces that he did that only had one signature.
Speaker: Because adding a Giuliano signature to an otherwise normal, ordinary piece would certainly add a lot of that.
Speaker: Would change its value completely.
Speaker: And is the signature a difficult thing to forge?
Speaker: Well, his signature is a CG which is cast on a small oval disc so my assumption would be that a good jeweler could probably do that but it would probably be something that no one would want to try to do because if people got wind of the fact that there were faked marks, this jewelry doesn't carry enough cachet.
Speaker: It's not like Cartier.
Speaker: People have to know who Giuliano is and have to understand his jewelry.
Speaker: It's a little bit academic.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: And so it would be easier to take a marked link off of an existing piece and create a new piece around that.
Speaker: Well, thanks so much for joining me.
Speaker: My pleasure.
Speaker: Thanks for coming to visit us at the show.
Speaker: This next object draws us away from precious materials and the aristocracy and into the realm of the everyday, an object designed for practical use, whose maker nevertheless invested great care into its crafting.
Speaker: Here is David Shorsch.
Speaker: The name of your form is... It's David A. Shorsch and Eileen M. Smiles American Antiques, and we're based out of Woodbury, Connecticut.
Speaker: And you're coming down to New York for the show and you've brought with you some very interesting objects of an eclectic variety of origins.
Speaker: What would you say is the genre that you deal in?
Speaker: Well, we deal in high-end American folk art and it covers a variety of mediums.
Speaker: From textiles to baskets to painted furniture, Pennsylvania German objects, folk paintings, and folk sculpture.
Speaker: That pretty much is the overview of the material.
Speaker: And today we're talking about a basket.
Speaker: And a piece of shaker furniture.
Speaker: Oh, right.
Speaker: Very much in vogue these days.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: But we've decided to talk about a basket.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And this is a small basket.
Speaker: What is it, about a foot in diameter?
Speaker: Well, you're very good.
Speaker: It's 11 and a half inches in diameter.
Speaker: Okay, okay.
Speaker: And it's a circular form with a rounded bottom.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It has a handle carved from a single piece of wood.
Speaker: Steam-bent.
Speaker: Steam bent.
Speaker: Steam bent.
Speaker: In order to achieve that, it's probably an oak handle.
Speaker: Oak as being a wiry wood like hickory or ash works very well to be steam bent.
Speaker: And it also has a cover.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: That has a knob on the top of it.
Speaker: Made of sycamore.
Speaker: It's turned sycamore.
Speaker: The bottom board and the finial are made of sycamore.
Speaker: And the body and the cover are both woven.
Speaker: Correct.
Speaker: This is what's called in the field a Nantucket lightship basket.
Speaker: And many people may be familiar with Nantucket baskets because a kind of lady's purse was developed in Nantucket.
Speaker: Late 40s into the 50s became wildly popular.
Speaker: They still make reproductions today.
Speaker: Those were really invented and developed by a
Speaker: a Filipino immigrant to the island named Jose Formosa Reyes.
Speaker: And Reyes took a basket like this, which was made earlier in the classic style, and reinvented it in an oval shape with a hinged lid with leather.
Speaker: woven leather thong hinges and often has a top with carved scrimshaw ivory ornamentation.
Speaker: Oh, right.
Speaker: Like a half of a sperm whale or a floral device.
Speaker: So a much more elaborate object than what we're looking at.
Speaker: And also designed specifically for the tourist trade in large quantities.
Speaker: Whereas this one would have been made for personal use?
Speaker: This was either made as a presentation piece by the maker or custom designed because it's very rare in this genre of Nantucket basketry to find one with a lid.
Speaker: So the thing that makes this basket special, of course, is the beautiful craftsmanship and the design and so forth.
Speaker: But 99% of all Nantucket light chip baskets
Speaker: look like this without a lid.
Speaker: It's that this has this extra feature that distinguishes it among, you know, maybe thousands of baskets.
Speaker: And it would have been used to carry around personal effects.
Speaker: Yeah, we don't know.
Speaker: I'm not sure it was ever used.
Speaker: No, I see.
Speaker: And it's made by a maker called Arthur D. Williams, and he lived from 1865, I believe, to 1940.
Speaker: Anyway, what's interesting about these baskets and how they derived their name is Nantucket, being located where it is, there were a lot of shipping accidents.
Speaker: So they actually had something called the South Shoal Light Ship, which was in a sense a portable lighthouse.
Speaker: It was a ship exclusively designed to hold a light.
Speaker: So it was in a location where they could not have a lighthouse.
Speaker: So they would anchor this ship with the light in this very dangerous area to protect incoming vessels.
Speaker: And sailors and workers there stayed there for months on end.
Speaker: And sometime in the, I don't know, 1860s, 1870s, and we're not sure who, it may be Captain Ray, it's...
Speaker: It's a dispute among scholars as to who exactly invented the Nantucket lightship basket, but they started creating these extremely finely woven baskets that have certain features that distinguish them from all other American-made baskets.
Speaker: What's interesting about Nantucket baskets, and for someone who might be an aspiring collector, is that this is a field where a new collector could begin buying one for under $1,000.
Speaker: and get into the field because these were made over successive generations.
Speaker: So as they get newer, it's generally more affordable, and they're still making them on the island today.
Speaker: Well, David, thanks so much for the education.
Speaker: My pleasure.
Speaker: You bet.
Speaker: Picture yourself in an effete and refined Victorian garden.
Speaker: You see the manicured grass and pruned cypress, marble stairs and fountains, and of course, sitting atop walls and plinths, classical statues.
Speaker: Where do these statues come from and how are they made?
Speaker: My next guest gave me the inside scoop.
Speaker: I'm here with Barbara Israel of Barbara Israel Garden Antiques.
Speaker: And we're standing in front of a very interesting statue, which looks almost as if it could be ancient Greek or Roman.
Speaker: Well, she does imitate that.
Speaker: No question, this is a classical figure.
Speaker: And she's representing the applied arts.
Speaker: In her right hand, she has a sculptor's tool.
Speaker: And in her left hand, she has a palette, even with the little bits of paint left on it.
Speaker: And she is the applied arts.
Speaker: There were originally four of them that would have been applied arts, industry, trade, and commerce, and science.
Speaker: Five of them.
Speaker: And she is not actually ancient.
Speaker: No, she was made in the 19th century, or close to the end of it at least, by a German company called Wilroy & Bosch, and she is marked such on her base, which is something I care about enormously, knowing what these pieces are.
Speaker: Because garden pieces were made in replica, so sometimes you just get something that floats in and it isn't marked, and it's hard to figure it out.
Speaker: And what purpose was she made for?
Speaker: Purely decorative to be placed in a garden?
Speaker: Yes, she would have been exactly that.
Speaker: And she's made of stoneware, so that is a hard-fired clay object.
Speaker: And usually they fire it longer, so it's better in the winter if you're in the northeast where we are.
Speaker: Stronger and is less porous, so you don't have water leaking in and freezing and causing problems.
Speaker: When she was first made, was it an expensive object?
Speaker: Was it something that only an aristocratic house would have had, or was it made for a more popular market?
Speaker: I think it would have been more on the elite side because it might not have been all that expensive compared to today's prices of these things, but it would not have been something to have in a humble garden.
Speaker: One of the reasons people collected these sorts of statues that replicated ancient subjects was because they wanted to show that they were aware of history and they were erudite people.
Speaker: And I imagine the same could be said of some of your clients.
Speaker: Yes, that's true.
Speaker: And I think, you know, just as you're proud to have an antique inside the house, people are really, really excited about having objects in their garden, sculptural objects.
Speaker: And they add so much, especially if there's a new garden and you put an old statue in it, it makes the new garden look as if it's been there for years.
Speaker: Well, thanks so much for talking to me, Barbara.
Speaker: You're most welcome.
Speaker: My pleasure.
Speaker: Let's take a quick break and thank our sponsor, America's oldest auction house, Freemans.
Speaker: Located in Center City, Philadelphia, Freemans has been telling the story of valued objects and collections since 1805.
Speaker: Today, Freemans believes in a unique standard of one-on-one service, and their tradition of excellence has benefited generations of private collectors, institutions, advisors, estates, and museums.
Speaker: Freemans holds more than two dozen auctions a year across all collecting categories, from American furniture and decorative arts to modern and contemporary art.
Speaker: With international experience and comprehensive knowledge of market conditions, the specialists at Freeman's work closely with consignors and collectors to offer unparalleled assistance in the sale and purchase of fine art, furniture, decorative arts, jewelry, books, and more.
Speaker: All of Freeman's auctions and catalogs are published online.
Speaker: Their app, Freeman's Live, is a complimentary service that allows users to bid live in real time from any mobile device or desktop.
Speaker: Freeman's is currently inviting consignments for their spring 2018 auction season.
Speaker: For those clients outside the Philadelphia area, Freeman's regional representatives in New England, Southeast, and West Coast areas are available to assist you with every step of the consignment process.
Speaker: Let Freeman's help tell your story.
Speaker: For more information or to set up a complimentary and confidential auction valuation of a single object or an entire collection, please visit Freeman's online at freemansauction.com.
Speaker: So many categories of collectible antiques are dominated by male craftsmen, furniture, jewelry, silver, fine art.
Speaker: But my next guest specializes in an area dominated by female artisans, namely early American and English needlework.
Speaker: The great thing about needlework, to my mind, is that so many of these pieces tell their own stories with evocative images and descriptive text.
Speaker: Here is Stephen Huber of the Old Saybrook, Connecticut Gallery, Stephen and Carol Huber.
Speaker: These young girls would go to school, they were highly academically trained, but also along with that they would do needlework, which was basically like taking art classes.
Speaker: So this little girl, Deborah Keith, from Massachusetts in the early 1800s, around 1806,
Speaker: did a beautiful little memorial that if you glance at it, it looks like a nativity scene.
Speaker: It's just the sweetest thing.
Speaker: It's about a foot by a foot roughly and it has black Eglomise glass around it and the inner circle depicts three people that look like Wiseman if you first look at it, kneeling down and a little baby and then a woman on the other side.
Speaker: But what it amounts to, after doing some research on it, we discovered that Deborah Keith, who did this sampler, had a little baby sister that died, and she was only an infant.
Speaker: And this is depicting the sweetest little rendition of her three brothers paying homage to the little sister and herself.
Speaker: So she's kneeling on one side of the little baby, and the three brothers are kneeling in parallel to each other on the other side, and...
Speaker: And up in the sky, there are some figures there as well.
Speaker: In the sky, right up above the little baby, are four little angels holding a ring with a little star in the middle.
Speaker: It's indicative of the little baby going to heaven, her soul.
Speaker: And it's just, it's very moving.
Speaker: And these girls, they would go to school and they would be expected to do a memorial.
Speaker: And this is an example of that.
Speaker: And it wasn't necessarily because somebody recently died.
Speaker: Often they would do the memorial and dedicate it to maybe a little brother or sister that died.
Speaker: Maybe the girl was six years old when their brother or sister died, and maybe she's doing this memorial when she's 16 years old and dedicating it to them.
Speaker: But anyway, this whole Silk and Brodery Memorial thing, they tend to be just sweet, delightful, wholesome, beautiful works of art.
Speaker: And this is just another example of that.
Speaker: There's a fantastical looking city in the background.
Speaker: Is that supposed to depict a real place?
Speaker: I doubt that that city depicts a real place.
Speaker: It may be indicative of heaven.
Speaker: In my father, there's many houses.
Speaker: I don't know how that phrase goes.
Speaker: In my father's house, there are many mansions or something like that.
Speaker: It may be indicative of that, but it looks like a...
Speaker: town scene, but it's a little heavenish looking too.
Speaker: So I just don't know the answer to that.
Speaker: Tell me a little about the research behind this piece.
Speaker: You have the name of the girl who created it, Deborah Keith.
Speaker: We have the name and we knew where she was from and we did genealogical research and discovered that all the information that I was just relaying to you about having an infant sister that died and the three brothers and it all just clicked and say, wow, that's like an unusual one-off thing.
Speaker: And it's really a work of art.
Speaker: I mean, from a distance, you could easily mistake it for a painting.
Speaker: As a lot of these silk embroideries have that same scenario about them.
Speaker: You look at them, you think it's a painting.
Speaker: You come up and realize that it's needlework and watercolor on silk.
Speaker: And so anyway, that's about this piece.
Speaker: Well, thanks very much for joining me.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: It's been a pleasure.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: There's no antique form that's more iconic than a chair.
Speaker: My first ever guest on this podcast talked with me about a chair.
Speaker: It's simple, intuitive, functional, and universal.
Speaker: But the way it's designed and made can tell you a lot about the people who created it and used it.
Speaker: So I was excited to speak with Kevin Tolomieri of Nathan Liverant and Son about this 18th century Pennsylvania chair.
Speaker: And where are you based?
Speaker: We're out of Colchester, Connecticut.
Speaker: And you've brought with you a chair from Pennsylvania.
Speaker: And this dates to about what period?
Speaker: The chair dates from between 1765 to 1780.
Speaker: It's a very exuberant Chippendale style.
Speaker: So it really shows that mature version of the American interpretation of Chippendale.
Speaker: So what exactly does that look like for listeners who aren't here with us right now?
Speaker: Well, the idea with Chippendale design is to really create an interaction of flowing graceful lines.
Speaker: You really look for an activated space, something where there's serpentine curves and carving, and the chair is really going into all different directions all at once.
Speaker: You have a serpentine shaped crest with backwards flaring ears, a central carved shell that's flanked by scrolled volutes that are deeply carved into the crest.
Speaker: And that's supported by a serpentine shaped and pierced splat that really has curly cues and returns and points and spurs, all sorts of decoration, but put together into a unified design.
Speaker: So what gives this away as an American chair as opposed to an English chair?
Speaker: Well, that's a good question because the design and the name Chippendale comes from Thomas Chippendale, who was the English designer.
Speaker: And the splat is really right out of Thomas Chippendale's design book.
Speaker: But this is an American version because it's a little more simplified throughout the whole chair than what you would expect to see in England.
Speaker: And you combine that with the fact that it's made out of native walnut.
Speaker: That was a primary wood used in Philadelphia and on certain parts of the East Coast that has great character and quality, depth of color, and really fine grain.
Speaker: And so aside from the wood, which is local to Philadelphia, what else tells you that this is from Philadelphia?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, you get that combination of the placement and style of carving of the shells, the combination with the shells and the scrolled volutes.
Speaker: And I say shells plural.
Speaker: This chair is also known as a four-shell chair.
Speaker: And you have one shell carved in the crest.
Speaker: one shell carved in the center of the front seat rail, and then two shells carved, one on each knee of the cabriole legs.
Speaker: So that particular design and layout of the shells and placement throughout the chair is particular to Philadelphia.
Speaker: Do you know anything about the provenance of the chair?
Speaker: We don't know.
Speaker: Unfortunately, we don't know where this chair came from.
Speaker: But it was made in Philadelphia by one of their skilled craftsmen.
Speaker: We don't know who owned it, but it was certainly a wealthy and well-established family that was purchasing their furniture in the latest fashion in that mid to late 18th century time.
Speaker: Is it comfortable to sit in?
Speaker: Why don't you give it a shot?
Speaker: You can tell me.
Speaker: I mean, they did design these for sitting and for use in the household.
Speaker: And a good place to sit and have dinner.
Speaker: Not too shabby.
Speaker: This is going to force me to adopt the good posture that my grade school teacher has always failed to instill in me.
Speaker: You do tend to sit up straight and correct.
Speaker: Well, Kevin, thanks so much for talking to me.
Speaker: It's been my pleasure.
Speaker: Thanks for stopping by.
Speaker: We talk a lot in the antiques world about provenance.
Speaker: After all, half the fun of an antique is the connection you can feel with its past owners.
Speaker: Every little fact you can turn up about an object's history, even if it's only where and when it was made, makes it that much more compelling.
Speaker: The eponymous Jeffrey Toulou of Jeffrey Toulou Antiques brought two pieces to the show that share a remarkably complete provenance.
Speaker: In fact, they've been together since birth.
Speaker: I'll let him tell the story.
Speaker: Yes, so the two pieces I have in the booth that are highboys are both from the same family.
Speaker: They were made in Woodbury, Connecticut in about 1783 and have remained in the Stiles family ever since.
Speaker: So right off the bat to have two pieces with the same provenance.
Speaker: That's incredible provenance.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The high boy, which is illustrated in the magazine antiques, and the one that's in center in the booth, is most notable for its state of preservation.
Speaker: It has original finish, original brass, and it's just one of those rare outliers to find a piece that has never been touched.
Speaker: So coupled with the provenance, the rarity of having a piece remain in the same family is a great opportunity for a museum or a great collector to own one of, I think, the better pieces I've seen on the marketplace.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: And so physically, it's an imposing piece, quite large.
Speaker: And the pediment has some interesting spiral pieces.
Speaker: How would you describe this?
Speaker: Well, the few distinct features are that the plinth, the center plinth, has a little scrolled plinth on the top below the center finial.
Speaker: Um, the other curious thing about these pieces are the secondary woods.
Speaker: They are all white oak, which is sort of not commonly seen in other New England pieces.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Any idea why white oak might have been used?
Speaker: Just native wood to that area in Woodbury.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And sorry, what was the primary wood?
Speaker: Primary wood is cherry.
Speaker: Most, again, native wood.
Speaker: Most of these pieces in Western Connecticut are of cherry.
Speaker: What elements of this are more specifically regional versus more broadly American?
Speaker: Well, for more rural area cabinetry, you're getting away from maybe sort of some of the center shops in the cities, which will clearly have more uniformity with the shells.
Speaker: Up here in Woodbury in Western Connecticut, as you can see, you have two different shells from top to bottom.
Speaker: And what I would call a lobed shell because the rays are rounded at the end and the shell below is a little tighter.
Speaker: Again, one of the distinct features with this is that the rays are coming out of a center circle rather than just a point.
Speaker: But the other wonderful things about Connecticut furniture in general is that they carry on a whole different form in elements that you don't see in like Boston, New York, Philadelphia furniture.
Speaker: Well, it's had 250 years in a happy home.
Speaker: I hope it finds another one soon.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: I owe my next and last guest a special thank you because when I'm not podcasting, I'm actually working for him.
Speaker: He's been extremely supportive of the podcast.
Speaker: And while I know I'm biased, I have to say that he's also a pretty good antiques dealer.
Speaker: It's the last interview you'll hear from the Winter Antique Show, but it was actually the first one I recorded there.
Speaker: Oh, are we live now?
Speaker: Hi, Tim.
Speaker: Do you want to introduce yourself?
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: My name is Tim Martin and my company is SJ Shrubsole.
Speaker: We're silver dealers and jewelry dealers on 81st Street in New York.
Speaker: And for the record, would you state the relationship between you and your interviewer?
Speaker: Oh, and Ben is the director of research at the above-mentioned firm.
Speaker: And don't think just because you're my boss that I'm going to go easy on you.
Speaker: I would have no such expectations.
Speaker: What are we looking at today?
Speaker: we're looking at a rare george the first malinette uh... by anthony now on uh... what is a moment well a malinette is uh... effectively a whisk if if you want the sort of nearest analogy to contemporary kitchen implements uh... it is a uh... long uh... piece of silver with a wooden handle at one end and uh... fan as the sort of fins or pierced
Speaker: Well, it's actually a simple malinette.
Speaker: It simply has four fins at the bottom and really not much else.
Speaker: This particular malinette, which is a very, very unusual and very, very fine malinette, has at the bottom, I think it's, is it six?
Speaker: Yeah, six.
Speaker: six pierced fins, which are shaped and pierced out with sort of scrolls and little floral flourishes.
Speaker: And they are, the reason I make the analogy with a whisk is that the purpose of a malinette was to stir up hot chocolate.
Speaker: How old is this piece?
Speaker: It was made in 1719.
Speaker: And what's unusual about this as opposed to other Mullinettes?
Speaker: Well, these great big, well, basically it's the size.
Speaker: It's really colossal.
Speaker: In fact, kind of amusingly, it came up for a sale in a small auction in the countryside in England.
Speaker: And, you know, like a lot of people, the auctioneer didn't know what it was.
Speaker: But interestingly, he probably went online and looked for pictures of similar things and so cataloged it as a mace, which is a typically fairly massive piece of ceremonial plate that was carried in processions and has a roughly similar form.
Speaker: Have you ever used it as a mace?
Speaker: I haven't, although sometimes I've been tempted to smite you with it.
Speaker: I think we better leave it there.
Speaker: Thanks, Tim.
Speaker: You're welcome.
Speaker: Thanks.
Speaker: you
Speaker: That's it for today.
Speaker: And that's the end of my coverage of the 2018 Winter Antique Show.
Speaker: These episodes were a lot of fun to put together, and I'm grateful to all the dealers who took the time to talk with me.
Speaker: I'm also grateful to you for listening.
Speaker: I'll be even more grateful if you subscribe, leave a rating on iTunes, which takes all of about 10 seconds.
Speaker: You can do that right now.
Speaker: And if you send me your feedback to podcast at themagazineantiques.com.
Speaker: Today's episode was produced and edited by Sammy Delati.
Speaker: Our music is by Trap Rabbit.
Speaker: And I'm your host, Ben Miller.
Speaker: Thanks for listening.
