Carl Eyman
06-19-2006, 1:06 PM
The recent resurgance of P. Michael Henderson's post re his Newport Chest prompts me to post a picture of this piece that has been in my wife's family for several - no, many - generations. We don't know its age, but do know a cousin of her father's generation gave it to Leslie in her will. She had gotten it from her mother. She, in turn had gottten it from a forebearer. So we know it was in the family prior to 1880, but by construction is much older than that.
When we moved from Massachusettts to Puerto Rico in 1961 we sold most of our furniture to a dealer who wanted to buy this piece in the worst way, but Leslie said NO!. He finally offered $700. I didn't have as much appreciation for furniture then and thought that was a lot of money (it was 1/2 the price of a new car).
About 5 years ago Antique Road Show came to New Orleans and we sent a picture to them to see if they were interested. It took them months to respond. By the time they did we had made travel plans for the date they were to be here. They would not include it unless we were there; so we failed to get an expert opinion on its origin.
If you look in Albert Sack's Fine Points of Furniturehe shows a picture of a very similiar piece labeled "Best". He dates it 1750 - 1780. I think others on the samre page are higher quality. They show more elaborate feet, better brasses, more decoration, etc.
One more anecdote: when Leslie's cousin (known in family circles as "Bitch Cousin") took possession of the piece it had been on her relative's sun-porch used as a plant stand for many years and painter dark green. So the finish is not original.
Anyway, in view of recent comments on pieces something like this, I thought it might be interesting to some. Now let's see if I can post the picture.
When we moved from Massachusettts to Puerto Rico in 1961 we sold most of our furniture to a dealer who wanted to buy this piece in the worst way, but Leslie said NO!. He finally offered $700. I didn't have as much appreciation for furniture then and thought that was a lot of money (it was 1/2 the price of a new car).
About 5 years ago Antique Road Show came to New Orleans and we sent a picture to them to see if they were interested. It took them months to respond. By the time they did we had made travel plans for the date they were to be here. They would not include it unless we were there; so we failed to get an expert opinion on its origin.
If you look in Albert Sack's Fine Points of Furniturehe shows a picture of a very similiar piece labeled "Best". He dates it 1750 - 1780. I think others on the samre page are higher quality. They show more elaborate feet, better brasses, more decoration, etc.
One more anecdote: when Leslie's cousin (known in family circles as "Bitch Cousin") took possession of the piece it had been on her relative's sun-porch used as a plant stand for many years and painter dark green. So the finish is not original.
Anyway, in view of recent comments on pieces something like this, I thought it might be interesting to some. Now let's see if I can post the picture.