	AllExperts > Collectibles-General (Antiques)
	Search

About Fred Taylor
Expertise
I will attempt to answer questions about American antique furniture, including construction details, style, period, manufacturers, care, repair and storage. I do not have any background in appliances, musical instruments, sewing machines, lighting and clocks and will not respond to quesions about those items.

Experience
I ran an antique furniture restoration business for twenty years. I am a nationally syndicated columnist on the subject of antique furniture for such publications as Antique Week and New England Antiques Journal. I have produced one video on the subject of furniture identification and my book "HOW TO BE A FURNITURE DETECTIVE" is now available.I have also published articles in Antique Trader, Chicago Art Deco Society, Northeast Magazine, Victorian Decorating and Lifestyles, Professional Refinishing, Antiques and Art Around Florida and Antique Shoppe. You can visit my website at www.furnituredetective.com

Education/Credentials
BSBA Finance, University of Florida, MBA Finance, University of Florida

You are here: Experts > Hobbies > Antiques: UK > Collectibles-General (Antiques) > sleigh bed and dressers

Collectibles-General (Antiques) - sleigh bed and dressers

Expert: Fred Taylor - 10/30/2009

Question
I have a sleigh bedroom set purchased by my grandparents when they married around 1900, supposedly at Wanamaker’s department store in Philadelphia. It contains a double sleigh bed, a tall chest, and a dresser with attached mirror. It is solid wood (mahogany, I think?), and in fairly good condition, except for some scratches, and some chipped veneer. Interestingly, the wood finish on the dresser and chest are different, and the curled shape of the feet are slightly different. So maybe they didn’t come from a set. But they were always used as part of a set. Could you please give me some idea of value? No one else in the family seems to want antiques anymore. I will email pictures - right now, I have them of the chest and dresser, but not of the bed. Thank you.

Answer
Mary Ann - Oral family history always tends to add some wrinkles to the real facts. Your bedroom set is not a set. The chest of drawers is from the Late Classicism period of the 1840s. The style was introduced in 1835 by J. and J.W. Meeks in New York with their famous hand colored broadside advertisment of thirty five pieces in the new style. This style is frequently and erroneaously labeled as "Empire." It is made of crotch mahogany veneer over pine or poplar substrate. Crotch cut veneer is cut from the intersection of a large branch with the trunk or the intersection of two large branches. That creates the "flame" or "feather" pattern seen in the veneer. If you look at the joints in the drawer you will see that they are hand made dovetail joints. The top is a single board of solid mahogany.

The dresser with mirror is from the early 20th century, 1910-1920. The style at time in the late 1910s and early 1920s was called “Colonial” in a mistaken attempt to relate to the Colonial Revival movement in American furniture at the time that reproduced styles from our colonial past. However, the design is not from the colonial period. It is from the end of the Empire period and is a remake of the Late Classicism style. In effect it is a 20th century copy of the older piece. The veneer on this piece is ribbon striped mahogany, typical of the period, laid over a substrate of birch or oak. A close look will show the joints in these drawers are uniformly cut machine made dovetail joints. This is probably the piece that was bought at Wanamakers along with the bed. The chest was probably picked up later as a coincidence.

I haven't seen the bed so I can't tell which period it is from. The key to the age of the bed is the method used to attach the siderails to the headboard. An original bed of the period used a hand made bolt with a square head implanted in the siderail. A 20th century bed used a stamped steel hook. The evolution of bed hardware is illustrated and explained in my book "HOW TO BE A FURNITURE DETECTIVE" found on my website.

I have two Late Classicism chests and a sleigh bed of the original period as well as a Meeks game table and several other pieces. It is one of my favorite styles.

Despite being from periods sixty years or more apart, the value of the chest and dresser is similar. Each would sell at auction in the $200 range. While the monetary value is not great the family significance is probably immeasurable. Your are fortunate to have the "set."

Thanks for writing.

Fred Taylor
www.furnituredetective.com.

Add to this Answer Ask a Question