Halsey Munson Americana
204 North Summit Avenue
Decatur, Illinois 62522
Phone: 217-972-4645
This web site, web content and all related graphics © 2007-2010 by Halsey Munson Americana, Decatur, Illinois.
All rights reserved.
Painted Four-drawer Chest
Untouched northern Massachusettes birch chest with four lipped and graduated drawers, bracket feet, scalloped apron, cockbeaded top with nice overhang and a back composed almost completely of a single huge pine board. Made just north of Boston around 1800 and the red paint that went on in the cabinetmaker's shop is the paint you see on it now. Flaws: Some replaced glue blocks.
That's it! 36" by 36" by 17". Just a great thing!
$4,200
Chrome Yellow Pennsylvania Dry Sink
Mid-19th C. pine dry sink in wonderful chrome yellow paint over salmon. Great stance with bracket base and shaped sides. One drawer gallery with big exposed dovetails enclosing a 6" deep well.
Two shelves behind paneled through-tenoned doors. 401/2"w x 38"h x 18"d.
The best color, best surface.
$8,500
Pennsylvania Bucket Bench In Paint
Ca. 1830-1840 pine bench with shaped bootjack feet through-tenoned and double wedged at the top of the seat. Gorgeous scrubbed seat surface above original weathered red paint on the base. Square nails. 58"L by 17 1/4"H by 11 1/4"D. Untouched.
$695
18th C. Rhode Island
Sackback Windsor
Tall ca. 1780-1785 knuckle arm sackback Windsor from the Connecticut/Rhode Island border area. Gorgeous crusty surface with early 19th C. red over the original leaf green paint. This chair belongs to a small group of Windsors from that region which used a leg turning pattern featuring a unique extended reel section above the lower leg taper. The addition of knuckle arm terminals carved from the full thickness of the arm, instead of assembled from several pieces, makes this an unusual and perhaps unique chair. 36¾”H overall, 16¼” seat height. No breaks, no repairs, no apologies.
$3,500
New England Tavern Table
Early 18th C. eastern Massachusetts maple stretcher-based tavern table with a one-board
31" x 26" scrubbed pine top, and a 25.5" h.
All original with strong ring and baluster turned legs. A beautiful, mellow table in a great, small size.
$4,800
Small New England
Spice Chest in Red Paint
The term "spice chest" covers a multitude of possibilities, but this small country case of 5 drawers might equally well have been used for medicines or valuables. Four individual nailed drawers over one long drawer with doubled lipped drawer fronts. 12” x 12” x 5¼” with shaped bootjack sides in original paint. All basswood and probably northern New England or upstate New York, ca. 1875.
$1,575
Stenciled Looking Glass
Two-panel federal mirror with turned and ebonized half-columns stenciled with gilt foliage and starflowers, and the pineapple motifs that were symbolic of hospitality and welcome. Beautiful soft surface, original back, with the only replacements the mirror plates themselves. And being able to recognize yourself in a mirror is perhaps not a bad thing. 31”H x 15½”W. Probably Connecticut, ca. 1830-1845.
$375
18th C. Pennsylvania Painted Stand
Ca. 1770-1785 yellow pine splay legged stand dryscraped down to first red. Pinned mortise and tenon construction, bead-molded tapered legs. 28”h. Top is 15½” x 16.” A neat country stand with presence.
$1,450
Set of Circus Steps
Uncommon set of painted circus steps, probably from a traveling carnival, because they disassemble and nest together for transport. Early 20th C. Crusty red, white, yellow and blue paint with touchup to one step. These would make a great display for a collection or a striking plant stand in a sunporch. 68”L x 25”W x 28”H. Found in Maine. From the Peter Brams collection, ex-Arne Anton.
$1,800
Although superb furniture has been created in every age—including the 20th C.—we specialize in 17th, 18th and 19th C. American country. Our emphasis is on period examples whose form and proportion is enhanced by original or early surface, such as antique painted chests, apothecaries and Windsor chairs, tavern and hutch tables with honest scrub tops, Queen Anne seating from New York, Pennsylvania and New England and early mirrors with original glass.
Unique Folky 19th C.
Painted Hall Table
Unusual 19th C. paint-decorated side table. New England, 1835-1850, rectangular top 32¾”W x 11¼”D x 29½”H. Baluster-shaped sides cut out at the bottom to form bootjack feet and joined by three scalloped cross braces. Vivid original swirling paint. An innovative form that may have been intended as a hall or occasional table. Probably Massachusetts North Shore or the Portsmouth
area of New Hampshire
$1,875
Maine One-Drawer Stand in First Paint
Ca. 1840 Maine stand with great overhang dryscraped back to the original bittersweet red surface. All white pine. 23¾” x 24¼” two-board top. 29¼”H. Square nailed drawer with old replaced drawer pull. Found in Maine. Great country stand!
$875
Delaware Valley 5-Slat Rocking Chair
The vast majority of period chairs on rockers were converted at some point long after they were made. This chair is the exception that shows every sign of having been made to be a rocker. The bottoms of the legs are tapered, the underside of the foot shows lathe chuck marks, and the wood grain on the underside of the feet is completely open, indicating that the feet spent no time on the ground. In addition, without the cherrywood rockers, which have an early profile, the seat height would be 13”—impossible unless it was made as a slipper chair, in which case it wouldn’t have had arms. With the rockers, the seat height is over 16”. Maple with cherry rockers and an early, if probably not original, mustard painted rush seat.
$550
Superb Early 19th C.
New Hampshire Candlestand
Although this strikingly delicate candlestand shows several characteristics associated with the Dunlap family of cabinetmakers (form of the pillar, turned center drop, legs mortise and tenoned into the base of the pillar and double-pinned) no firm attribution is possible. However, it was certainly made near the Vermont/New Hampshire border. The bottom photo was included to give an indication of scale. 12¾” x 12¼” octagonal thumb molded top. Remarkable condition, with no breaks, repairs or restoration of any kind. 26½”H.
$2,800
18th C. Octagonal Hutch Table
Ca. 1780-1800 Connecticut River Valley shoe foot hutch table with octagonal thumb molded top. The base is maple, the quadruple pinned stepped shoe feet are oak with chip carving, the three-board top is pine. The finger-notched hutch compartment lid slides in tracks cut into the table sides. The top is 45” x 37” and the table height is 27 ½”. Found in Massachusetts.
$3,400
Three Drawer Paint-Decorated
Lebanon County, PA Blanket Chest
Exceptional pine and poplar dower chest with three side-by-side lipped and dovetailed drawers. Meticulously made, with wedged dovetails in the case and feet, wood-pinned bottom board, one-board top and back and gorgeous carved glue blocks (for those who, like me, care about such things). The chest section has a left hand till with edge-molded lid and forged strap hinges with tulip terminals secured by roseheads and hand-cut screws. The center drawer box lock is original, as is the engraved smith-made crab lock—with key—in the chest section. The salmon-red paint is original and untouched. No breaks, no repairs, no restoration. This chest descended in the Yorty family from what may have been its first owner, Maria Reinoehl, born in 1802, who married Johannes Yorty in 1827 and died in 1873. She is buried in Dauphin County. Family genealogy and a book, History of the 27th Regiment PA Volunteers containing details of the military service of Reinoehl and Yorty family members, accompanies the chest. 28½”H x 50½”W x 22”D.
$6,800
18th C. Pennsylvania Walnut
Candle Stand
Ca. 1730-1750 southeastern Pennsylvania walnut candle stand. Incised baluster, ring and cylinder turned shaft with ash or hickory turned legs and a circular top with incised rim. Pillar is tenoned through the top and secured with an unusual ring of eight pins driven down through the top into the shoulder of the pillar. 26”H. Top: 14½” x 15”. Fig. 101 in The Arts of Early Pennsylvania 1680-1750 illustrates a walnut candle stand of related form.
$1,275
