It was the special genius of 18th and 19th C. craftsmen to make ordinary objects
extraordinary. Utilitarian furnishings like small looking glasses and watchholders were
carved and painted. Color and design turned pantries and table top boxes into decoration. And early lighting took on a gallery of forms limited only by the gifts of the individual
artisan. We do our best to bring you the rarest and most distinctive accessories in the
hope that they will brighten your home as they did other homes centuries ago.
Four 19th C. R.C. Remmey
Stoneware Tavern Mugs
Rare set of four ca. 1850-1860 barrel form pint tavern mugs, attributed to Richard Clinton Remmey of Philadelphia, the last of the legendary Remmey family of potters. Cobalt decorated, with a cobalt infilled inscription to a patron known as “Mc C.” Save for one in-the-making salt drip, all four are quite literally perfect.
$1,525
Buttocks Basket in Red Paint
Late 19th C. ash splint buttocks basket in original red surface. Tightly woven . One miniscule break on the underside. 10¾” L x 8½”D x 9”H to the top of the handle.
$395
18th C. Northeastern Ash Burl Bowl
Large black ash burl bowl with the flaring vertical profile usually found only in early turned burl. Extremely deep with good swirling figure. 16” x 8”, an unusual 2:1 aspect ratio. Unwaxed, unvarnished. Lightly bleached interior, probably from use as a food or bread bowl. Fine incised turnings on the sides. Great early 19th C. forged nail repair of a rim split and a late 19th C. patch to a crack with two sheets of tiinned iron. Ca. 1760-1780. Steven Powers shows a similar bowl on p. 42 of North American Burl Treen, and Nutting illustrates a bowl of identical form as fig. 3792 in Furniture Treasury.
$1,675
Halsey Munson Americana
204 North Summit Avenue
Decatur, Illinois 62522
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19th C. Pantry in Verdigris Green
Ca. 1850-1875 pantry box in a striking shade of verdigris green that matches almost perfectly the honest weathered surface of a really good 19th C. weathervane. 9½” with several helper nails with irregular heads and the painted initials “OH” on the bottom.
$775
Early Pantry in the Best Blue
Ca. 1860 pantry box in a robin’s egg shade of blue that’s as scarce as….well, as robin’s teeth. I’ve never had one in this color in more than 20 years. Original paint, original pins. 9¾”. A gem.
$850
Philadelphia Crystalized Sheet Waiter
One-sheet waiter from Harvey Filley’s Philadelphia shop. Crystallized bottom surrounded by a white band containing yellow-centered 6 lobed flowers flanked by red and blue buds and beautifully drawn olive green and sienna leaves with red dotted center ribs. Note the fine black line work with invected corners on the crystallized floor. 1827-1853.
$695
Lansingburgh, NY Toleware Trunk
Small, beautifully proportioned American painted tinware trunk, probably from Lansingburgh, NY, and almost certainly decorated by a painter on loan to Augustus or Edwin Filley from the Bloomfield, CT Filley shop. It’s possible the decoration is by Edwin Filley himself. Note the shallow depth of the trunk, a characteristic Lansingburgh trunks share with those made in Connecticut. The symmetrical swags and yellow borders in combination with the hurried brushwork that seems to be unique to the NY Filley shop, make this trunk’s origins nearly certain. 8 ½”W x 5”H x only 3 5/8”D. Ca. 1816-1850.
SOLD
Exceedingly Rare Burl Bellows
A pair of 18th C. American fireplace bellows in mellow ash burl. This is the only set of burl bellows I’ve owned in more than 25 years. Densely figured top panel with great color and soft surface. The back panel is probably maple, but may be chestnut. The leather and tacking are either a very very early second leather or original, as is the cast and turned brass nozzle which echoes the turning patterns on late 18th C. brass Federal candlesticks. Ca. 1780. 17½”L. Ex-Sue Studebaker.
$1,625
Painted New England
Federal Looking Glass
Fine small country Federal looking glass with grain-painted frame decorated with corner florets and outlined in yellow. Paint, mirror plate and back are all original. Massachusetts. Ca.1820-1850. 13”w x 16¾"h
$1,395
Ca. 1830 Painted Spice Box
American, ca. 1800-1820, white pine and possibly basswood. Original oxidized green paint in museum quality condition. Forged nails. Two sliding lids with what may be original knobs over three compartments on each side and cutout carrying handle. The turnings on the knobs are slightly different but the sizes are the same. The odor of the spices remains in the compartments. 7"h x 11½"w. x 9"d. This is one of the least common forms of American spice box and one of the two best spice boxes I’ve ever owned. Ex-Studebaker collection.
$1,750
19th C. Still-Sealed Stoneware Ink
A seldom-seen 1840-1850 stoneware bottle of P&J Arnold’s “Chemical Writing Fluid” with not only the original paper label, but the original unopened wax seal impressed with the P&J Arnold firm name. A number of identical bottles were recovered some years ago from the wreck of a transport ship sunk in Charleston Harbor during the Civil War, but 150 years under water had of course dissolved those labels. This one is in terrific as-found condition.
$175
Miniature Courting Mirror
Rare early 19th C. American miniature courting mirror. 5 ½” x 9”. Tinned iron frame complete with reverse-painted glass surround, punchwork shell-form scalloped crest and corner bosses, and early, apparently original, mirror. Probably made in Pennsylvania during the first quarter of the 1800s.
$975
Small Signed Bottle-Green Massachusetts Pantry Box
Very good 5¾” pantry box in an unusual shade of original bottle green paint, with the thick-walled construction and dome-headed nails of early boxes. Impressed signature of Orlando Mason, Winchendon, MA on the underside of the lid. Vermont-born, Mason left teaching in 1844 to learn the woodenware trade from Ephraim Murdock in Winchendon, MA and in 1853 began making pantry boxes and pails under his own name. Scarce size, great paint, known maker.
$795
Paint-Decorated Slide Lid box
Intriguing studded ca. 1850 slide lid desk box with six separate lids opening to faintly labeled compartments, among them “Pens (tips?), Paper Stamps, Rubbers, Letter Stamps and Cards.” The underside of one lid and the bottom of the box carry penciled inscriptions that have yet to be deciphered. Original red and black paint decoration. Unique. 5½”L x 3¾”W x 2½”H.
$450
19th C. Brass-Rimmed
Pewter Measures
Pair of genuine 19th/early 20thC. brass-rimmed tavern measures. You can tell the difference between the reproductions and honest working measures not only by the weights and measures marks, but also by heft and wear. This pint and half-pint set were likely used as standards to verify the capacities of measures in use in taverns or public houses. The brass rims protected the pewter from damage that might degrade their accuracy. I’ve always loved this form and I regard it as one of the most handsome of all 19th C. pewter measures.
$450
Ca. 1800 Oval Pewter Snuff Box
An unusual snuff in that it’s formed with every contour perfectly rounded, the better to slide easily in and out of a waistcoat pocket. The only straight line is the rear edge of the hinged lid. The interior shows evidence of having been manually hollowed and the exterior surface is softly worn and unpolished. 3”L x 2”W x 1”H.
$425
19th C. Butternut Bowl
and 18th Carved Scoop
These were purchased together from the same house in Massachusetts but they can be sold separately. Both are butternut and probably from Connecticut or New York. The work bowl was probably made in the first half of the 1800s and shows old cut marks on the inside. Outside a warm amber patina and the remains of black paint. No cracks or splits or voids. 18” x 6½”. The 22” long scoop has a serpentine handle and a carved terminal. The surface has never been painted and is now smooth from wear. Great tool marks on the bowl. Bowl $550; Scoop $650
Perfect 18th C. Measure
Particularly good mid-18th C. measure in chestnut with thick walls and bevel-edged single lap secured with 22 large rosehead nails. Probably Connecticut or Rhode Island, ca. 1750-1800. The thick white pine base shows the deep chuck marks of an early pole- or foot-driven lathe. Pieces of genuine Colonial era treen in this condition are exceptionally rare. 8”W x 4 5/8”H.
$495
Rare 19th C. Child’s Foot Warmer
Walnut frame enclosing tinned iron sides decorated with the traditional heart-in-circle piercework motif. Untraditional and unusual, however, are its brass bale handle instead of the customary bent wire, and the fact that the corners of the frame are shaped like those on a Rhode Island tea table or Massachusetts candlestand. The typical adult foot warmer was roughly 10” or 11” square; this version, scaled down for a child, is 6¾” x 7¾”. It’s probable that instead of a pan of glowing coals, for safety the warmth was provided by a heated brick wrapped in flannel. Ca. 1820-1830.
$695
Perfect Pantry
Not often an object a century and a half old makes it to the present without a flaw. Especially a utilitarian object like a pantry box. This one is the exception. Intense, vibrant Windsor green paint has oxidized into a deep spruce. Iron tacks and shoemaker’s pegs, not one missing. Immaculate laps with clipped corners. Top and bottom with beautiful jack plane marks. Virtually no wear to the top. No splits, chips or cracks. 8¼” x 4¼”.
$795
Set of Gun Metal
19th C. Tavern Measures
Sets of gun metal, or red brass, tavern measures are extremely uncommon. This assembled set is very closely matched and includes the pint, half-pint, gill, half-gill and quarter-gill sizes commonly used in drinking establishments in the 1800s. For commercial use, measures had to be certified accurate by an official sealer from the Department of Weights and Measures, and each of these has full sealer’s marks. A really handsome set with great color in terrific condition.
$575
Rare Gonic, NH Redware Mug
Superb and rare early 19th C. concave-sided redware mug probably from Gonic, New Hampshire. Rich moss-green glaze with orange spots shading into a band of orange around the dramatically flaring base. Circling the mug just above the upper handle attachment are three incised lines and at the rim four evenly spaced orange swags dip down into the green. I have never seen that before on a piece of New England redware. Three nearly invisible chips on the base and a single ¼” chip next to the small pulled pouring lip are the extent of the wear. No cracks, no lines. None. 5 7/8”” tall, 4” across the mouth, and 5¼” across the base.
$2,650
1750-1800 Staved Treenware
Tray in Red Paint
18th C. coopered tray in original paint. Pine staves and hickory, or possibly willow, hoops with the earliest form of tucked laps. Shrinkage of the pine staves loosened the hoops and at some point they were secured with tiny iron sprigs. The paint is what Mary Earle Gould called “coffin red” and the tray may have been used for corn kernels or wheat or possibly for bread-rising. 5”H x 10”W. Daily use treenware like this is rarely seen in untouched paint.
$975
18th C. Iron Bound Piggin
Late 18th/early 19th C. coopered piggin with riveted iron bands. Pine staves with a sharply chamfered pine bottom set deeply into the croze at the base of the staves. No cracks or splits and overall unusually tight. Extremely well-made. 7” tall with a 7” base diameter flaring to 8” at the rim. 11” to the top of the handle. Similar coopered work appears on pages 196 and 202 of Mary Earle Gould’s Early American Woodenware.
$395
Miniature 19th C. Redware Washboard
Diminutive 19th C. redware washboard, possibly for a child. Reddish brown glaze typical of both Eastern Pennsylvania and Northern New England. Wear to the wooden frame shows considerable use, but save for two tiny chips the redware panel is in remarkably good shape. Backboard of the soap reservoir may have been replaced—but not in my lifetime. Side rails show ca. 1900 helper nails. Washboards used by children rarely survived, for predictable reasons. Those that did are quite rare. 6½”W x 13”L.
$1,375
Wonderful Early 19th C.
Treen Spice Grater
Charming and early three-piece treen spice grater. Probably English, early 1800s, with incised rings, filets leading into balusters, the whole resting on a substantial turned foot. The topmost piece is a turned handle with a tinned iron grating surface attached at the base. The stage below is a second tinned iron grating surface that rotates against the grating surface above and reduces the spice trapped between—nutmeg, coriander, tumeric—to a powder that drops through into the third stage, a reservoir base. There is one chip on the turned rim of the upper stage, there are worm holes in the reservoir section (not surprising—when they asked Willie Sutton why he robbed banks, his response was, “Because that’s where the money is.” Or, in this case, that’s where the spices are.) Chip aside, this is virtually perfect condition.
$795
Signed & Dated Wrought Iron
Tobacco Cutter
Unusual late 19th C. blacksmith-made tobacco cutter mounted on a wooden base 1 1/2” thick shaped like a Federal shield. I can’t be sure what the wood is: it’s heavy, possibly maple. The underside has a date and signature stamped with individual dies: “E. Harris 1881”. All the rivets are roseheads.
$325
19th C. Country Painted Watch Holder
This is a pretty rare thing. Instead of a watch hutch, it’s a watch holder. Instead of the typical formal piece with carving, inlay and exotic woods, it’s high country with a lathe-turned maple column, dished watch recess, and original coach-painted and gilt surface. Square nails. 4½” tall. Ancient chip to the notch for the watch chain. Outstanding surface. Watch is included, but inoperative.
$950
Pine Spice Tray(?) in Red Paint
Neat country carrier divided into four compartments. No idea of its intended purpose, but it wasn’t used for tools or metal bits because it isn’t sufficiently scarred. It’s been suggested to me that it might have been used to gather new supplies of fresh spices from the herb garden. Pine, original red paint, early wire nailed construction, ca. 1880-1920. 10½” x 12”.
$235
SOLD
