Halsey Munson Americana
204 North Summit Avenue
Decatur, Illinois 62522
Phone: 217-972-4645
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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
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.
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
Pair of 1760 Connecticut
Painted Banister Backs
A particularly good pair of banister back side chairs from the Connecticut Shoreline. A true pair, they match perfectly in size, turning rhythm and paint history, which is 19th C. red over the first dark red. Free of breaks, repairs or alterations, their condition is simply superb. Early rush seat, feet virtually unworn, paint that retains an amazing integrity. At 40½” overall height, the scale of these chairs is unusually fine, yet nothing has been sacrificed in the crispness and energy of the turnings. Note the fact that the cupid’s bow stay rail is echoed by the unusual crest rail.
$3,400
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
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!
$3,400
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
Child’s Settle Chair in Red Paint
Ca. 1840 New England settle-form child’s chair with splayed sides, shaped arms and a slightly recurved back. Access to storage in the bootjack base is by a hinged seat board and by a leather-hinged door in the rear which dates from the time this doubled as a necessary chair. Square nail construction and the thin red wash is dry and untouched. 32”H x 29”W.
$1,750
18th C. Banisterback Chair
with Fishtail Crest
Ca. 1725-1750 Massachusetts side chair in crazed 19th C. oyster paint with mustard decoration over the original red. Banister back chairs were produced in the early-to-mid 18th C. north of Boston and are generally attributed to Essex County, the northernmost Massachusetts county, which lies on New Hampshire’s southern border where some of these chairs were probably also made. This chair differs from standard Essex County design first in the number of banisters. Typically, banisterbacks have an even number of banisters, either four or occasionally six, because these verticals were turned in the round, then separated into halves. Second, this chair has blocked front seat corners instead of simple vertical stiles. Structurally untouched with no visible repairs or replacements. The center banister has an old stable crack. About 43½” overall height; 15¾” seat height.
$950
Painted Connecticut Fanback Windsor
Fine 18th C. 7-spindle Connecticut fanback Windsor with shaped ears, very good splay above and below the strongly saddled pine seat, in gorgeous crusty 19th C. red over the original leaf green paint. This sort of beautiful honest paint surface is becoming quite scarce. Although the seat height is a typical Connecticut 16½” and the stretchers are high, the overall height of 34” suggests that this fanback may have been intended for use in a tavern or inn. No breaks, repairs or replacements. Ca. 1790-1800 and probably New London County, CT.
$850
18th C. Painted Sackback
Windsor Chair
Fine eastern Connecticut sackback Windsor with unusually good proportions and turnings in crusty 19th C. black paint over the original green. The seven back spindles are spoke-shaved, fan almost perfectly to fill the bow and balance smoothly with the weight of the finely drawn turnings. All three stretchers terminate in arrow turnings. All roundwork penetrates the seat. 37½” tall with an 18” seat height. However, in addition to condition, form and surface, this Windsor has something no other published 18th C. sackback Windsor has: an incredibly rare, original two-board chestnut seat! I’ve never owned one. Never seen one. And of all the standard references only one even mentions the existence of two-board seats. This one is composed of two highly figured chestnut boards carefully chosen for their graining. Fanny wear has turned their grain pattern into something approaching art. A beautiful and extremely rare Windsor.
$3,800
19th C. Painted Plant Stand
Excellent semicircular 4-level 19th C. plant stand in early 20th C. blue over the original 1865 green paint. Pine. Square nails. All-original. New England. 48”W x 45”H x 23”D.
$1,750
Unique Pair of Serpentine Back Windsor Side Chairs
A pair of ca. 1798-1804 Connecticut Windsor side chairs in a second coat of 19th C. sage green over the original sage ground, with seats in original oxidized Windsor green. Crest rails, spindles and front legs show the same decorative motifs that appear on a contemporary rod back Windsor (440, American Windsor Chairs) made by Ebenezer Williams who worked with Eliphalet Chapin in East Windsor, CT about 1790 and may have apprenticed with his first cousin, Ebenezer Tracy Sr. Although this chair design, with its double-beaded crest rail and posts and its signature flaring back, was a Philadelphia innovation in the 1790s, it was also made in at least three other states. New England versions flare more sharply below the crest rail and the thicks and thins of the legs and stretchers are more pronounced. Particularly interesting is the fact
Ca. 1820 Paint-Decorated
Blanket Chest
19th C. dovetailed Pennsylvania pine blanket box with bracket feet and tree-of-life paint decoration on the front, both sides and on the lid. Left hand till with unusual walnut lid. Paint and structural integrity are excellent. Smaller size: 42”L x 23”H x 19”D.
$975
that although these chairs were made at the same time and given the same paint treatment, at some point early in the 19th C. stretchers between front and rear legs were added to one of the chairs, possibly Williams experimenting with the newly popular box stretcher design, but not yet ready to give up the 18th C. H-stretcher construction. The underside of one seat appears to be signed in chalk, “A. Williams,” perhaps a relative for whom these chairs were made. However, the form of the signature is the same as the “E. Williams” chalk signature on a chest belonging to the Connecticut Historical Society. The other chair has the same abbreviated signature accompanied by a large script “W”. $2,850
Late 1800s Painted Quilt Crane
Scarce 19th C. quilt crane in blue over blue paint. Mounted on a wall, it provided storage for quilts and other bedding, folding back out of the way when not in use. Mortise and tenon construction. Early nails. Worn paint surface. 31” Long.
SOLD
Pennsylvania Painted Federal Wall Box
Authentic early 19th C. Pennsylvania 3-tier wallbox in beautifully oxidized green paint with fine outline striping in red. The paint on the rear of the box shows the original unoxidized green, reminiscent of the color fishermen in Maine used to paint their dories. Poplar, square nails, stepped back canted shelves, scalloped side profile. 17”H x 11”W x 3½”D. Ca. 1820-1850.
$1,750
18th C. Colonial Child’s Armchair
This chair has survived 250 years, three layers of paint and an untold number of children—some of whom clearly used it learning to walk—and it remains a great piece of historic American seating for very small people. 19th C. red paint with yellow and black decoration over earlier coats of salmon and blue surfaces. Early yellow painted splint seat. Ca. 1760-1790, possibly Massachusetts. 21¼”H.
Sold in 2000 as part of the celebrated
Paul and Margaret Weld collection.
$575
SOLD
