Featured Read You Loud and Clear (Tour)

Hey all:
I'm wondering if I've saturated y'all with these; maybe it's not as fresh as it was a couple of weeks ago. Perhaps so. I've got 3 more rooms to do, 2 of them pretty large. But maybe I'll do the reading room now, then give it a rest, at least for a little while.

Anyway, this is the reading room, spelled READING ROOM, which at the moment is my favorite in the house. Of course this changes, and it may be different next week, but right now...it's my raving fave

Some of you may remember recent posts about this desk. It's walnut, been in the same St. Louis family for 150 years? Yeah...I'm now thinking that the carving on the crest may have been of a specific woman, maybe the desk's first owner. I've never seen another one like her; most are generalized "Brittanias" or "Jenny Linds." On it are a rare Mary Gregory-painted vase ca. 1910, a large Wavecrest box ca. 1890, and a small French Schneider globe vase ca. 1925. The chair is stamped 1869, and was made by radical chair design innovater George Hunzinger in New York. The vessel is a tobacco snuff crock by Pierre Lorrilard's tobacco company, made soon after they relocated operations from The Bronx to New Jersey in 1871. It still has all of the tax stamps from the 1870s.

Next is a very comfortable armchair by the New York firm of Pottier & Stymus ca. 1870. Adjacent is a marble-topped plant stand, very short, with an unlabeled Miller desk/reading lamp from ca. 1915.

Right behind the chair is a walnut etagere from New Orleans ca. 1850. It was sold by, and may have been designed and assembled (probably not sawn and constructed) by Prudent Mallard, French immigrant and all-around furniture guy. On it is a bronze clock with a Father Time crest with a movement marked Paris, ca. 1870. Also on it is a Limoges box made especially "for the Antique Dome, Miami" (WHO?), a French biscuit barrel ca. 1880, an American art glass pitcher ca. 1890, a Wedgwood biscuit barrel pre 1865, a large Wavecrest box ca. 1890, a couple of McCoy pieces, and 2 English pitchers: One by Copeland & Garnet (1848) and "Birdnesting" by John Thomas & Joseph Mayer at Dale Hall, Burslem ca. 1850.

Some of you will recognize what is now called "The Lion Bookcase," made in Philadelphia by Daniel Pabst ca. 1870. It supports a couple of 3-foot tall oil lamps from France ca. 1900. Inside the bookcase, on the bottom shelf, are cameo vases by Galle and Arzall, as well as 4 diminutive Lladros. To the right is a walnut parlor table with Tennessee sausage marble that was in the same mid-Missouri family from 1890 to 2005, when we purchased it. Among other things, it has an Alladin 1930s alacite Lincoln Drape lamp with a frosted glass shade.

Last and far from least, is a sheet music stand/canterbury made of cherry with marquetry inlay and ebonized and gilt highlights from ca. 1875, attributed to Herter Brothers of New York. It has been located in this rather small Midwestern U.S. city since it was made, very unusual. To the right is a Victorian Punch doorstop in original paint. THAT's when they knew how to make doorstops, which double as lethal weapons to stop home invasions


More later?

 

More! More ! So very enjoyable .

 

With the grapes my first thought was "bacchante", but she does look very particular.

 

YES, PLEASE!!!!!! You never cease to amaze me how you can name EVERY little (OR large!) item AND it's date and history, as you go through the rooms!!! A true PRO!!! SO very enjoyable a tour!!!!

 

A true amateur, in the literal sense.

 

As in "unpaid." Absolutely! In fact, I'M the one doing the paying....to purchase these things!

 

As in 'lover', as you well know.

 

In addition to the lovely furniture. your well placed
tchotch·kes
make every piece in ever room so enchanting.

 

How wonderfully lyrical! Leave it to Pearls....

 

Forgive my typo, up there. LOL

 

nice Museum....I'm still waiting to see where you live !!

 

@komokwa If you insist....a little grainy.......my Polaroid's about shot.

 

as I suspected.......

 

I never tire of looking at your beautiful home and hearing the history of the pieces. Although I don’t have nearly as many lovely collections, it has inspired me to organize and display with more thought.

 

And here's hoping you'll favor us with the results!

 

HEY, can you still buy Polaroid film for the SX-70??????

 

Truth will out.

 

I'm loving the show! You certainly have some beautiful pieces. Thanks for sharing!

 

Ok, you can put me in the will for the sheet music stand. By far, my favorite, except maybe one of your excellent bookcases. Well then, just put me down for the sheet music stand and one of the bookcases and I'll be good to go.

I agree, no more stashing the collection on a shelf somewhere. Personally, I'm not a fan of the "Display Cabinet" circa the 1980s or 90s, you know what I mean. Being merely a repository for the latest collectibles. But I hadn't thought about why until you mentioned it, @Pattywithay. So thanks for that. And now that I've seen someone who can do it perfectly, I know who to emulate.