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Message:: [QUOTE="Ghopper1924, post: 4267209, member: 5170"]OK folks, time to head downstairs. Our basement is about half finished, and nice and cool in the summer. But it's still the basement of an old house; originally it was just a big  unfinished space with a concrete floor and walls.  Well, we've done what we can..... At the bottom of the stairs is a French mahogany settee ca. 1830; you may have seen it before. To it's left is a mahogany smoking stand stamped "1942" with an English banquet lamp on top ca. 1870. The photos are by Kansas City photographer Kevin Sink. But what's that on the right?[ATTACH=full]339829[/ATTACH] It's a French walnut bidet, ca. 1830! The previous owner put food displays in it for dinner parties. Solid as the day it was made. That's a large piece of porcelain; God's mercy on whoever breaks it...<img src="styles/default/xenforo/smilies/smile.png" class="mceSmilie" alt=":)" unselectable="on" />[ATTACH=full]339830[/ATTACH] Next are a couple of walnut marble top center tables ca. 1860-1870. Abraham Lincoln posed for a campaign photo next to a table very much like the one on the right. It wasn't THAT table of course. Both are attributed to New York cabinet maker Thomas Brooks.  That's a Mark Hopkins bronze on the left titled "Peace no More." The lamp has never been electrified and was used up to the present. The rug's a recent Karastan.[ATTACH=full]339831[/ATTACH] Hey, there's an overstuffed chair! Next to it is a marble-topped table that was abused by a local family for generations. Pieces of it were knocked off, burl panels were gone, the marble was stained, the casters were gone. It was ready for the dump, and Ms. G heartily hoped it would go there. Well, in the days before the Brown Furniture Depression it paid to restore a nice piece, which I did. I even found that some of the burl panels were highly figured elm, just beautiful. That's a Dale Tiffany lamp in front of an 1880s tapestry. There's a clan map of Ireland to the left.[ATTACH=full]339832[/ATTACH] Here's a few goodies all in a row: An ebonized sewing stand ca. 1880 with a Japanese silk kimono top, a custom-made walnut dresser ca. 1880, made at 3/4 scale for a teenaged girl, a mahogany music stand ca. 1900 given as a wedding present in Ms. G's family, and an oak Globe-Wernicke bookcase stack ca. 1915. There's a Missouri-made crock from a company that was only in business for a few years in the 1880s on the end, and a caricature of Robert Browning ca. 1870 is on the wall. Oh, and that's a Christmas angel under a dome ca. 1895.[ATTACH=full]339834[/ATTACH] There's a half-pew from England, made of pine ca. 1820. The kneeling rail is American and from before the U.S. Civil War. When purchased it was covered with gray Navy paint. There's a family walnut rocker ca. 1870 next to it, and a folio mid-19th century rendering of Hansel und Gredel is framed above. That's a display of amethyst roundels custom-made in Hannibal, Missouri to the right.[ATTACH=full]339835[/ATTACH] Someone in another one of these tour threads once asked where the overstuffed sofa was. Well, here it is. In front is a walnut marble-topped parlor table ca. 1890 that was another rescue. It's not worth a mint, but it was worth it to me to repair it back to the glory it had. That's another parlor table to the right, supporting a cast-iron stained glass lamp (new shade) married to a very unusual base by Hubley. Never seen another one like it. There's also an old school bell from a school teacher ancestor.[ATTACH=full]339836[/ATTACH] Next is a fragile little mahogany-veneered child's desk with a matching chair ca. 1850. It supports a solid maple shaving mirror and some family memorabilia.[ATTACH=full]339837[/ATTACH] We're back where we started, but looking in the other direction. We've got another Globe Wernicke stacker and a big 30-gallon crock holding some antique quilts.[ATTACH=full]339838[/ATTACH] I hope you had fun with this. There's only one room to go![/QUOTE]

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