Berkey and Gay Dining Room Set

Hi,
This is a set that has been in my family for many decades. We are downsizing and will have to part ways with this beautiful furniture.

 

Did you forget your photographs?

Debora

 

Sorry pics didn't post earlier

 

Yes, I just posted in the reply section.

 

You pics are tiny, dark, blurry and some are side-ways.

 

I just reposted larger pictures up top in the post. They are larger but I couldn't figure out how to get it to not post up side down because the original picture is right side up.

 

Wow THANK YOU SO MUCH! That was so sweet of you and I truly appreciate it!

 

You are very welcome.

The trick for posting large pics is to choose 'show all full image' because the program defaults to thumbnails.

To switch the orientation - if you have the pics on your PC, you can right click on each one & use the 'rotate clockwise/counterclockwise' feature.

 

Thank you for the helpful tip!

 

It is a nice set.
My guess 1930s/40s.
Have you asked other family members if they are interested? Nice to be able to keep things in the family.

Right now this stlye of furniture is not as popular as it used to be. So value is fairly low in my area.
If you are trying to sell, where you are located may make a difference.

@verybrad might be able to give more info.
@Ghopper1924 may also have thoughts.

 

Jacobethan Revival, walnut. Cluttered is right about the time period; could even be a bit earlier.

This is indeed a high quality set, as you'd expect from Berkey & Gay. But, again as Cluttered noted, it's not as popular as it was in the Golden Age of Dining Rooms, in the mid 20th century. Therefore, don't expect much in the way of a selling price.

 

I'd go with a circa 1920 date. Would go nicely in a Spanish revival house so might sell well in CA or Southwest. Maybe a Northern Tudor mansion might need it as well. As you can see, pretty specialized and not to most people's taste these days.

 

What a beautiful set! It looks nearly identical to my early 20th century Jacobean Revival dining room set. My buffet piece has a Bernhardt furniture sticker on the back, but my dining room set is unmarked, so perhaps it’s also a B&G like yours.

Please check and see if anyone else in your family wants it. True, these sets are not as desirable as they once were, but it’s also hard to get your hands on something as nice as this.

I live in Southern California, in a Spanish style house built in 1929. My in laws bought a 1929 Spanish house themselves in the late 1960s. Apparently around 1970 they had friends who wanted to upgrade and modernize their own dining room set (no one wanted old 1920s stuff then), so the friends gave my in laws their used Jacobean set. My husband grew up with it, and my in laws gave it to us as a gift years ago. We, like them, have an old house with wood floors and a formal dining room, so it worked perfectly. Obviously if I had a MCM Eichler house it would be different.

As an aside, the original owners had painted all of the chairs white. The paint was worn off and kind of turned a cream color, but they still did not match. We last reupholstered the chairs over 20 years ago, so the foam was no longer providing comfort. We decided to bite the bullet, and had our reupholsterer not just redo the seats, but create a custom (Velcro attached) cushion to each wooden seatback, and also strip and stain the chairs. When we had it done, he said it was definitely worth doing, as the furniture set was very high quality. He estimated the chairs to be about 100 years old.

If no one you know wants it, I would look to sell it in an area where there are a lot of older homes with formal dining rooms. In many areas in Los Angeles, such as Hancock Park or Pasadena, older homes like mine are desirable, and people are spending good money on quality antique and vintage pieces.

For instance, Revival Antiques in Pasadena is selling a set of eight 1920s wood dining chairs (no table or buffet, just the chairs) for $5,400. A 1920s walnut dining room table is $3,800. You may want to reach out to the owner of the store and see if she’s interested in your set.

revivalantiques.com

good luck!

 

It is lovely!
Leslie