Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Ghopper1924, post: 4343497, member: 5170&quot;]OK, it&#039;s time for fun with furniture restoration, largely made possible by Howard&#039;s, sponges, elbow grease, and time.</p><p><br /></p><p>Merklen Brothers was a &quot;name&quot; furniture manufacturing company in New York City. They existed for only a relatively short time in the 1880s and 1890s, specializing in tables and chairs. Their work has been frequently confused with Hunzinger, which it superficially resembles. Merklen&#039;s work, however, is noted for consistently employing ball and stick valences, brass fittings including finials, and iron claws gripping wood spheres for feet, rather than the better known glass globes.</p><p><br /></p><p>So enough connoisseurship. Here are before and after photos only one day apart. The mahogany table exhibits the Merklen tell-tales, so I&#039;m comfortable with the attribution. It was in the home of a St. Charles County, Missouri European settler ca. 1845, apparently the last of his particular line. Although he died a couple of years ago in indolence, the quality of the family pieces lived on. Evidently a great, great, great, great ancestor had money, and this is how an 1880s piece by a New York maker ended up in what at that time was the middle of nowhere, although their house was nicer than most by the standards of the time. They also owned a beautiful 9-foot walnut secretary by the Cincinnati firm of Mitchell &amp; Rammelsburg and a gorgeous walnut etagere, both far above the expected backwoods quality of the location. Neither had been moved for 150 years!</p><p><br /></p><p>I was fortunate to know who made the table beforehand; there were only a couple other bidders that seemed to know what&#039;s what. It was just as fun, however, to see this old estate, now sadly fallen to ruin, and piece together what life may have been like in better days.[ATTACH=full]359318[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]359319[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in