Featured JOHANNES SPITLER Blanket Chest

I doubt it, hard to say what this chest will sell for but, I suspect big numbers.

Spitler was very successful in VA as a farmer and painter/decorator as well. It is estimated he produced 25 pieces a year for over a decade there so obviously a good market for this style of decoration. Just over 30 pieces are known at this time.
Wanderlust appeared again in the Spitler household as they moved from VA to the Ohio frontier at the turn of the 19th century, we don't know why. It was not a good move, he stopped painting as no pieces attributed to Ohio are known and he died there in 1837 penniless & heavily in debt.
We do not know why, why would a man in the prime of his life stop a successful business? Was he injured & couldn't work? Folks in Ohio didn't like this style?
We just don't know what happened to Spitler during his time in Ohio but, it wasn't good, that's for sure.

 

Interesting stuff. One can only wonder and speculate..

 

Yep, kind of a sad second half to his life but, at least he had a glorious 1st half!

 

Sold for 65k hammer, A BARGAIN! I'd say.

 

Maybe he fled VA for some reason (creditors?) & was lying low in OH.

 

BAM! It was a bargain though I think.

Anything is possible I guess but, if that estimate of 25 pieces a year is correct it seems to me he was doing very well with his side biz. Job #1 was farming so if you take away spring-summer to work the land that means he pretty much had the pedal to the metal building & decorating furniture all winter long. And, why no furniture in Ohio? that's very odd considering how prolific he was in VA.

 

In the plot I'm weaving he didn't make chests, or he didn't make them the same way, so as not to give himself away, since the chests are so identifiably his.

Or he developed severe arthritis in his hands.

Or he just got burned out.

Maybe not just anything is possible - I'm ruling out abduction by aliens - but the possibilities are certainly many.

 

LOL, Yeah, I am not sure "burnout" was a big issue in the 18th century, people lived in the "dark" (with the exception of candles) and were primarily concerned with survival and where their next meal was coming from. Doubts they had the luxury of being burned out.

Guesses more likely got on the wrong side of a horse or mule and experienced a catastrophic event!

 

Sadly, doesn't seem to be all that unusual back then for someone to have had their day in the sun, only to die penniless and forgotten years later. Still happens occasionally today.

 

Williamsburg, which owns a couple of Spitler pieces including a rare tall clock has this to say about his last years in Ohio. Not quite as sad a chapter as some researchers suggest.

"Sometime around 1807, Spitler's parents moved to Fairfield County, Ohio. Johannes and several of his married siblings followed shortly. What he did in Ohio remains a mystery. Like many other German-American settlers, he may have spent part of his time farming. In 1826, Jacob Spitler deeded 106 acres to his son, Johannes, who appears as "John" in the Fairfield County records. Spitler sold this property in 1835, a year after the death of his wife, Susanna. Two years later, he died at the age of sixty-two. Several furniture forms with Spitler-like designs have been found in Ohio, but they cannot be tied to Spitler's work with any certainty. The only hint of what Spitler did for the final quarter-century of his life in Ohio is a claim against his estate seeking repayment for a wide range of goods including many references to large quantities of liquor, suggesting that he may have operated a tavern. The Fairfield County probate records note that "Found in chest of said Spitler" were three books printed in German, an ax, and a spade. His estate also included a tall clock, a large chest, a small chest, and an "old chair," but no large tool or painter's kits."

 

I looked up the gravestones of Spitler & his wife Susan in Fairfield County, they are not what you would call sparse by any means, rather lavish with copious stonecutter script on both stones. Of course, they could have been paid for by the church or a member who was well off.
Old furniture mysteries, many will never be solved.

"John" Spitler


"Susan" Spitler

 

Interesting that John's stone was "signed' by the cutter. Don't remember seeing that before.

 

Hers too, if you click photo to enlarge on the lower right where dirt is scraped away, John Strickler

Creepy? Not sure about that, epitaph is a version of the classic “Remember me as you pass by.”
Hers is more cheery for sure but includes a coffin just above 1st verse, a little creepy!


What strikes me is, for someone who is supposed to be penniless (according to some) the gravestones are very well done and not what I expected.