I have a pew end I purchased years ago (for no reason but I always wanted one). I’m interested in learning how old it is, if possible. I purchased it in a salvage warehouse in Chicago, where there were a few others matching. I’m not sure what church it’s from and at any given time there are tons of salvaged items from churches in Chicago and the suburbs, so I have no clues there. Any ideas are appreciated- thank you!
Can't help, but LOVE IT!!!! What a GREAT piece of art, and glad you haven't painted it!!! I would imaging it's fairly heavy?
Thank you - I love it too! It’s so worn at the bottom from feet hitting it, it’s great. It’s so heavy and bulky I’ve been weary of hanging it, which is what I originally wanted to do. I love wood and I would never paint it.
In my experience, pews in one church are much like pews in most others of the same time period. I'm getting an Episcopal/Anglican vibe from the cross:
Getting a Victorian vibe from this....thinking 1880s. The tricky thing about ecclesiastical items is the conservatism of certain styles, i.e. gothic revival, that pass out of the stylistic mainstream yet persist in the church world. In other words, you can find gothic revival chairs in churches decades after they went out of style elsewhere. Nevertheless, I'll stick with the above date. Is that pine and walnut?
1880 seems about right but see how this could have been made even later.... maybe even on in to the 20th century. As Ghopper said, church styles persisted for decades.
Agreed. Search term "greek cross," but unless you find a local who recognizes it... I would think the salvage warehouse would be most likely to provide source information.
personally i think its a celtic cross so i would suggest its from an irish community church in chicago
Very helpful- at once point I started looking online at different crosses and gave up since there are so many.
For clarity's sake, I was using "Greek cross" in the sense of "cross with arms of equal length" or "quadrata"-- not a reference to origin/culture/geography/denomination. I haven't a clue on that part.
I really don’t know my woods, but the cross is definitely a different wood from the rest, and the darker top just looks like it definitely has a stain and might be the same woods as the rest (pine?).
A question I have but can't answer is whether the inner side of the panel shows signs of ever having had a kneeler attached.
