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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Ghopper1924, post: 4379344, member: 5170&quot;]Yep, Belter IS a Victorian God o&#039; Furniture. His patented multi-layered rosewood construction is some of the strongest/lightest furniture ever made. The picture above is his lower Broadway location, not the E. 76th Street location where he purportedly dropped chairs out the window. Maybe he did that in both locations...pretty dramatic salesmanship, although honestly I&#039;ve never heard that story. </p><p><br /></p><p>What I wouldn&#039;t give to see lower Broadway when it looked like that! Beautiful, low-scale buildings housing the best furniture makers on Earth. R.W. Hutchings down the street from Alexander Roux, Belter, Leon Marcotte, George Hunzinger.....sorry, no Shakers.</p><p><br /></p><p>Thing is, Belter&#039;s stuff was so ornate that a four-story fall would be bound to tear off some rosewood roses, even if the frame came out OK. In fact, it wasn&#039;t poor construction that laid Belter to rest; the fact was that his insistence on top-quality carving, and lots of it, created a situation where his pieces took so much time that he was actually losing money. His firm went to his in-laws (Springmeiers) after his death, but it was gone in a couple of years, before 1870. The Rococo Revival was over; probably best that Belter was gone, too.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, I have total admiration for the Shakers; they really know how to strip things down to basic principles. But it&#039;s so plain and so perfect that it hurts my eyes to look at it. Chalk it up to differences in taste. I know there are lots of folks on the Shaker side, as evidenced by the premium prices. I&#039;ll stick to the c-scrolls and roses.....[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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