Eastbay Antiques owner David Mohsini was more than relieved when his colossal 12-piece Berkey & Gay dining room set, priced at $32,500, sold at the Hillsborough Show. Not just for the money he made off the deal (although he wouldn’t say exactly how much it sold for) but for the fact that he didn’t have to load it back up.One look at those eight chairs, sideboard, china cabinet, server, and dining table, and it is easy to see why furniture is a young man’s game. Despite all the backbreaking loading in and out, Mohsini wouldn’t pick another specialty. He and Jack La Greca are the antique furniture studs at the major antique shows, including Bustamante, Del Mar, and Hillsborough.
Category Archives: Furniture
Hwy 41 Antique Emporium offers $28,000 desk
Several months ago, the Wooton desk was the cover story on Collector magazine. At the time, it created a huge sensation in the industry. It’s happening all over again now that Highway 41 Antique Emporium in Morro Bay has posted photos of their Wooton standard (possibly extra grade) desk. Priced at $28,000, the desk has been restored and is in incredible condition, according to Francine Esposito, owner of Antique Emporium. It measures 70″ tall x 40″ wide x 30″ deep and was crafted in around 1874. The Wooton desk is known for its seemingly infinite nooks and crannies. Oceanside jewelry dealer T.C. Leary says she has just the thing for all of those hiding places: her parents’ World War II love letters that made it back and forth between Europe and the United States. Facebooker Jerod Mark had the fortune of seeing a similar Wooton desk in person. The Glendale resident said that there is a large estate known as “The Doctor’s House,” which has been turned into a museum, and it has a desk just like the one at Antique Emporium. There was some controversy as to the grade of the desk. There were four grades: Ordinary, Standard, Extra and Superior. The desks were expensive prestige furniture ranging in price from $100 to $750 depending on the grade. They were used by prominent figures in the White House and by titans of finance and industry like J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, Ulysses S. Grant, Spencer Baird at the Smithsonian Institution, Dr. Edward Hofma, Charles Scribner, Joseph Pulitzer, and England’s Queen Victoria. Mike Aversa, a well known furniture appraiser decided that it was likely a standard grade based on the photos. “it’s not quite as fancy and ornate as some examples, but still very nice,” he said. Antique Emporium is located at 520 Atascadero Rd. in Morro Bay. Call (805) 771-8000 for more information.
$32,000 Berkey & Gay Dining Suite
The showstopping furniture set that was the talk of Hillsborough was a 1915 12-piece Berkey & Gay dining room set for $32,500 in the space of Eastbay Antiques. The elaborate set includes eight chairs, a sideboard, china cabinet, server and a table, all fit for a monarch. The Berkey & Gay Furniture Company started producing furniture in the mid 1800s. From its humble beginnings in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The Berkey & Gay Furniture Company soon became one of the leading furniture manufacturers of quality furniture in the United States. The company used three different types of labels to mark the furniture that they manufactured. The first label was branded into the wood and can often be found inside the drawers of a Berkey & Gay case pieces. Around the year 1900 the branded type label was replaced by a paper label. The brass label was used starting around the 1920s until Berkey & Gay went out of business in the 1940s. It is not uncommon to find both brass and paper labels used during the same era, especially on dining room suites were the Berkey & Gay paper labels were quite often used to mark the dining chairs. As with earlier branded label the Berkey & Gay brass labels can be found inside drawers or on the back of furniture such as beds.
Little Vanity is not for Little Women
There was controversy surrounding a rather petite French vanity or coiffeuse in the space of Place Bellecour at the Hillsborough Show. It’s owner, Chantal Couturier, claimed the $2,800 vanity, with its table reaching only 28″ high, was intended for a full grown woman, not a child. Her reasoning is that people were smaller back in the 19th century when the vanity was made. Critics claim that she suffers from believing in the myth that the modern woman significantly towers over her ancient counterpart; this was fostered by the popular Victorian novel, “Little Women.” That is Darwin’s theory on steroids. During the proto-Neanderthal times, a half a million years ago, the average height of a woman, based on bone fossils, was 5′ 1/2″, and that shot all the way up to 5′ 2 1/4″ during the time of the colonization. It took about a half a million year to gain two inches. Modern woman has only stretched to 5′ 3 3/4″ on average. The only thing that has dramatically increased the height of women are stiletto heels and platform shoes. Call (650) 575-3701 for more information on the vanity.
Home of $250,000 Wootons
A Beverly Hills landmark offering high-end unique antique furniture since 1977, Antiquarian Traders, is closing their 15,000 square foot showroom and consolidating their impressive inventory into their 100,000 square foot warehouse. Antiquarian Traders was the first place that Collector magazine publisher Frank! saw museum grade furniture. He feasted his eyes on an elaborate Wooton desk thirty years ago, and up until then, he had only seen them in auction catalogs and reference books. They are currently offering a Superior Grade Patent Secretary with highly carved winged griffin gallery for $250,000. For the econo-minded buyers who have been forced to cut back because of the recession, they also have an Extra Grade Wooton High “C” rolltop desk for $27,500, and a Standard Grade Wooton Patent Secretary in the Eastlake style for $21,000. Wooton desk The Wooton desk is the embodiment, in the field of design and construction, of the phenomenon of conspicuous consumption which swept over wealthy society in the United State at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. It was described by Thorstein Veblen in his book “The Theory of the Leisure Class.” An Indianapolis, Indiana entrepreneur (who later became a Protestant preacher) called William S. Wooton obtained patents for his design and established a company in 1870. Production continued until about 1884, and the Wooton desk was introduced at the end of the 19th century, at a time when office work was changing in a drastic fashion with an increase in paperwork that led to the introduction of filing cabinets, among other things. There were four grades: Ordinary, Standard, Extra and Superior. The desks were expensive prestige furniture ranging in price from $100 to $750 depending on the grade. They were used by prominent figures in the White House and by titans of finance and industry like J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, Ulysses S. Grant, Spencer Baird at the Smithsonian Institution, Dr. Edward Hofma, Charles Scribner, Joseph Pulitzer, and England’s Queen Victoria. The white collar worker invaded the office in huge numbers, and the desk wasn’t the only thing changing form. The new reservoir-based fountain pen and the typewriter were used to produce greater quantities of office documents than ever before. In this context, desks which required users to fold and title each letter of document and place it in a pigeon hole, or small nook, were simply not enough. It was faster to place an unfolded piece of paper in a folder and place the folder in a file cabinet or file drawer. According to the 1876 Wooton catalog, their top line of secretaries were described as: “The Secretary is entirely different from anything ever constructed before. It consists of three sections, the main case and (two) wings or doors, which contain pigeon-holes, shelving, drawers, etc. convenient in arrangement and uniform in appearance. We manufacture four grades, the Ordinary, Standard, Extra and Superior, and three sizes of each grade. The ornamentation and decorative style increased with each higher grade. Its capacity is more than double that of any other desk manufactured, occupying the same floor space. Every division is within easy reach of the writer: the Secretary can be opened and closed in a moment, and when closed, the contents are secure from dust and intrusion. The lock which fastens the wings is the only one required. The conditions back then, with dirt roads and the lack of things such air purifiers, dust was a much bigger problem then it is now. The fact that the Wooton desk could be sealed was important. Wooton desks in good condition are sometimes sold in auction for as much as a top of the line luxury automobile. To celebrate the store’s consolidation, they are offering discounts storewide. Real bargain hunters can get 30% off if they spend more than $100,000 net. This sale is expected to light a fire in the industry and it won’t be long before almost every antique shop is offering an even larger discount up to 40% for purchases over $100,000. Antiquarian Traders is located at 9031 W. Olympic Blvd. in Beverly Hills.Call (310) 247-3900 for more information.
fancy armoires & piano shawls at August 7th-9th Pasadena show
An 1880s mirrored, five-shelf rosewood armoire from France was the showstopping piece in David Mohsini’s space at the last Pasadena Bustamante Show. He will be bringing more antique French and European furniture to the next Bustamante Show, slated for August 7th-9th Mohsini offers more than pretty pieces. He offers a wealth of knowledge. He easily dissects a piece’s qualities to let a prospective buyer know the history of a piece. In the case of the aforementioned armoire, It was particularly desirable because of its all-original finish. ’The finish tells you,” said Mohsini, when trying to determine if a piece has been refinished. He inspects its sheen. A refinished piece tends to be spotless and shiny, while the armoire has a duller patina that reflects the piece’s age. Even the inside of the piece is striking. The back of the panels are bird’s eye maple. ”For people who like French furniture, they make beautiful clothing storage,” he said of the 8 1/2″ tall piece. It is portable with a little bit of effort. It dissects into eight pieces. The shelves inside are adjustable inside, and the bottom section features a hidden drawer. For more information, contact East Bay Antiques at (510) 761-4444. For those looking for something pretty to accent a piece of furniture or even a female figure, Jeanne Little will be decorating the walls of her space with vintage piano shawls from the Art Deco era. ”Most people buy them today to wear,” said Little, admitting that she has devised a third use for piano shawls. When not covering a piano or a person, she drapes them over settees and couches. Ranging in color from pink to black, the shawls in her space are heavily embroidered silk and range in price from $175 to $350. The price depends on the country of origin and whether it was hand or machine made. The handmade ones tend to be more expensive because they were more labor intensive. Spanish shawls tend to be more valuable than those made in Asia. Little can be contacted at (562) 598-1423. The upcoming Bustamante Show will be held in the new Exhibition Hall B. General admission is $7. Show hours are Friday and Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Call (209) 358-3134 for more information.
Woody's made a promise to the original family
Not a World’s Fair set, but magnificent enough to be, an unusual, all original painted dining table, china cabinet and buffet hoped to feast on $2,700 in the space of Woody’s Early Misc at the Art Deco & Modernism Show. ”It was purchased by the family that I got it from in Pennsylvania in 1941,” he said. “Everything is original..the paintings, the chrome and the unusual hairpin legs. The chairs have never been reupholstered. They retain the original green vinyl. The china cabinet, buffet, table and four chairs are being sold as a set. ”It will not be broken up,” he said. “I have promised the family that they will stay together.”
Mohsini explains how to tell whether a piece has been refinished
An 1880s mirrored, five-shelf rosewood armoire from France was the showstopping piece in David Mohsini’s space at the last Pasadena Bustamante Show. He will be bringing more antique French and European furniture to the next Bustamante Show, slated for August 7th-9th Mohsini offers more than pretty pieces. He offers a wealth of knowledge. He easily dissects a piece’s qualities to let a prospective buyer know the history of a piece In the case of the aforementioned armoire, It is particularly desirable because of its all-original finish. ’The finish tells you,” said Mohsini, when trying to determine if a piece has been refinished. He inspects its sheen. A refinished piece tends to be spotless and shiny, while the armoire has a duller patina that reflects the piece’s age. Even the inside of the piece is striking. The back of the panels are bird’s eye maple. ”For people who like French furniture, they make beautiful clothing storage,” he said of the 8 1/2″ tall piece. It is portable with a little bit of effort. It dissects into eight pieces. The shelves inside are adjustable inside, and the bottom section features a hidden drawer. For more information, contact East Bay Antiques at (510) 761-4444. For those looking for something pretty to accent a piece of furniture or even a female figure,
Drug Cartel's torture bed
Rumors at the Del Mar were circulating that Shawna Kelly had a bed that was used by a Mexican drug cartel to torture people. She neither confirms or denies that allegation, but she does know the hard wooden bed came from Puebla, Mexico, which is only about 2 1/2 hours for the drug war capital of Mexico City. Not terribly inviting for a siesta, the handmade red cedar bed looks more like a conference table. The 1920s-30s lady’s bed still retains most of the original paint. Despite its austere appearance, she explains that “This was not a prison piece,” said Kelly. The bed was made to accommodate a mattress made out of the natural material, sisel. Kelley has been hunting down antiques in Mexico for the last 12 years. She even lived in the various parts of the country, including Cuernavaca, for several years. She now travels back and forth between California and Mexico. She hopes the bed will slumber for $1,600. Call (949) 697-2975 for more information.
Sofa right up Betty Grable's alley
A sofa in the corner of Dennis Boses’ Palm Springs space looked at first glance like just another modern sofa. But by pressing a couple of strategic spots, it was quickly converted into a high tech entertainment center with all the bells and whistles typical of its flamboyant maker, Maximilian of Hollywood. The long sofa has built-in, amoeba-shaped hidden console radio by Arvin, two cabinets, and light up seats that move. ”When the radio cabinet opens, it opens hydraulically,” explained Boses. “This is real Betty Grable kind of stuff.”
