Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-01-19
FAD FOR ANTIQUES
Hereabouts Runs Largely to Old
Mahogany.
BOTH NORTH AND SOUTH RANSACKED
The Family Histories and Fasci-
mating Romances.
NEW INDUSTRY FOR WOMEN
Written for The Evening Star.

|
the person Who is once seized with it is
| not likely to get over it.
In the first stage OF the malady comfort
| and real beauty are not considered: any old
| battered mahogany thing is a treasured
| possession. Chairs with lettering legs
| sideboards with doors that cannot be open
ed except by arduous efforts, bureaus with
| drawers that creak and "groan and at times
distinctly refuse to budge-all are acquired
with eager pride. But after the disease has
| run Its course and the patient Is conva-
| descent, she will have learned enough of
| good English and colonial models to feel a
hearty disgust for rickety trash and hence
forth will buy only those pieces that have
other claims upon regard than mere age.
| No honest antiquity dealer will sell a re-
| production as an antique. There are ex-
| cellent limitations of old furniture which
are manufactured especially for the an
| tiquity trade, and there are dealers who
| Will label them old, and find beginners
| demand for antique furniture has been so
| great for the last few years that only the
| most inexperienced collector is likely to
make indiscrminating blunders.
Romance Costs.
Although a touch of romance will add to
| the interest of acQuistion-as well as to
| the price. for the dealer expects to make
| an extra charge If he sticks on a bit Of
| history-yet some of these treasures have
been given up with heartaches SO pathetic
it would be better not to hear where they
came from" Many old chairs and sofas
| that would never have found a sale from
their antiquity alone have been in demand
when the dealer has embelliShed them with
| little ancestral traditions. For instance
| since the poverty of a granddaughter of
Lawrence Washington, and the paWning of
her keepsakes the shops have on sale
more "clawfoot'' mahogany tables and
carved chairs labeled with her distinguish
ed name. than could ever have been slowed
away in the most spacious of Virginia
manor houses.
Where George Slept.
| In the old city hotel Of Annapolis, George
Washington once spent night. and judg-
Ing from the antiquity shops Of that quaint
little capital he must have been lodged in
| a lumber room, since for many years a sue
cessive array of four-post beds, crippled
chairs and clumsy sofas have been as
suringly offered and guilelessly purchased
as the furniture of "Washingtons room'
In Washington antiquity shops one rarely
finds any wood but mahogany, while in
London. for example, many of the Oldest
ana most valuable pieces are Of oak En-
| gllsh prices, too, are different. A mahog-
any sideboard of no particular grace and
not of famous workmanship, merely a we'll
| poiiSlSu FHSlIlid Tcilc Oh the early part OF
| the nineteenth century, is readily sold in
| Washington for $3.50; a genuine and mag
| nificent Jacobsen buffet, dated 1880, can be
had In London for S125. But that associa-
ton has market value there as we'll as
here Is shown by the recent sale at 5000 Of
a very ordinary chair which had once been
used by Shakespeare.
Costly Relics These.
The most costly suite of furniture in ex-
istence belongs to an English gentleman,
who paid for it over half a million dollars
| The bedstead is of ebony, with solid ivory
carvings; that one piece alone cost f3SOOO
| sterling! Probably only one person, Charles
| H. has ever had more expensive suite of
furniture; to him was presented by the
corporation of London one fashioned in
| solid silver. Two of the solid silver tables
| are now at Windsor Castle; the other pieces
| are not in existence, unless as coins of the
realm.
| The true Washingtonian has an Unsuitable
| twist for household "sales," even when only
| modern furniture is on the catalogue. When
statesman or diplomat takes his per-
manent departure and sells his lares ct
penates by auction, there is a fashionable
scramble to secure at least one article
Just for associations sake" Therefore,
the visitor making tour Of teas may
have proudly pointed out to her a set Of
dining chairs as having once belonged to
Senator A; sideboard from the sale of
Ambassador B.: or a teakwood cabinet from
an Asiatic legation.
OF Historical Value.
Some recent purchases are laden with the
history and romance of Washington, Mary
land and Virginia.
For history's representation are several
beautiful mahogany bookcases-with the
glass panes of the doors set in Gothic
arches-which were placed in the Capitol
| when it was built. They We're recently sold
to make way for more modern fittings, and
cut into sections are now exceptionally
handsome china closets. A broad. massive
sideboard with heavily twisted columns was
once the property Of President Buchanan;
beautiful one, rass-tipped, formerly be-
longed to Henry Clay.
A Treasure Trove.
Maryland furnished one of exquisite
workmanship, having the signature of an
Annapolis cabinet maker, who, in the early
colonial days, was renowned for his skill.
This treasure was discovered in a negro
cabin on the eastern shore, where it was
doing lowly duty kitchen dresser. 1t
was rescued by the payment of a few dol
lars and restored by the expenditure OF
many. Possibly it had been discarded by
the "ole missus,' to make way for the
| Eastlake mania. A sideboard simply built
on straight lines and delca tely inlaid with
| narrow bands Of silver maple was a relic
of the CAROLS. 1t was sold by a member
of the family, so that its ancestral dignity
was unlmpa1reQ-a value IN llSel1.
just Bit Suspicious.
Virginia supplied quaint table that had
belonged to Lord Fairfax. 1t had two
| brass-handled drawers. like any little.
prim New England table. but it also had
folding leaves lined with crimson velvet.
These, when unfolded, rested on slides,
| making a card table, and SO disproving any
suspicion of Puritan association. With the
slides run in, however, and the leaves
folded over the top, 1t became an inno-
cent work table,
luxurious and really magnificent sofa
came from Marlboro way" 1t had rich
| ly carved claw feet, behind as we'll as in
front-a bit of mechanical sincerity sell
dom met with; but the rarest feature was
broad, solid mahogany arm In the mid
die. This was to hold reading lamp,
| the seat on each side being long enough
to accommodate two persons.
Her Last Belonging.
A chair with followed wooden seat, the
| back of fine spindles set in balloon
shaped frame-a design much used now in
reproductions-had it's pathos. 1t came
from an old colored laundress, who had
chung to it through long years of poverty.
b,,t ia had heen obliged n LET IT pO at