The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-11-11

fooLI'EcToRs FIND MANY Rare
OLD PIECES. KS,
Household Articles That Once Graced
Mansions Of Old World aentility
Find Their Way in Early Day 70
Northwest Unappreciative Owners
Often Throw Il Away. ,ass

Minneapolis is becoming more and
more the center Of authority, aon antique
furniture, in the northwest. Furniture
which was beginning to- be ANTIQUE
when the nineteenth century opened is
constantly turning up in. Minneapolis.
Back OF almost every marred and bat
tered piece of walnut or ma hogany is
a story which, if it were only known,
might furnish ma terial for a romance.
!, assive mahogany or walnut bureaus
with rope ma ks. deeply SCARED in their
neys by rail to Chicago, BY prairie
sehooner to the river and by. steamer
to st. Anthony. Other pieces are once
cherished heirlooms from old New Eng
land homesteads, owned later by the
desc ndants of the original New Eng
land immigrants to the northwest and
since thrown on the market thru the
changing fortunes Of the family. ~,
s., That chest Of drawers over yonder
was was: used as a. trunk by one of the
early settlers, = said J: K. Shaw, 419
Fourteenth avenue Sc. q You can; fell
that by the deep rope-marks in. its
edges. Many, Of these, old chests came
out here packed with clothing and bed
ding As they had neither mirrors nor
castors, they. made. ideal trunks.
:: West India Mahogany.
:. :. ''eThis colonial sideboard is made Of
West India mahogany, which weighs
w pounds to the square foot, tho the
ordinary Mexican mahogany weighs
only 21a pounds: When it is rebuilt
and renovated it will be. easily worth
room for a. $27 machine, carved se oak oak
sideboard. When l found it, it was
stored; in a.woodshed in St. Anthony
Park. It was once highly priced by the
family to which it belonged, but the
man to whom it descended married a
woman Of the kind who wants Some
thing UP to date and it had to CO. This
is the history Of many heirloorns.
81 had a;:table the other dav which
2 younger, son Of "a noble, English fam
lly brought across the water. : He tried
farming in Iowa, but went broke. and
Mr.. zAmmpndsen, the editor Of the De-
coralh :. 1fPosten, staked him with enough
to get home. I found the table stored
in a barn there last Christmas. III :,
"Then I had some old mahogany
Napoleon: beds that were brought, over
by a. French, family. ~ For twenty years
they. We're stored in a barn in&sMinne-
apolis pending the determination. of lit
! igation over. the estate. This quaint
German: table is 200, years old. This
dresser lis real empire. It evidently
worked its way down. from Canada and
has: passed thru many hands. When l
first got it it had been made over sew.
eral times and had mirror. and cheap
brass mountings which were plainly
not:sthe!. work Of, its maker. These a.,
little chairs came from Norway with
some Immigrant. They are made from
bog: oak an dare at least 100 years old
You might go on and find a story
n.every piece in this shop. When YOU
think that much Of this furniture was
made in England, came ito. New Eng
land before. the revolution: and has
/ drifted out into the northwest, yousget
a mighty impressive view of the great
and many picturesque 0 Side ts lights s'. on
the. early. history Of; Minnesota, -.