I came across an image of this lamp from Designline and instantly fell in love with its beautiful curve and simple form. Troja, a minimalistic aluminum and LED light sculpture was designed by hansandfranz of Munich. I wonder if it’s available in Vancouver…
Pair of turned wooden candlesticks attributed to Frank Fell, Mayville, 1905-1935.
I’ve just added 29 artifacts from the collections of the Mayville Historical Society to the Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database. It’s quite a wide range of objects, including embroidery by a local man named Rudolph Sauerhering; a splint basket made by Elmer Kelm, who learned basketry from his German immigrant father; and a lace collar crocheted in 1912 by 18-year-old Alvina Lindemann, framed with a photograph of Lindemann wearing her handiwork.
The candlesticks shown above were made by Frank Fell, a woodworker born in Mayville in 1865 who worked for the Mayville Furniture Company. When the manufactory closed in 1904, Fell purchased its lathe and opened his own woodturning shop. He was best known for his German-style spinning wheels, which are discussed by Victor Hilts and Patricia Hilts in their article “Not For Pioneers Only: The Story of Wisconsin’s Spinning Wheels,” Wisconsin Magazine of History 66:1 (1982), available online. Fell also made what a 1907 receipt (on file at the Mayville Historical Society) describes as “artistic turned work”: tilt-top tables, side tables, footstools, lamp bases, and candlesticks like the examples shown here.
When I write the catalog entries for the database, I try to find out as much information as I can about each object’s maker. In this round of research and writing, I was excited to uncover genealogical information about a local family that helped me to date a quilt (detail below) in the Mayville Historical Society’s collection. This white quilt is covered with the signatures of members of the Hinkes family of Dodge County embroidered in red, a popular trend in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. MHS documented the names and locations on the quilt, but was uncertain of the date when it was made. I was able to apply the concepts of terminus post quem and terminus ante quem to pin down a possible date range. These are terms archaeologists (and some historians) use to mean “no earlier than” and “no later than.” In the case of the Hinkes family quilt, the terminus post quem is 1892–according to Dodge County, Wisconsin: Past and Present (1913), Joseph Hinkes married Clara Heimerl in 1892; Joseph and Clara Hinkes’ names appear together on the quilt, so it must have been made after they were married. The terminus ante quem is probably 1897–according to the Wisconsin Genealogy Index, Celia Hinkes married Joseph Weix in 1897; Celia Hinkes’ maiden name appears on the quilt, so it was most likely made before her marriage and subsequent name change.
A side note–a striking Gothic Revival parlor stove cast from iron ore mined in Mayville in 1846 is the Wisconsin Historical Society’s current Museum Object of the Week.
Posted by Emily Pfotenhauer.
Made in the style of Federal side table or card table, this piece may very well be c1886 (Centennial) furniture. Measurements are 36″ long, 19″ deep and 32″ high with a 25″ height under the skirt. Nice mahoghany flame, with gorgeous bell flower ormolu on the stiles. Two dovetailed drawers with gorgeous brass keyblocks and escutcheons, on casters.
To get an impression of what I mean, look through any ‘World of Interiors’ magazine from the 1980s. It is a glory-fest of indulgence, an obsession with loud and expensive curtain tie-backs, fake portraits and reproduction furniture. This was instant self-heritage. The magazines of the period even saw it as perfectly reasonable to portray a 1980s interior as a Madame Pompadour Boudoir or an Imperial Russian Drawing room. These rooms were expected to be full of references to a privileged lifestyle or background, all of which was false.
Many in the 1980s had managed to disguise their humble roots, some even jettisoning their working class parents, who perhaps were not as familiar with their children’s fantasy theme as they perhaps should have been. Elocution lessons were rampant throughout the decade and style coaches in class manners were the norm.
It was an era of reinvention for many. A peculiar decade where it wasn’t who you were, but who you said you were, that was important. It would be interesting to see how many of those reinvented lives have managed to keep their original roots hidden in 2008.
Textbook Mission style dates this Church Altar Chair to the 1920s, gorgeous fumed Oak in original finish. Extremely nice condition, new red velvet upholstery and terribly sturdy…ready to go be set in the house.
