Gary Sullivan's Antique Clocks and Furniture Blog

Winterthur: Furniture Forum 2012

On March 7, 2012 in General by Gary Sullivan

I have just returned from the Winterthur 2012 Furniture Forum, where I lectured on the subject of northern clockmakers trading with the southern market during the 1st quarter of the 19th century. It was entitled “Clocks For Corn: Northern Clockmakers Trading With The South”. The Forum was called “Furniture In The South: Makers & Consumers”. It included two days of lectures and a fascinating field trip to Homewood Museum At Johns Hopkins University and Hampton National Historic Site. Both were well worth the trip. Add a tour of Winterthur’s Southern Furniture Exhibit on Saturday and it became a four day event. The forum was very well attended and the speakers were excellent. We recorded my lecture which you can now watch on my website. Click Here. Most of the attendees were from the South, so I was one of the few Yankees on hand. We had a lot of fun teasing each other about our accents. The crowd was largely made up of museum professionals and collectors, but there ware also a number of auctioneers, private dealers and restorers.

Winterthur Museum Furniture Forum, 2011.

May 4, 2011 I'm heading home from this year's furniture forum, which was terrific. The subject of the conference was the furniture of southeastern Pennsylvania. It was accompanied by a new book entitled Paint, Pattern & People: Furniture of Southeastern Pennsylvania, 1725-1850. The book and exhibit represent several years of research and hard work by Winterthur Senior Curator of Furniture, Wendy Cooper and her assistant, Lisa Minardi. For the exhibit, they assembled an amazing collection of 18th and early 19th century furnishings. The exhibit includes some super Pennsylvania German pieces with excellent original painted decoration. I was thrilled to see that the exhibit also included quite a few tall case clocks. With the maker's name and location often inscribed on the clock dials (faces), they are excellent documents in determining local cabinet making styles. When researching regional furniture, we don't have the luxury of reading the place of origin right on the face, as we can with clocks.
The amazing truth about hoarders

August 26, 2011 The popular new television shows on extreme hoarding have recently made more people aware of the problem. Because of this awareness, I’ve begun to hear comments such as, ”can you imagine seeing a place like that?” or “have you ever seen one of those houses?” The sad fact is, I have. Many times. It’s a lot more common than you might think. Between my work for various Boston area auctioneers in my youth and the years that I spent as an estate liquidator, I estimate that I’ve been involved in the dismantling of between 15 and 20 extreme hoarder’s homes. The difference is, I was usually dealing with the homes of hoarders who had either died or had gone to a nursing home. It would be unusual for a hoarder to part with their possessions, so antiques dealers are rarely called until after the occupant is gone. I used to attempt to explain the conditions of these houses, describing rooms piled with debris, sometimes up to the ceiling and only isles to walk through. Now people can see these ...
Important new reference book for collectors

June 19, 2011 Attention clock and furniture collectors: A Terrific new book on American wood movement tall case clocks has just been released and every serious collector of folk art, furniture or clocks should have one. American Wooden Movement Tall Clocks 1712-1835 by Philip Morris has instantly taken its place as an essential reference book in my library. Philip has compiled a remarkable assemblage of tall case clocks, spanning several sub-categories that will be of great interest to clock and furniture collectors alike. Whether your interest is in early brass dial clocks, decorated folk art examples, or the work of specific craftsmen or regions, you’ll find it all in this scholarly publication. The quality and variety of the clocks is Stunning and the photography is exceptional. As a researcher, the previously unpublished biographical information will be invaluable to me. Even if you are not a clock collector, but have an interest in folk art or furniture, you should make this book part of your library. It is only available from the author: www.heritageparkpublishing.com.
Highboy Rescue at Wyoming Auction

April 19, 2011 We have just purchased a “$650.” highboy for $60 thousand! Although I wish the numbers were reversed, I’m thrilled with the discovery and acquisition. Situations like this are what make the antiques business so fascinating and have certainly helped to hold my interest through the years. What happened is this: In mid February I received a letter from a panicked beneficiary of a trust, who informed me that several antique objects from her stepmother’s estate had been under-valued by an appraiser and were slated to be sold in 9 days by a remote Wyoming auctioneer. Fearing that the antiques would sell for a fraction of their value, she was bringing the auction to the attention of qualified dealers that she found on the internet. The key object, an eighteenth century Massachusetts bonnet-top high chest had been valued by an appraiser for the trust at $650. According to the heir, the high chest was a valuable Queen Anne piece and had been part of a fine furniture exhibit at the highly regarded Western Reserve Historical Society in 1969. She sent me an ...
“Antiques Week” in New York, 2011

February 1, 2011 “Antiques Week” in New York was once again the event of the year for antiques enthusiasts. We exhibited at T.A.A.S. (The American Antiques Show) and had a terrific show. Thank you to all of our friends and clients who came by to see our booth. Every January, hundreds of the country’s most serious dealers and collectors of early American antiques descend on Manhattan for “Antiques Week”. Both Christies and Sotheby’s auction houses hold their premier Americana sales as part of the event. Two of the country’s most prestigious antiques shows, T.A.A.S. And East Side also take place. We accumulated pieces for several months leading up to the show and furnished our booth with a number of nice clocks and some very special furniture. Sales of tall case clocks included a circa 1815 New Hampshire clock by James Cole, a diminutive example by Simon Willard of Roxbury, MA. and a rare eighteenth century New Jersey clock with works by Aaron Lane and a case labeled by cabinet maker Matthew Egerton of New Brunswick. Rhode Island furniture seemed to be in demand, particularly the ...
2014 recap blog

January 16, 2015 I looked at our last blog over the weekend and I was embarrassed to see that it was posted over a year ago. Well that is certainly not due to lack of effort. 2014 was the busiest year I can remember. Now we are headed into 2015, which will be my 40th year in the antiques business. It seems fitting that I start by recapping 2014 and highlighting some of those things which have kept Matt and I too busy to blog. Then I promise to keep up with events and maybe sprinkle in some “best of” stories from the past 40 years. The last blog was prior to the opening of an exhibit of Early American Musical clock that I curated at the Willard House and Clock Museum. The exhibit was a massive success. The clocks all played their music beautifully and it was impressive to see all these masterpieces together in one space. Thank you to all who participated. The catalogs are still available at the Willard House. You can take a video tour of the exhibit here. The ...