Antiques Roadshow

GUEST

I bought this about a year ago from a local dealer.

APPRAISER

Let's check it out on the back.

GUEST

Sure.

APPRAISER

So it's relatively rare to find furniture with signatures on it, and your chair has two. One of them is a decal label from the L. & J.G. Stickley Furniture Company. The label that's on it is this rectangular shape.

GUEST

Right.

APPRAISER

Which means that it was made between 1912 and 1920. And it also is stamped "Breakers Cottages."

GUEST

Yes, yes.

APPRAISER

Which probably was not done by the Stickley Company themselves, but probably from either the preservation society once they took over the Breakers, or the Vanderbilt family themselves. Of course, Cornelius Vanderbilt built it, but he furnished his home with really fanciful European furniture. And this was an oak, pretty pedestrian piece.

GUEST

That's what confused me a little bit.

APPRAISER

Yes, I am guessing that this probably came out of either the servants' quarters or... It was a utilitarian piece, because by the time this was made in 1912 to '20, it wasn't made by Gustav Stickley, the grandfather of the Arts and Crafts movement-- he made very expensive furniture. His brothers then went on to make a little more pedestrian furniture...

GUEST

Okay.

APPRAISER

More affordable. Any idea of its value, or...?

GUEST

I paid $750 for it.

APPRAISER

Well, I would probably insure this in the range of $800 to $1,200.

GUEST

Oh, great, great.

APPRAISER

Yeah. It's a connection between the Arts and Crafts movement and one of the grand homes here in Newport.

GUEST

Oh, thank you.