Bama Planter

Straight from Alabama's Black Belt comes this primitive pine corner cabinet that stands 7 ft. 9 1/2 inches tall with two over two chamfered pegged doors containing six shelves. I bought it in Marion and Lloyd  brought it to the house on Saturday after much anticipation and preparation in choosing the perfect corner. I decided to follow the old furniture placement rule saying that the tallest piece should be the fartherest from the front door.   This proved to be correct and she is already full of Staffordshire and crockery.

Pilgrim Century furniture is just what the name implies: furniture made in America from 1620 (the arrival of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower) until the year 1720 ( 100 years after the arrival). I was in contact with a lady who wanted to sell the chair, and I told her that I would be ecstatic to own it.  She is in the state of Massachusetts and was curious to know why someone in Alabama would have any interest in anything so New England in nature. I told her that my ancestors the Towne family had lived in Massachusetts during the Pilgrim Century and were part of the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692 and that I wanted some original piece of furniture from the era to represent my Yankee heritage on that line.  That seemed to convince her that I was worthy. ( I descend from Joseph Towne whose sisters Rebecca Towne Nurse and Mary Towne Easty were hanged as witches. Their sister Sarah was saved because the trials ended and the remaining prisoners were set free.) It arrived he...

I met a nice couple who are fellow lovers of primitives. I bought their plantation desk which was part of a general clean out.  Someone in Arkansas had already bought their Larkin china cabinet or I might have gotten that also. There are two table top victrolas at their house for $200 each and another with 100 records for $900.  I have a Brunswick that my parents bought for me in the early 1970s for $50 so I really don't need another one. Summer of 2011 update: My cousins in Richmond love this desk even more so it is moving to Richmond soon.  I know where three more are, so if my need to hoard another one arises, I can drive to Tennessee and buy one.

I rode to Knoxville to see what was on the floor at a really good antique estate buying business.  I normally don't travel that far ( almost four hours) but they had an 1840's tole painted two-drawer stand that was so outstanding I had to see it in person.  Sitting next to it was an 1830's Tennessee cherry table with a dough board top. I bought them both, along with a Drexel 1920's mahogany low boy.  On the way home I stopped in Sweetwater, an antiques town just off the interstate north of Chattanooga, and was able to cram a few smalls in.  I took the low boy to the shop and kept the other two pieces for my house.

Having taught school for so long, I am hard pressed to express my happiness in finding this one and bringing it home.  It's heavy, and is larger than it looks in the picture.  Here's how I came to get it. Nita and I rode to a storage room in McCalla where a guy was selling furniture he and his wife had collected for fifty years.  The desk was right by the door, and it was the first thing I saw that I knew was good . Turned legs, original hinges, that pumpkin-orange color, no major repairs or replacement parts, and a brown interior that only age could create. When I saw the prices, my heart sank a bit, but I remained calm as usual and showed no emotion. The man had everything priced sky high, and I knew we could buy little to nothing. I did a quick walk through while he and Nita talked about his terms and prices. He had told her the night before that she could take anything she wanted on consignment, but now he had changed his mind and wanted only to sell f...

I have a tendency to line up furniture like some sort of store, and I'm trying to do better, but old habits are hard to break.  I get the "Your house looks like an antique shop " comment a lot ( which I secretly like to hear), so I'm already prepared to point out sarcastically that there are no price tags on anything, but they are " free to make an offer on anything you see ." I spent the day working outside and inside the place, as this is the first official day of my summer vacation from school.  I already miss my ninth graders. Several are in summer school, but not because of me ( Thankfully, everybody passed in my room). This corner of the old house shows, starting from the left, a federal chest under the window which I found at a mall on Hwy. 280. By the chair is a Colonial New England 2 drawer blanket chest in original red paint with thumb moulding and flint glass pulls on turned Federal feet, a chest from Virginia in the corner which I...

I am all excited about an Alabama portrait that has finally come home. This painting is of Felix Taylor Taliaferro, a cotton merchant who lived in Mobile, Alabama, in the 1860s and 1870s. I bought this portrait from a family member who lives in Pennsylvania. They were unsure if he was a grandfather on up their line or an uncle.  In either case, they wanted to sell it, having no interest in family history. I was glad to buy it so that his portrait could come back South again. The subject of the painting was a citizen of Orange County, Virginia.  According to family, he moved to Mobile to make his fortune in the cotton trade. Some years later, before 1880,  he returned to Virginia. Although the name is spelled "Taliaferro" it is apparently pronounced more like " Tolliver." Mr. Taliaferro's middle name Taylor is the maiden name of his grandmother, who was a second or third cousin to President Zachary Taylor. Felix Taylor Taliaferro's parents we...