1860s Pottier & Stymus Cabinet
GUEST:
My husband bought it from a man who collects antiques.
APPRAISER:
And how long ago was that?
GUEST:
About four years ago. They told us that it came from Boston to Salt Lake in the 1900s. We use it as a stereo cabinet.
APPRAISER:
It's a nice stereo cabinet. Well, this is a classic, actually New York City, cabinet. And believe it or not, we can pretty strongly attribute this to a maker, which is kind of fun.
GUEST:
Really?
APPRAISER:
And it's sort of rare that we can attribute Victorian furniture. This is made about in the 1860s in America.
GUEST:
1860s.
APPRAISER:
And it's a style we see a lot of on the ANTIQUES ROADSHOW. Victorian. We put it under the umbrella of Renaissance Revival. We see the Louis XVI style and some of the ormolu mounts here and these tapered columns. We see a neo-Greco sort of style here in these shells. And what do you think about that plaque? Do you like that?
GUEST:
It's beautiful.
APPRAISER:
Isn't that beautiful?
GUEST:
It is.
APPRAISER:
Well, we very rarely find Victorian cabinets like this with these porcelain plaques. And it's one of the reasons we know that this is made by a certain maker in New York named Pottier & Stymus-- two French gentlemen who came to New York and started making furniture in this incredible style. Contrasts: many different materials of porcelain, ormolu we see in the capitals here. Different types of wood like rosewood, mahogany, ebonized wood, giltwood. I mean, it's got everything imaginable.
GUEST:
A little of everything, yeah.
APPRAISER:
And that's one of the reasons we know it's by them. And not only that, but there's a documented cabinet that's in Providence, Rhode Island, in the governor's house, documented and signed by Pottier & Stymus. It's very closely related to this. Pottier & Stymus made some of the finest furniture made during the Victorian period, for families like the Rockefellers, and made furniture for the White House.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
Really, these were meant to be used as status symbols.
GUEST:
Really?
APPRAISER:
And they were pretty impressive. You had this in your drawing room or music room, and this platform would hold a vase, like a porcelain vase or a marble sculpture.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
Now, um, how much did you pay for this piece, may I ask?
GUEST:
I think around $6,000, $7,000.
APPRAISER:
Well, based on sales of pieces like this, this is probably worth in the range of about $10,000 to $15,000, so...
GUEST:
Interesting. Pretty nice.
APPRAISER:
You have a nice stereo cabinet.
GUEST:
Yeah. I tell you.
APPRAISER:
So are you going to keep the stereo inside?
GUEST:
Oh, yeah, yeah, we are.
APPRAISER:
Oh, good.
GUEST:
Put it back where we had it.
Appraisal Details
Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
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