Pyrography Hutch Table, ca. 1920
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GUEST:
Well, I call it a table chair or a chair table, whichever.
APPRAISER:
(chuckles)
GUEST:
But it, uh, was handed down to my husband on his maternal side. Brooklyn, I believe, is where they first were. And we're not sure when they came over from Denmark. He was told that he thought a relative made it, carved it, you know, like, in wood shop or something. (chuckling): Kind of, I mean, that was, they...
APPRAISER:
Right.
GUEST:
No big deal about it at all.
APPRAISER:
So what you have is, is what we often refer to as a hutch table. And as you alluded to, you said a chair table. If we do this, with a simple hinge, it converts from a, a table to a chair. And this is actually what we call pyrography. It's the art of carving and burning these designs into wood. I would probably date it from about the 1920s. And it's what we call the Art Nouveau style.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
This is really an ambitious piece of work.
GUEST:
(chuckling): Yes.
APPRAISER:
To think about it, probably hours and hours of work went into this piece, but it's, it's fabulous. Where was your, your husband's family from?
GUEST:
The grandmother was from, uh, Denmark.
APPRAISER:
Do they have a, a Jensen family name attached to them at all?
GUEST:
Should have looked for that. (chuckling): Um, I think there is.
APPRAISER:
Okay, 'cause the reason I ask is, 'cause believe it or not, there's a signature of Minnie G. Jensen under here.
GUEST:
There is? We looked everywhere for a signature.
APPRAISER:
Really?
GUEST:
(chuckling): Where did you find it?
APPRAISER:
If I shut the top, what I'm just going to do is, I'm going to lift it like this.
GUEST:
Oh, my goodness!
APPRAISER:
And right under here we have "Minnie G. Jensen."
GUEST:
Well, that's definitely one of the... I don't know, I can't remember if it's the grandmother, I, you know, the names, but Jensen is definitely in there. So... I have it written down in my purse.
APPRAISER:
Really? Well, that is probably who, who did this, this ambitious work. I'm just going to...
GUEST:
And so what would they do? Get patterns?
APPRAISER:
Yeah, exactly. They had pattern designs. Most pyrographic work brings, you know, a couple hundred dollars. It, no, nothing too crazy.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
But because of the, the great size, proportion, and for me, this central panel of, of the woman, it, it gets my heart beating. I just think it's so beautiful. If this were to come to auction, I would estimate it to sell in the $1,000 to $2,000 range.
GUEST:
Wow, very nice.
APPRAISER:
It's pretty special.
GUEST:
That it is.
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