Adirondack chairs just one example of style
The Adirondack style started with a chair in 1903, when many wealthy folks from the East Coast wanted a cool place to live for the summer and were building homes in the Adirondack Mountains area.
In Westport, New York, Thomas Lee wanted comfortable outdoor chairs for his vacation house. He made one that reclined with wide armrests from 11 pieces of wood. It’s now known as the Adirondack or Westport chair.
He had a local carpenter friend named Harry Bunnell, who made the chairs to sell. Bunnell patented the design in 1905; Lee never received any of the profit.
Other pieces of furniture made of local wood with carvings were created for the Adirondack homes. The style was very much like today’s Western or Rustic styles. Because they are made of logs, pieces are heavy-looking and heavy to move.
An Adirondack bookcasechest combination sold at a recent Skinner auction for $6,150. It’s definitely homemade and one of a kind.
Q: My painting, I was told, was taken from a museum in Hungary. When the townspeople heard the Germans were coming, they broke into the museum so they could hide the paintings. This painting was hidden in my mother’s cousin’s house for several years and brought to the U.S. when she came to visit in the 1960s. The cousin planned to give it to the Jewish family she helped to escape during the war, but gave it to my mother instead.
We can’t find a signature on the painting. What should we do with it?
A: Thousands of paintings and other works of art were This Adirondack-style cabinet, 86 inches tall and 46 inches wide, sold at auction for $6,150. taken during World War II. Most artwork was taken by the Nazis, but soldiers took some as “souvenirs,” and townspeople took some to hide.
There are several databases for stolen or missing art works. Scotland Yard, Interpol and the FBI maintain databases, but the largest database is the Art Loss Register (artloss.com). Contact them to see if your painting is one that has been reported as missing. They probably can find the original owner.
Current prices
Prices are recorded from throughout the United States.
■ Bottle, Dabler’s Flavors For Ice Cream, Desserts, Cakes, etc., vanilla caramel, paper label, 1920s, 8 ounces, $15
■ Sugar bowl, turquoiseblue milk glass, relief grapevines with bunches of grapes, footed, dome lid, grape-cluster finial, 1920s, 6 inches, $60
■ Scent bottle, ruby-red glass and silver plate, tubular with hinged lid on one end and screw cap on other, engraved July 4th 1880, Victorian, $215