Neal Auction 2012

W denotes the lot is illustrated at www.nealauction.com 177 946. American School , “Portrait of a Boy with Hoop”, oil on canvas, unsigned, 52 in. x 32 in., framed. $1000/1500 947. A Fine American Aesthetic Carved and Burled Walnut Bedroom Suite , c. 1880, attributed to Mitchell and Rammelsberg, Cincinnati, comprising a half tester bed with elaborate carved and pierced tester, bracket supports, head and footboard with bracketed rails; matching armoire, center stile flanked by mirrored doors, two long drawers below; mirrored marble top dresser, three short over two long drawers; mirrored marble top washstand, long drawer over drawers and cupboard. $8000/12000 Provenance: Descended in a New Orleans family, acquired from a Royal Street, New Orleans purveyor long ago. Note: This bedroom suite is likely part of a group of furniture made in Cincinnati and sold in New Orleans in the 1880’s. The use of walnut, the proportions, case configurations, and carved embellishments relate closely to those on a suite sold in these rooms in 1995 and illustrated in Dubrow. Styles of American Furniture, 1860- 1960 , p. 59; a suite stenciled “M & Co., New Orleans” and sold by Neal Auction Company as lot 973 on February 12, 2011; and a suite by Mitchell and Rammelsberg exhibited at the Cincinnati Museum of Art. Mitchell and Rammelsburg began their partnership in 1847 and built a vast Cincinnati manufacturing complex with warerooms in St. Louis (1855), Kentucky (1862) and on Royal Street in New Orleans (1865). Frederick Rammelsberg died in 1863, and William Mitchell bought his partner’s shares in the business. By 1888, the Rammelsberg name was dropped, and the firm continued operation until 1930. Though produced by a large manufactory using steam powered machines, the suite offered here shows influence from the renowned programs of Arts and Crafts proponents Henry Lindley Fry, William Henry Fry, and Benn Pitman who held woodcarving classes for women at the University of Cincinnati School of Design starting in 1873. Reference: Howe. Cincinnati Art Carved Furniture . and Trapp. “’To Beautify the Useful:” Benn Pittman and the Women’s Woodcarving Movement in Cincinnati in the Late 19th c.,” Victorian Furniture . pp. 174-192. 946 947