News & Events
Mid-America
News
Show
Calendar
State Event Calendars
Regular Features
The
Antique Detective
Antique
Detective Q&A
Common Sense Antiques
Editor's Notebook
Reflecting History
Refurnished
Thoughts
Traveling with Ken
Good Eye
Discover
Mid-America
Marketplace
Books
for Collectors
Directories
& Classifieds
The
Finder: Unique Shops
Lodgings Directory
Museum Directory
Aviation Museums
Wineries in the Heartland
Classifieds
Archived Features
Helpful
Hints
for Collectors
Is This An Antique?
Heirloom
Recipes
Discover Mid-America - May 2006
Collectors wacky for wicker
Once upon a time, before interior decorators gussied up wicker, painted it white and move it indoors, prices were low. In fact, they were sometimes non-existent, since garbage dumps and city alleys offered fine displays of wicker. Now, wicker of every vintage from circa 1850 to the circa 1927 Sears catalog, continues to be popular and prices continue to rise. Since the 1970s there have been dealers who are wicker specialists.
 |
| Reception or photographer’s settee. Haywood Brothers and Wakefield Co., Gardner, MA. 1898-1904. (Photo credit: Skinner Gallery, Boston/Bolton, MA) |
While the gingerbready Victorian wicker pieces have always enjoyed a degree of popularity, this was not so with 1920s examples. These days anything wicker goes fast at shows and in shops.
The word “wicker” itself describes the qualities of the material. It derives from the Scandinavian “vika’ meaning “to bend.” It can also describe a variety of materials that bend, including rattan, cane, reed, willow, Oriental sea grass and machine-twisted paper. This very characteristic has allowed wicker to be fashioned into many diverse forms. Furniture is the most familiar. Examples have also been found of a wicker phonograph and a wicker grandfather clock. Doll buggies from the 1920s and baby carriages from the turn of the century always find buyers who use them to display dolls and plants. Recently when a turn-of-the-century photographer’s settee came to auctions at Skinner Gallery it had an estimated value of $500-$700.
Wicker always had a status image from the time it was first used in country houses of the wealthy. The fancy “posing chair” used by turn-of-the-century photographers had a single arm that allowed the subject to assume an elegant pose. It was a time when wicker fainting couches and daybeds were popular on front porches for the ultimate relaxation.
CLUES
Learn to recognize the earliest wicker, made in the 1850s in America. And know that reproductions of Victorian pieces have been around for two decades. Wicker was popular in Europe and when it first appeared the finish was either stained dark brown or coated with a natural varnish. The first pieces were simple in lines, but, like the woods of the Victorian period, designs gradually became fanciful combinations of curlicues and small wood balls. The most popular (and reproduced) rattan styles featuring heart designs were reproduced in Hong Kong in the 1950s and 60s. Sometimes, 19th century wicker has retained the original labels. Two of the best known makers were Topf of New York City and Wakefield Rattan Com-pany of Boston and New York.
From 1900 through the 1920s wicker furniture did a big mail order catalog business. The bird cage and fernery that sold then for $13.95 would be considered a novelty today and priced for more than $400. Reed, wicker furniture came in sets that might include a settee and rocker. They were in natural brown color. The emphasis was on comfort, since they had come indoors, and seats were padded and backs were partially upholstered.
Everything from smoking stands to swings found a ready market. The Larkin Company pictured plant baskets as well as a tea wagon in their catalog. Woven reed baby and doll carriages offered the sublime and the ridiculous. For instance, “Pullman Sleeper Coaches” came with upholstered interiors and parasols. A reclining “go-cart with parasol” recently sold at an estate sale for several hundred dollars.
In the 1920s Haywood-Wakefield Company began making handcraft stick wicker furniture. It fit in perfectly with the new Art Deco designs.
Long forgotten was yet another purpose for the 19th century. It met the concern with germs and health of that time, with its ventilated styling.
> The Antique Detective Archive — past columns