Antique Welsh Dressers from Wales?

Occupying an important place in your home.

Welsh Dresser with Pot Rack

On our last trip to England, we purchased several “welsh dressers”. We don’t know if they actually came from Wales, but they are the type of cupboards that most people refer to as welsh dressers. We found prices for the welsh dressers better now than they have been in years, at least since we started looking for them in the mid-1980s.

Small Welsh Dresser with Pot Rack

In the states, dresser is a term we apply to a chest of drawers used in the bedroom to hold clothes. But in England, a dresser is a low cabinet with a plate rack above and attached to the cabinet used in the kitchen. The cabinet can have drawers with an open pot rack below, or be enclosed with drawers and cabinets. Dresser refers to the fact that the women used to dress the meat on the cupboard.

Welsh Dresser from an English farmhouse

Dressers served a variety of purposes. In small farm cottages, the dressers were small, but highly used. They were display pieces for the family’s best wares, with the top apron of the plate rack usually carved. The plate rack displayed the dishes and mugs. The pot rack at the bottom held the big kitchen pieces. Food was served from the dressers at meal time.

When looking for a dresser, it’s all about the wood and the patina. Know the size you need, but then get out and feel the wood. Watch out for dried out pieces, they just haven’t been cared for properly. A proper welsh dresser fill a favorite place in your home and in the home of your children’s children for years to come.

Vintage Cribbage Boards

When it’s not over until it’s over.

Antique Cribbage Boards

Theresa’s father, Damian, is a cribbage player. Cribbage is a two-player game played with cards and a cribbage board. It’s also a counting game, which explains why Theresa and I don’t play. But our son, Andrew, has picked up on it and gives Damian a run for his money. The game was passed down from family members and Damian and his brothers and brothers-in-laws play whenever they get the chance. A game only takes about 30 minutes from start to finish.

Cribbage has been around since the 17^th century and it’s still very popular. Service men played the game to pass the time. While the game is quick and as Damian says, “it’s the best card game ever”, what we’re drawn to is the actual board. It’s a scoring board with streets of holes. It’s scored by moving pegs as a hand is played. Scoring occurs throughout the game; play a hand, and move your peg in a leap frog fashion. The game count goes to 121 and there are four streets to be played before the end of the game. While it helps to know how your opponent plays, luck and strategy go hand in hand in cribbage. You cannot guess the outcome. The crib most likely will determine the winner. And whatever you do, Damian advises “don’t get behind in that third row.”

Our shopping trips are a lot like cribbage. We go to these giant fairs, walking up and down the “streets of antiques” leapfrogging over our opponents to try and find the hidden gems. In England, on our latest trip, we found great vintage boards made with a variety of inlays and wonderful designs. Ones with the pegs are harder to find. But we like the idea of a collection of boards because of their decorative value and their cost is a lot lower than other kinds of game boards, i.e. inlay chess boards.

From Illustrator to Ozark County Artist

James Burkhart, American, 1933-2011

 

“Ozark October Sunday” Limited Edition

James Burkhart is one of the Ozarks Regional Artists that we have featured at the gallery since the 1960s. Robertson Gallery held a special gallery show for him and was one of the four galleries in the Midwest that featured his artwork early in his career. Pop did some framing for him and James was friendly and quite the talker, as Philip remembers.

James Burkhart was born on October 15, 1933 in Council Bluffs, Iowa. After intensive art training in high school, and becoming the ship’s artist while in the Navy, the decision of becoming an artist was easy for him to make. Burkhart’s formal art education began with two years at the University of Omaha and was concluded at the Kansas City Art Institute with a BFA degree. After his 1963 graduation, he became a commercial artist in Kansas City and later in Springfield, where he worked for a commercial design company and later started his own commercial design firm. He spent ten years in advertising art.

In 1967, he and his wife moved to land on Bryant Creek, deep in the woods of Ozark County, Missouri. He switched his emphasis to fine arts and started his career as an independent artist, focusing on capturing the scenes and people of the Ozarks. His watercolors and canvases depicted the native elements that surrounded his home and studio. He created commissioned paintings and limited-edition prints and developed a reputation throughout the Midwest. He chose to use acrylic paint that was watered down to be a wash to paint Ozark scenes. And he created folios of graphite drawings. He did a black and white series of Springfield Victorian homes. He did a limited edition of the Four Mills of Ozark County. He did a series of Ozark scenes, such as the “Touching the Ozarks” collection, featuring the land, people and wildlife in the area. The artist’s works embellished hundreds of offices and homes through the country, including such collectors as the R.T. French Co., Harry S. Truman Library, and past Governor of Missouri Kit Bond.

James was a resident of Gainesville, Missouri at the time of his passing on October 25, 2011. We have a few of his pieces at the Gallery. Stop in, we’ll be happy to show them to you.

Wishing All the Moms a Very Happy Mother’s Day

To the world you might just be one person,
but to one person you might just be the world.

My mom, Mary Robertson

 

My Grandmothers. Granny Robertson and Grandma Bennett. Granny started me on this “antiquing” journey many years ago.

The Antique Buzz

Fly catcher

In the small town of Todmorton, we found several interesting antiques at Picture House Antiques, http://picturehouseantiques.co.uk/.

Picture House Antiques

One item was this great Victorian fly catcher. Fly catchers are very simple contraptions. Filled with a sugar syrup bait, flies fly in and can’t find a way out. This is a large clear glass bottle-style fly catcher with a wire hanger and cork stopper.

Antique Fly Catcher

Stop in and see what other fun items we have at the store.   Philip & Theresa

You Ought Not Be Without a Whatnot

Hanging Wall Shelves, referred to as Whatnots

Antique Carved Whatnot

If I say Whatnot, does the first thing that comes to mind a granny’s collection of dusty trinkets and porcelain figurines? To be honest, that sounds like the last thing that I would want in my house. However, if we set aside our preconceived notions of a whatnot shelf, perhaps we can discover new ways of using a whatnot.

Four Shelves, Antique Hanging Wall Shelf

Whatnots can refer to standing cabinets, corner shelves, and display cabinets. Today, we’ve focused on hanging shelves. Whatnot shelves come in all shapes and sizes and some can be very intricately carved in certain styles. For instance, at the store, we have Victorian pieces alongside of Arts and Crafts shelves. Some have open backs, plate ridges, and decorative fret work. As an antique piece of furniture, the shelves are priced reasonable and can serve a purpose in any modern home.

Antique Whatnot

Whatnot shelves, or hanging wall shelves, can be placed in any room. In fact, while most homes have limited floor space due to massive tellies, huge L-shaped sofas or king-sized beds, wall space is normally easy to find in all houses, except of course, those made out of glass!

Use a Whatnot to display your favorite crystal.

 

The Thrill of the Horse Race

And fashionable attired

Did you know there are 60 racecourses in England? They are divided into flat racing and those that involve jumping over obstacles, like hurdles or fences. Horse racing is big in the UK.

In the off-season, racecourses are used for various purposes. Of course, our favorite is the antique fair. We’ve been to two such fairs, at the Doncaster Racecourse (flat and jumping) and the Wetherby Racecourse (jumping). These are regular collector fairs held several times a year. The vendor booths are set up in the exhibition centres, the grandstand and, at Wetherby, there are a number of outside pitches. It takes a lot of work and energy to cover the grounds and the merchandise varies greatly, but they are great fun, especially with our friends.

With the upcoming 138^th Kentucky Derby taking place on May 5 at Churchill Downs Race Course here in the US, we thought we share this photo of a vignette that we put together in honor of the race. Because everyone knows, fashion has its place in the racing world! The only thing missing is the rose wreath for the winner.

Trophies, brass straps, shooting stick, straw boater, antique folding chair, riding crops