Department
Provenance
A family quilt traced to a Pennsylvania farmhouse, the receipt that solved a Sheraton chair, one chair four owners.
The Cookbook with Six Marginalia
An 1861 first edition of Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, found in a Charleston estate, traced through six women's annotations across a hundred and twenty years to a single Charleston kitchen.
The Silver Spoon Stamped Three Times
A George III silver dessert spoon with three sets of marks — Edinburgh assay, maker, and a tiny owner's mark added later — traced from a 1791 Edinburgh silversmith to a Glasgow merchant family and finally to a Glasgow charity shop.
The Portrait Miniature in a Norfolk Attic
A watercolour-on-ivory portrait, three inches by two and a half, found in a biscuit tin in a Cromer attic, identified from a barely legible inscription as a 1798 likeness of a Norwich merchant's wife.
A Georgian Tea Caddy with a London Customs Stamp
A 1786 mahogany tea caddy, found in a Kent estate sale, identified by a small customs stamp inside the lid and traced to the household of a London linen-draper who recorded its purchase in his daybook.
The Brass Case Mark on a Daguerreotype
A sixth-plate Civil War daguerreotype of a Union infantryman, identified from a small mark stamped into the brass mat, traced to a corporal of the 14th Connecticut Volunteers killed at Antietam.
A Welsh Chest, Four Owners, and a Pencil Mark
An oak chest of drawers from Carmarthenshire, traced through four named owners across 184 years, with a graphite inscription inside the back panel that closes the chain.
The Receipt in the Sheraton Drawer
A small folded paper, found in the back of a side-table drawer in a Newport auction lot, attributes a Federal side chair to the Salem cabinetmaker Elijah Sanderson, settles a decade-old debate, and slightly lowers the chair's price.
The Quilt from a Farmhouse Near Lititz
A Pennsylvania-German appliquéd quilt, sold for forty dollars at a 1978 estate sale, traced through three counties and four generations to a kitchen in Warwick Township.