Make no bones about skeleton chairs
Antiques
Skeletons are invited guests at our celebration of Halloween, the Mexican holiday called “Day of the Dead” and a few other ghoulish events.
A chair shaped like a skeleton, with bony arms, ribs, feet and skull, is one of the largest skeleton pieces a collector can find, and it’s a mystifying piece of antique furniture.
The most famous is a Russian chair that has an inscription that solved part of the mystery of why these chairs were made. The inscription indicated the chair was a gift from “Masonic Lodge, 1838,” so at least one of the chairs related to a Masonic ritual. That chair sold in London in 1980 for $36,300, sold again in 1992 for about half that, then sold in 2009 for $3,198 at Jackson’s Auctions in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
A popular modern “skeleton chair” is an aluminum chair by Michael Aram. It has a rib cage back, no arms or skull, a pelvis seat and three legs that look like bones. Price: $450. If you want your own skeleton chair to frighten guests on Halloween, you can buy an inexpensive chair slipcover that’s printed with a skeleton.
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Q: Recently I bought a pair of old cowboy spurs. They are very rusty and the leather is dried out. Should I condition the leather and use rust remover, or will it hurt the value?
A: It won’t lower the value if you do a careful job of restoring them. To remove rust from the spurs, use a commercial rust remover. If the leather is very dry, it should not be washed. Just apply a commercial leather dressing. A second coat may be applied after the first coat is dry. After it is thoroughly dry, buff it with a soft cloth.
Leather that has not deteriorated can be washed in soap and warm water. Dry the leather overnight, away from sunlight and heat sources. When dry, apply leather dressing. Leather that crumbles to red powder has “red rot,” which is caused by absorption of sulfur dioxide. Red rot is a “terminal illness.”
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Q: I have a pitcher marked “Jugtown Pottery.” Is it collectible?
A: Jugtown Pottery was founded by Juliana and Jacques Busbee in 1915, but the term “Jugtown pottery” also is used to refer to handmade pottery made by North Carolina families as far back as the 1750s.
The Busbees built a shop in Jugtown, N. C., in 1921, and hired Ben Owen as a potter in 1923. The pottery closed in 1959 but reopened in 1960. It is still operating near Seagrove, N. C.
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Q: I have a Holt-Howard candleholder that’s a figure of a girl in a yellow dress. I would like to know something about it.
A: Holt-Howard was founded by John and Robert Howard and A. Grant Holt in Stamford, Conn., in 1949. The company sold humorous condiment jars, decanters, spoon-holders, saltshakers and other tableware. Pieces are often marked with the company’s full name or “HH” and the year of manufacture. The HH mark was used until 1974. Some pieces are marked with a black and silver label. The company was bought by General Housewares Corp. in 1969 and production of Holt-Howard products stopped in 1990. Your candleholder is worth about $25.
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