Jelliff sofa?

Hello,I'm a true Jelliff fan. I've owned this sofa for quite some time.I've never seen the Egyptian motif in the female carvings, so many details seem so Jelliff.Thanks. Looking forward to all replies. John

John:

Awesome couch!  I am a big fan of furniture with those little wall-bumper pads on the backs...very classy and always a sign of high-quality stuff. 

I'll go out on a limb and wager all of $0.02 that this is not a Jelliff piece.  This is to say that I would not be surprised to learn that it is a Jelliff, but my gut reaction is that it isn't.  I get skeptical when I see a couch (sofa, settee, what have you) that does not have four legs across the front.  Also, the arm-rest carvings don't look like they have quite as much relief in the carving that I would expect in a Jelliff.

I met one Jelliff "expert" in my travels.  I suggest that you chat him up and have him look at a picture of your sofa.  He has a certifiable Jelliff fetish...his website is at http://circavictoriana.com/ , but don't expect to see anything posted online.  He has had that bare-bones "under construction" site up for nearly 5 years now, if not longer.  In any event, it does have his contact information posted.  I'd trust his opinion. 

Thank you,

Jason

Thanks for the input Jason. One of the great things about my obsession is investigating & learning.I have quite a few pieces with a thing for sofas.I was underbidder last weekend on the Jelliff suite @ Neals.Living in Cincinnati,I had to account for picking up the suite.I have another so-called "Jelliff" tripartite sofa which has four front legs identical to the one I posted right down to the beaded brass ring at the casters. That was one detail that said Jelliff to me. In Cincy,we have a auction house that has it's share of Meeks & Belter come thru it's door. Check it out Cowan's @www.cowanauctions.com Thanks again John

John:

Could you please post a picture of the "beaded brass ring" at the casters?  My Turkish items have "beaded brass rings" at the casters too (namely, my settee and three chairs all have them -- see below). 

Thank you,

Jason

I would not be so quick to write this sofa off as one that is not from the Jelliff workshop, as I feel there is a good chance that it actually is.  It is important to note the following:

1) The crest contains a cabochon with the Jenny Lind head designed in the same fashion that is typically associated with Jelliff.  You see a lot of people attributing anything with a Jenny Lind head to Jelliff which is not the case.  Jelliff pieces that have this feature that I have seen always have the hair flowing to the side almost in a bun-like fashion, as well as several small beads above the head.

2) Jelliff was known to work in several styles of male, female and other heads on the arms.

3) Many Jelliff sofas are found with two legs in the front.

4) Beaded casters are commonly found on Jelliff pieces (actually not sure if these are present here).

5)  The shape of the leg is significant.  Very frequently it is composed of an upper trumpet with the bell having about 4 rings or so, as well as a base of more uniform diameter having several more rings.

I am attaching a few pictures of a couple of sofa's that I have which are attributed to Jelliff.  Both are done in rosewood and both have only two legs in the front.  The one that is fully restored is a duplicate of the sofa in the Newark Museum shown on page 45 of "Century of Revivals".  The one under restoration shows a shot of the beaded casters which are original.  The competed sofa has replacement casters.

I hope this information will help shed a little more light on a subject that is confusing at best.

Thanks,

Michael

Michael

Thank you for the reply. You're sofa is beautiful. Check out Southampton's site,they have a similar sofa w/ chair.

John

I think that Michael's insight about the beads above the Lind head and the examples of two-legged (in front, anyway) Jelliffs have swayed my opinion of the couch that got this thread kicked off.  I'd "buy it" as a Jelliff.  Of course, my antiques budget is usually in the low three-figure range, so "buy it" is purely a figure of speech here...not to imply that the piece was for sale in the first place. 

I would still like to know more about these silly beaded brass casters.  If they were a little more special than "dime a dozen" (literally, back in the day) and were specific to, say, NYC, that would certainly be nice to know.  Perhaps somebody out there will, in the years to come, identify who made these casters and offer some information about how widely they were distributed to various furniture makers.

Thank you,

Jason

Back to my sofa. I've never been fond of the fabric on the sofa.very nicely done by some previous  owner but not to my taste. It's not a project I could do,so I'd have to rely on a professional.Which brings up my next problem,what type of fabric would be correct? I'm sure I'll go with a red,but should it be a velvet,a tone on tone damask, a silk? I have never seen a Jelliff piece in period fabric so I'm lost in a direction to go. In it's time like today I'm sure it depended on ones available funds which leads to my next question,who owed Jelliff furniture? Any input would be great.
                                                          John