IMPORTANT NOTE- Buying this means you have agreed to the terms below. NO POTTERY IS INCLUDED AS IT'S ALREADY SOLD. I will not break this up to sell chairs or cupboard separately. This is a 1:12 scale dollhouse miniature & not full size.
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ITEM- 1996 Dollhouse Chairs & Cupboard by Renee Bowen, painted by Caroline Pierce
DETAILED DESCRIPTION- Absolutely beautiful set, a remarkable dated "1873" cupboard (made in 1996) by Renee Bowen (retired) & the two matching farmer's chairs (board chairs), painted by the late Caroline Pierce. The pottery in the last photo is already sold & just for an example of how these look filled. Although, this is cupboard #3, so at least 2 more must have been made, I have never seen another of these cupboards or chairs ever come up since I've been doing this. Everything is extremely well painted & this style of Swiss or Southern German furniture is very hard to come by in dollhouse miniature, though these could've been Pennsylvania German pieces also & would look good in a Scandinavian setting. On the cupboard, I love the little flat "finials" that stick up on each side of the cupboard above the main surface & are mirrored by two more coming down at the top. The deep barn red sets off the blue & white perfectly to match the stoneware. It has one drawer, so nicely painted & is is dated "1873" on the side & signed on the back as #3 of those they made together. I can find no record of another coming up before or of the chairs except where I bought these. Renee's work has always been wonderful, but she did not date most pieces, so that is an added bonus. I hope you will like this as much as I do. I once sold this years ago filled & bought the cupboard back. I recently sold it filled again, but the buyer only wanted the pottery, so now I have them to offer. Don't miss out as these are certainly unique & difficult if not impossible to replace as a complete set.
MEASUREMENTS- The cupboard measures 7 & 1/4" tall X 3 & 1/16" wide X 1 & 7/16" deep (counting pulls). Chairs are about 3 & 1/4" tall.
CUPBOARD & CHAIRS MAKER- Renee Bowen began making miniatures in 1975. She was an antique dealer before that which allowed her to use actual pieces as models. Her early pieces were copies of antique toys as well as Shaker furniture & accessories. I was told that she was married to James Hastrich for some years & they sold their miniatures through her antique shop The Tin Feather, as seen in their old catalogs & a apparently also in a miniature magazine article I don't yet possess. Together, they received access to the Shaker community at Sabbathday Lake, Maine to measure & study any of their museum pieces. This birthed Shaker pieces from James & Renee which continued for each of them even after their relationship ended. The early catalog shows both of their pieces side by side with no explanation of who made what, though I do know from years of handling them. People talk about them working together on things & indeed their grain painting techniques are similar, but I have never seen a single piece signed by both of them so I don't know how much collaboration took place though they obviously learned from & helped each other during that time. She sold through her retail shop in Kennebunk, Maine & started doing shows sporadically in 1981, dropping the Tin Feather name back in 1990 & selling under her own name in her shop Antiques & Fine Miniatures, doing 2-3 shows a year until she retired from that & sold primarily on Etsy before retiring completely. I was fortunate enough to buy a few pieces from here on Etsy before she retired, but foolish enough not to buy every turned mortar & pestle she ever offered while she readily had them. I bought the last few & tried begging her to make more but she had already sold her equipment. She did send me some wonderful extra wood pieces for turning, so nice! No one ever made any as good as hers & no one makes any like them now sadly. If any of you have any mortar & pestles signed RB or you are making them now, please consider contacting me, thanks.
CUPBOARD & CHAIRS PAINTER- Caroline E. Pierce (1934-2018), who painted these, was from Maine & did some very nice paintings & painted porcelain & furniture, made & filled a large dollhouse, & made pieces for miniature carousels.
CONDITION- Overall excellent condition. The cupboard & chairs & candlestick are vintage & used but in fabulous shape with no issues or damage. Some spots of the paint on the edges of chairs & cupboard were lightly sanded purposely by the artisans to simulate age/wear but I guarantee this is original & not damage. No pottery or candlestick included, just cupboard & two chairs.
ABOUT US- We are Chris & Holly Wood of Scottsville, KY. Perhaps you found us from our cards at shows such as the Bishop International Miniature Show where our business name is Here Today Gone Tomorrow Miniatures htgtminis & if so, we hope you will choose to buy from us here also. Our previous 25 years experience with antiques gives us a discerning eye to proper scale in miniatures. We hope you will choose to do business with us wherever you may FIND US. Write with ANY questions or reasonable offers & we will respond & try to help, but keep in mind we pay around 14% in fees on here, which means this would've been priced at around $2000 otherwise.
SHIPPING/INSURANCE- Shipping by first class includes full insurance, but if you'd like to be sure you receive it in less than a week, upgrade to Priority & we will still cover full insurance as our cost. Insurance is quite high now, but unlike many eBay dollhouse sellers, we don't leave it to chance, we always FULLY insure every item we don't have exact duplicates of, as that's the seller's responsibility.
RETURNS & BUYER PROTECTION- These terms are legally binding. The eBay buyer protection program fully guarantees you will receive the item(s) you bought just as shown & described in this listing. We do not allow returns outside of the eBay buyer protection guarantee for any reason, because all that does is allow for buyers to return things for illegitimate reasons such as buyer's remorse or not reading the description, reasons that if we were somehow forced to do a return because of, would result in a 25% restocking fee. If we made a legitimate mistake that can be proven, then the eBay money back guarantee comes in. If there's damage, that's why we always fully insure any item (other than lesser items we have exact duplicates of). Most buyers are honest & not intending to cheat sellers, but this way you are protected and so are we. We often set up in Philly & Chicago & have sold a huge amount of estate miniatures in the past 7 years. We want to be a trusted source for artisan dollhouse items on eBay & we have never received anything but positive feedback from dollhouse items we've sold, with no complaints so far anywhere. However, one buyer neglected to note the size, thought they were buying a full size cupboard despite the DH category, description with size, & pictures with a dime beside them & one of my hand holding it, so just know what you're buying & know there will be no returns for not looking at pictures & reading the description. And if there is anything you're not sure about, write to ask BEFORE buying & we will send any additional pics or photos or measurements you need so there is no confusion. After you buy without writing, that is on you. We want to make every reasonable buyer happy so they come back again! Thanks for looking.