If it’s a Hunzinger lollipop chair, value could be $1,000
Q. This chair has been in our family for some time now and we know little of its history or value. Local antiques dealers have given it the style name “stick and ball.” Researching that name online, I find numerous pieces of furniture, but none resembling this chair. Any help would be appreciated!
A. Using the Internet can be very daunting, and we find that a large number of our readers are frustrated by their inability to find an answer out there in cyber space.
We understand the problem and know that in order for the computer to spit out a usable answer, the inquirer needs to know the right question to ask and some key words. In this case, the key words are “Hunzinger” and “lollipop chair.”
George Jakob Hunzinger was born in Germany on Jan. 12, 1835, and grew up in Tuttlingen. His family had been cabinetmakers since the 17th century. He was apprenticed to his father at age 14, but at 18 he did his journeyman work in Geneva, Switzerland, due to strained family relations.
Hunzinger came to the United States at age 20 and presumably settled in Brooklyn. As an American furniture-maker, his styles did not — as a general rule — hark back to designs of the past, as most of the Victorian furniture of the day did.
Hunzinger furniture found great acceptance because Hunzinger was something of an inventor and design trailblazer. Over his career, he was awarded 21 patents for furniture innovations such as folding chairs, convertible beds, platform rockers, extension tables and tables that stacked or had swivel tops.
It has been said that Hunzinger thought of furniture as a matter of engineering rather than style. He designed pieces so they could be easily mass-produced, and he set up a series of sales offices to make his products available outside the area in which they were made. He also widely distributed catalogs of his work.
Hunzinger is known for his “fancy chairs,” and he made them using a variety of woods. You might find an example such as the piece in today’s question made from maple — or from mahogany, or walnut. It is impossible for us to tell the wood used to make this particular chair. But in the worn spots, it looks like maple.
The term “lollipop chair” is visually descriptive and one used by current collectors, but we could find no reference to Hunzinger having used this nomenclature. Technically, this chair might be referred to as a “‘lollipop,’ spindle-barrel-back arm chair” attributed to George Hunzinger.
Why just “attributed to”? Well, many Hunzinger pieces were often signed with a label, and you should do your best to find that label on the chair. Without this concrete identification, “attributed to” is about the best that can be done.
Hunzinger used this “lollipop” spindle (yes, it could also be called “stick and ball”) on pieces such as settees, rocking chairs, platform rockers and so forth, and significant variations can be found. This piece has an insurance-replacement value in the $750-to-$1,000 range.
More information can be found in “The Furniture of George Hunzinger: Invention and Innovation in Nineteenth-Century America” by Barry R. Harwood and published by the Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Ÿ Contact Helaine Fendelman and Joe Rosson at Treasures in Your Attic, P.O. Box 18350, Knoxville, TN 37928.