Northern Furniture

Model 1490, circa 1910

The latest (or is it the earliest?) piece of furniture at Flippist World Headquarters is this elegant dresser, found at a neighborhood yard sale festooned with contact paper and several layers of paint. Many hours of sanding (stripping didn’t touch the milk-primer base) along with a little minor reconstruction produced this handsome result, almost Shaker-like in its simplicity. The paint actually preserved the piece. The tight maple was unmarred by dings or scratches, it looked as if it had been milled yesterday. It was originally sold painted; the wood is not exceptional in its pattern, but using it for a painted piece shows how much really fine wood was available in that day.

The Northern Furniture Company of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, operated from 1904 until 1949, it was one of many furniture companies operating out of Northern Wisconsin and Northern Michigan at the time. In the Midwest, antique stores are full of the stuff, much of it covered in dark veneers.