Wanna Meet My Du Barry?
Recently, I posted about the 1920s bedroom set Kenny found for me on Facebook Marketplace. I purchased it for the south, second-floor bedroom of the carriage house.
This is in one drawer, tacked in a place a century ago. LOVE IT!
The headboard. There’s also a footboard.
Bookmatched walnut veneer! Kenny has a special polishing technique and he is eager to get cracking on Du Barry.
Lovely.
I soooooooo love the stool!
The dressing table.
The hardware is cast brass and also lovely.
The dresser.
Sadly, I find no manufacturing label or mark. This though is stamped under the stool. Methinks this is the destination address. And I cannot find any info on the Hinkle Dry Goods Company.
The man who sold the set said it was his grandmother’s. After her death though no family member had a place for the set. So, it has now moved from Wichita to Emporia to begin a new life.
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Lovely! I recall people having sets similar to this during my childhood in the Midwest so very long ago…
I LOVE IT!
Not the same design but that is exactly the style of bedroom set I have in my guest room/sewing room. Mine is more waterfall but same bookmatched veneers.
And you not only have the original vanity chair but ALL of the hardware.
Test an inconspicuous spot to see if it is shellac. If so, you can spruce up the finish with just a little denatured alcohol using a French Polish technique. Many places to get shellac flakes and make your own. Get a real shellack solvent from a furniture place to make your own rather than using denatured alcohol. Everclear no longer has the high alcohol content it used to so do a little research. I have some websites bookmarked for refinishing as I am in the process of redoing my Dad’s childhood dresser which was badly abused and in very poor shape, but hey, that’s the history of the piece and aside from structural issues with the drawer bottoms, which will be replaced all I’m doing is cleaning up the finish. Sadly the mirror is lost; he left it in Connectiticut.
But that is exactly the kind of set I have, bed, dresser with mirror and tallboy dresser. Mine does not have the matching vanity chair and the bed is a twin, which is fine in that room. I’ve used it myself when I’ve had guests stay in my bed and it’s a nice set. Solid wood under the veneer.
I got mine for less than half what you paid but that was in the late 90s.
I’ve found a bit about your furniture.
I did a little googling myself and an invoice was listed on eBay for Allen W. Hinkle, The Boston Store. Listing so old couldn’t bring up anything more than a bad image of the invoice. The Boston Store was a chain of dry goods stores in Kansas in the early 20th century. There is a wordpress blog called Abandoned, Old, Interesting Kansas with a brief write up of the Ottawa store. I’ve found many postcards of The Boston Store on eBay. Might be nice to frame one for that room.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/153907514505?hash=item23d59a4c89:g:b84AAOSwP2Zeok3~&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA8MIAFNGzcFrLyFUIxMotU08lDuqGHYZ4v%2BLmar4DbJv3LNICV4ao1xV%2FOX2oq2W70cBComkb7xLqWymnqGlaCK3YMos2KhkavWUzOyYaV83AHK0PeeBYYYZIs%2FIsxOfuEZ612L7SwDmhvnmwNehjumIqHCtW%2BJkWeiuORqcYUBUE0K8roLt33KZvCJnbcra4GFggtM2AVRFLsKwuxVmXyOS61q8cRqf%2B8ybnRPTmqIZ%2BA5LJLwWKdoTKGHsXuy0rWydQODERS321zO3%2FFvipdhJoEs7biwyZPOn2mObxYLEkWVRm7wLAb5N8XKdx9wYoqw%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABFBM4PPw6eBg
It’s possible this Allen W. Hinkle might be a precursor of Young-Hinkle which is now part of Lexington Furniture, which is still in business. Young-Hinkle produced boys bedroom furniture so this may be a red herring as I can’t find any history on whether Young-Hinkle is a merger for two furniture companies called Young and Hinkle.
This bedroom set could be a bit earlier, 1900-1910, for which there is no “name” for this era. The dresser with the very low middle section puts it prior to 1930s. That’s why I say test for shellac. Up until the 30s furniture was mostly finished with shellac, after they started to use varnish and lacquer until the modern finishes came in. The feet very much look to be 1910-1920s. The style won’t help you but the drawer guides might help to date the piece a bit more. Depends on how much research you want to do. The feet with the wheels tell me 1900-pre-1930 but you already know that.
I am so thrilled for you and for this set. It found a lovely home and will be cherished. So happy someone didn’t find it and decide to “update” it by sawing the vanity into two night stands and then paint it to “update” it and “shabby chic” it. Sometimes I cry for furniture I’ve seen “refreshed” on Etsy.
Hmm. Found a little more that might help date it. 1908-1914. That sounds about right.
https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_ks/1058858
What a fantastic find. You do have the best furniture spotter helping you. That veneer is very special and the whole set is beautifully crafted.
Hey Ross,
It seems that Hinkle was located at 101-109 East Douglas in Wichita in the 30’s. There’s a photo of the building at:
http://www.wichitaphotos.org/searchresults.asp?yr=1930s&offset=110
Hope this helps.
That’s “The Boston Store” in Wichita, Kansas.
There were a lot of them in a lot of cities. In L.A. the Boston Dry Goods Store was started in 1883 by J. W. Robinson. I’m wondering if Boston Store was some sort of code for dry goods.
I am also wondering if it was one store or a building with several stores inside. I went into a “Department Store” in Germany and found that inside it was a lot of separate businesses so I could not gather my purchases and pay once but had to pay in each section because they were all separate businesses. Or perhaps The Boston Store went bankrupt and Hinkle bought the building.
Perhaps Hinkle had a space in The Boston Store building. Or several, 101-109.
Click on the too image you will see a large sign on the corner of the building stating Hinkles, indicating the entire building was theirs. There was a chain department store called The Boston Store with locations throughout the South, perhaps it extended to the midwest. Not to be confused with Boston Store of Pennsylvania.
The buildings could be one and the same. I’ve found postcards of The Boston Store, Wichita Kansas and it’s the same building. The postcards are prior to 1938. That bedroom set is also prior to 1938. So I’m wondering if Hinkle had space in The Boston Store Building and eventually bought the building and it became Hinkles.
Love it so much! So jealous! 🙂
The very well-priced, solidly-built Du Barry bedroom set is fittingly supreme: brass, wood, fancy design. Architect Charles Squires might be tickled by the dressing table that embraces the stool.
Ross, the following is a link to an listing of SURE-FIT dealers in LIFE magazine dated March 16, 1942 (page #116).
It lists … Allen W Hinkle Co out of Wichita KS.
Not much to go on but perhaps begin a SURE-FIT dealer provides a clue?
https://books.google.com/books?id=gE4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA116&lpg=PA116&dq=aLLEN+W+Hinkle+Dry+Goods+Company.&source=bl&ots=sN–V0s-pH&sig=ACfU3U0-V1JuaqUJpNsNkQ1SOPhdDB_m4A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwioiJnY4Yr6AhVtJDQIHTQjD-0Q6AF6BAgdEAM#v=onepage&q=aLLEN%20W%20Hinkle%20Dry%20Goods%20Company.&f=true
Was the chair designed to fit in the curved recess of the dressing table when not in use? Looks to be the case.