Antique Treens
ANTIQUE TREEN
Treen can be described as a smallish wooden object normally made for a specific purpose which is attractive enough to be collectable. It therefore embraces a vast number of objects and anyone who becomes
fascinated in this subject will wish to read Edward H. Pinto’s Treen and Other Wooden Bygones. Obviously we cannot go into the depth of detail which has been possible in most other sections of this book but there are
so many delightful objects to be found that it would be a pity to leave this subject out. There are moreover certain features which influence price and it seems sensible to discuss them to help new collectors understand values.
One might define the main desirability features as: firstly, attractiveness with utility; secondly, quality of workmanship; thirdly, grain or colour of wood, and lastly, quaintness or just decorativeness. More than in any other sections of the book there are no absolute standards and so value is a highly subjective matter, hence the wide ranges given. What is important is that you like it. We give some fairly expensive items in this section but do not be put off if you only want to spend a pound or so, there are still small interesting pieces to be found.
This small wine cooler made in sycamore with, most important, a good colour and brass bands, and with its original tin insert, has attractive mouldings. It is very useful for flower decoration and even cooling wine.
Late 18th century
A unique antique cricket bat trolley. It might pass the quaintness test but is bulky and most important it does nothing practical. Now imagine that originally the side was hinged and a shelf swung out with holes for cricket balls, which would hold glasses, and there was room for bottles at the base, then it would have quite a different value. Makes adjusting, adapting, call it what you like, so profitable.
Colour and grain of wood has been enjoyed by collectors for a long time. This coffee grinder made of lignum vitae no longer grinds coffee and, while the turning is good, it does not require huge ability to make. Its
attraction lies in its rich deep colour, with the yellow sapwood providing a contrast. One has to handle a piece like this to appreciate it properly. 18th century
This carved mangle board illustrates another area where quality of workmanship is high and where the piece can be admired for what it is rather than what it now does.
The next of the desirability features, that of quality workmanship without current use, covers a very large area of carved and sculptured figures. This example of a carved plane, with a superb cherub beautifully
executed, stands on its own decoratively.
The decoy duck is certainly decorative. Clever use of sapwood to mark the beak makes it particularly attractive. There are clubs of decoy duck collectors in the United States, so the price is high.
19th century
A more simple example of a lignum vitae string box some have blades to cut the string if you pull at an angle. One can see the sharp contrast of the wood and visualise the intensity of colour.
Quaintness, which is perhaps better described as ‘obvious age’, is clearly apparent in this simple Irish lamhog carved from solid willow. Doesn’t it look old How does one value such a piece
A turned long pole supporting an oil lamp on a base of three simple sledge type feet. The key to its desirability is that it is in yew. Not the pinky red tinge of the late eighteenth century but the nut brown of the seventeenth century that sends a ‘yew freak’ fumbling for his cheque book.
Late 17th century
A 9ins. boxwood chalice simply turned, with decoration of bands and triangles around the top alternately filled with crude cross-hatching. Well-turned below like an early brass candlestick. It cost 1 in 1968. British Rail Pension Fund please note that maximum percentage increases in value often go hand in hand with low initial price.
Late 17th/early 18th century
Quaintness, it is suggested, can exist not necessarily in the piece itself but in the associations it produces. This is a 161/2ins. high oak pillarbox from the hall of a country house. A handwritten note states the delivery and despatch times, starting with 6 a.m. High price because almost identical to one in Pinto. But it is possible to find something similar at 40.
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