Articles

 

Works from Val-Kill Industries have small but devoted group of admirers

by Richard Cain - For Antique Trader - January 31, 2007
 

Valkill. Valkill Industries. Perhaps some of you know what these words mean. My guess is that most people and many antiques people have never heard of either. In my travels throughout the entire east coast, I often stop at antique malls and shops looking for certain specialty niche items. In most cases I talk with the shop people inquiring about these special pieces. In most cases, none are to be found as they are extremely rare, and I learn in almost all cases the people also have never heard of the words Val-kill or Val-kill Industries. Sometimes they are familiar with Val-kill, but never with the Val-kill Industries. For me and other collectors these are special and passionate words that are the basis for a very narrow niche in the collecting field.

In 1925, Franklin Roosevelt built a small stone cottage on his estate in Hyde Park, New York for his wife Eleanor and two of her friends Nancy Cook and Marion Dickerman. Eleanor was not comfortable with the hub-bub of FDR’s mother’s mansion Springwood on Route 9 in Hyde Park. The women named their quiet and secluded spot on the Fallkill creek Val-kill. Nancy and Marion were rather full time in attendance at the cottage and were granted life tenancy by FDR. Eleanor’s time there, especially in the years before FDR’s death was sporadic and part time at best. She moved into a second building at Val-kill in 1938, and called this her home especially from 1945 until her passing in 1962. The site is now owned and operated by the National Park Service and is the only such site dedicated to the memory of a first lady. The acquaintances I’ve made over the years of collecting are familiar with Eleanor Roosevelt and the site of Val-kill. What is surprising to them and unknown to most is that there was a Val-kill Industries,

In 1926, Eleanor, Nancy, Marion and Carolyn O’Day started the business Val-kill Industries. They constructed a cement block building 300 feet or so from the original stone cottage, hired some master craftsmen, consulted museums and started a woodworking factory reproducing earlier American furniture. In some sales brochures and magazine articles of the time, the endeavor was called Roosevelt Industries or the Hyde Park Craftsmen, but was really known as Val-kill Industries. From 1926-1936 they produced many different pieces of furniture. Some are pictured here. Wood such as cherry, walnut, mahogany, maple and pine were used. They produced entire bedroom or dining room ensembles: step back cupboards, side board tables, welsh cupboards, trestle and harvest tables. Chairs included panel back, ribbon back, banister, ladder back, and “Cromwellian”. Bedrooms included beds, dressers, mirrors, dressing tables, benches, butterfly and drop leaf tables. Furniture sized for children was also made. Some innovations were introduced, such as a tilt top table which could be folded such that it might be stored in a closet or behind a door.

Several styles of desks were also produced, the largest is pictured here. A secretary, a slant front desk with drawers and a top book case all in walnut. In an undated factory price list, this desk known as model 86 signed by Otto cost $ 525.00 originally. The other photograph shows an open pediment highboy dresser with flame finials. All pieces were made of solid wood. The joints were made in the tradition of colonial craftsmen: dovetail and mortise and tenion joints. Wood dowel pegs. Chairs had woven cane seats. Most but not all pieces produced were branded with either the block lettered VAL-KILL, or the same with a double box around the word. The stamp could be found on the edges or sides of drawers, under table tops, or on table/leg stretchers. On some pieces model numbers with a letter were stamped. In rarer pieces the actual craftsman’s first name would also be stamped. Names of Otto, Frank, Arn, Carl, and Wolf have been seen. In extremely rare pieces a cursive signature stamp of Eleanor Roosevelt has been found. These are the rarest of all to find. These are believed to have been her actual furniture or commissioned by her as gifts for some esteemed friend or colleague.

Eleanor furnished the Val-kill cottage with these pieces. FDR utilized many pieces to furnish the “Little White House” in Warm Springs, Georgia. Several pieces were also at the White House.

One intent of the business was to produce fine furniture, but in a broader interest Eleanor Roosevelt called Val-kill Industries an experiment. It was the owners’ larger social goal with the business to provide training and income for local families and farmers in the Hyde Park area.
 

Mrs. Roosevelt is quoted from a 1933 magazine article “At first, back of the desire to produce really beautiful things, lay another motive. For some years I had been rather intimately acquainted with the back rural districts of our state, and realized very clearly the problems of country life. If it were possible to build up in a rural community a small industry which would employ and teach a trade to the men and younger boys, and give them adequate pay, while not taking them completely from the farm, I felt that it would keep many of the more ambitious members in the district, who otherwise would be drawn to the cities. It was with this in mind that we decided to make furniture our test case. And every year we have added more space and more workmen. While it is still a very small factory which depends on expert craftsmen to turn out the work, we have managed to employ workmen in the district and train them to our needs. A great many young boys have been employed in various capacities – mostly in the finishing department, and it is in them that I really take the greatest interest, because inherently they are particularly adapted to this sort of work.”


They expanded the business with different products by adding a pewter/metal forge to the Industries. Their list of items included many things for the kitchen: plates of various sizes, cups, porringers, spoons and serving ware, cheese slicers, salt and pepper shakers, tankards, and pitchers. Another theme for the objects was the office with desk items such as ink wells, letter openers, letter holders, paperweights, blotter corners, etc. Other items of interest were lamp stands, candle stands, card cases, matchbox covers, bowls, vases, and cigarette boxes. Many of the pewter items were gifted by FDR to White House staff. These are described by Mary Seeley in her book Season Greetings from the White House. All pewter items are scarce and are highly sought by collectors, especially those looking for presidential memorabilia. Pewter pieces were also hallmarked. There were two stamps: block lettered VAL-KILL like the furniture or with a circular stamp – “Val-kill Hyde Park, NY” with an anvil in the center. Sometimes the maker would stamp them with “a berge”.

Values of furniture and pewter items are related naturally to their condition and provenance. But the value is enhanced by the relatively short duration of production and the association with the Roosevelts. Value for furniture also depends on the stamps found.

Pewter pieces have ranged from the low hundreds to around two thousand dollars or so. A pair of pewter handled knife sharpeners commissioned by FDR and given to Eleanor as a Christmas gift sold in 2001 at Christies for over $ 7000.00. A 9” plate engraved and given to FDR as a gift has sold privately for more.

Furniture also has a range of prices. Some chairs have sold around $ 500.00 each at auction, with a plain stamp. Pieces with makers’ name stamp and model number usually command $ 2000.00 or more depending on the size of the piece. The highboy pictured here with only the block lettered stamp was an auction item for $ 4500.00. The desk/secretary here is known to have been Nancy and Marion’s piece and sold privately for more. A cherry dressing table with boxed Val-kill and Eleanor Roosevelt signature stamps dated 1933 was sold in May 2005 at auction for over $ 14000.00. A walnut book table with boxed stamp, model number and maker’s name stamps sold on an online auction in November 2006 for $ 4100.00. Auction prices here include a buyer’s premium.

Furniture and pewter pieces occasionally turn up throughout the country. There are several pieces at the Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia, and there are several other museums and historical societies which include a piece or two in their exhibits and archives. Probably the largest collection is maintained by the National Park Service in Hyde Park, New York. There are many pieces at Eleanor Roosevelt’s home. Their website is www.nps.gov/elro where there is more information and additional photographs. The National Archives, which operates the FDR Library, also in Hyde Park, has a nice collection and exhibit. An additional reference book, published by Arcadia Publishing, Eleanor Roosevelt’s Val-kill includes chapters of furniture and pewter. For more information you can email me at rrcaininc@aol.com.