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and wooden mantels. By 1886, Examples of
he had enough capital to open
his own business, O. Althin Art Excellence
Furniture & Interior Fittings, Take, for example, a
on Albany Street in Boston’s mahogany dressing table made
South End. Althin’s small in the Chippendale style,
shop, which only employed six with an intaglio carving of a
to nine other workers, special- shell in the center drawer,
ized in architectural fixtures carved foliate designs along
and “art furniture,” meaning the apron and knees, and ball
custom pieces made to order.
& claw feet. Althin rendered
Furniture all aspects of this piece with
faithfulness to the original,
Portfolio especially the carving – a

A survey of Althin’s furni- trademark of rococo furniture
ture made between 1886 and made in Philadelphia between
1913 (the year he retired) 1750-80. In fact, this piece is a
reflects the full range of styles dead ringer for a 1760s
popular in Boston during the dressing table at the
late Victorian era, from Gothic Olof Althin storefront with wagon, Boston, 1906 Philadelphia Museum of Art,
Revival to Neoclassical, and which Althin might’ve seen in
everything in between. Althin photo: Winterthur Library an auction catalog. In many
did not align himself with any one design movement, nor did he fully cases, he based his designs on
subscribe to any of the prevailing artistic ideologies of the day. His the careful measurements he took of genuine antiques which often passed
strength as a craftsman was in his adaptability and ability to pivot through his shop for repair.
directions according to his customers’ tastes. Althin’s most popular products were blanket chests inspired by
Like other cabinetmakers in his day, Althin freely borrowed beautifully carved New England chests of the 1600s and early 1700s –
elements from different furniture sources and combined them to make what Wallace Nutting called the “Pilgrim Century.” Althin consulted
something appear simultaneously antique and modern. The results sources like Newton Elwell’s Colonial Furniture (1896) for inspiration
could be subtle, like the design of a tall case clock that combined stylis- and infused a touch of Swedish folk tradition into the rich designs of
tic cues from both the 1740s and early each chest. One chest, made in 1906, con-
1800s, while others were more extravagant, tains three inlaid panels with marquetry
such as a sofa embellished with elaborate work in a tulip and vine design, surrounded
carving that had no discernable precedent. by a deeply carved pattern of grape bunches,
Althin’s granddaughter described this eclec- folate designs, and strapwork. Althin listed
tic style as “wild and wooly.” it as “Grandmother’s Old Linen Chest” in
his account book. It took over 102 hours to
Hand-Craftsmanship make, and Althin’s workers (fellow Swedish

and Creativity craftsmen) practiced the intricate carved
elements in clay before executing them in
Althin and his men made furniture by wood. Their skill was evident to any who
hand, meaning the work of assembling, beheld these chests, which Althin proudly
turning, joining, carving, and finishing displayed in his showroom.
furniture was done at the workbench, while
steam-powered machines expedited tasks Althin as Consultant
like smoothing and cutting wood. Unlike in Carved chest by Olof Althin, 1900-1913 and Restorer
an industrial factory, where a different tier
of workers executed each step in the process, photo: Winterthur Library Althin was himself neither a colonial
Althin saw each project through from beginning to end. His tools revivalist nor a collector, but his under-
included a special hand saw to cut out dovetails in furniture, chisels to standing of historic furniture style and construction made him the per-
carve designs in wood, and planes to create decorative moldings. fect antiques consultant. Two of his biggest clients were Charles
Althin was content with his small-scale business. It allowed him Hitchcock Tyler (1863-1931) and Horace Eugene Bolles (1858-1910),
some measure of creative freedom and was also a cost-efficient model cousins, law partners, and connoisseurs. From the 1890s until 1920,
that ultimately proved to be a success, thanks to his reputation as an Althin operated as a special contractor to Tyler and Bolles, “expertis-
expert woodworker. His clients included Massachusetts State Senator ing” both the quality of furniture and its veracity. He once boasted to
George Crocker, industrialist Charles Sumner, and even U.S. Tyler about “the many people I have saved from getting their fingers
Postmaster General John Wanamaker, who commissioned furniture for burned in buying supposed antiques.”
his personal residence. For these and other clients, Althin might furnish Althin’s other job was to restore the old, dilapidated furniture Tyler
an entire room or even a house. and Bolles collected and make them look like
By the early 1900s, the prevailing taste in antiques, often by replacing entire limbs or
Boston was for furniture in the “colonial” style, filling in the loss of details like carving
meaning the style of furniture made and used in and inlay. Hundreds of pieces acquired by Bolles
America before and immediately after the and Tyler passed through Althin’s shop and
American Revolution. The nascent trade in Early eventually went into the collections of the
American antiques, made fashionable by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Bolles)
activities of historic preservationists and connois- and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Tyler).
seurs, spawned a related market for high-quality Althin is not formally credited for this work, but
reproductions. Althin was more than qualified to cross-referencing his account books with the
fulfill those orders, reconstructing the look and feel museum accessions provides strong evidence that
of Chippendale or Hepplewhite furniture using Dressing table made by Althin, 1900-1913
similar, if not the exact same, techniques as those
master craftsmen. photo: private collection

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