Auction 1

Auction 1
Auction

4038 Magazine St, New Orleans, LA 70115
New Orleans Orleans Parish Louisiana
29.920877 -90.097717

1820

69″ x 32.5″ x 3″

” An American Classical Walnut and Cherrywood Punkah, 19th c. with later elements, Natchez, Mississippi, the trapezoidal fan with an arched top and base and cherrywood panel, fitted with a walnut stand with pierced upright supports, molded square framework, height 69 in., width 32 1/2 in., depth 30 in. $3000/5000
Note: Used in dining rooms of Southern houses, the punkah (or “shoefly”) form was transmitted to North America from India though English colonial sources and the cotton trade from the 17th century through the 19th c. Most punkahs from the Lower Mississippi River Valley, such as the lot featured here, were constructed of wood panels (not fabric or wall paper as in other locales).
Reference: A valuable source on this rare form is Dana Byrd’s upcoming Yale University Dissertation, Reconstruction: Material Culture of the Post-bellum Plantation, 1861-1877.”

http://www.nealauction.com/archive/1109/lot/lottext/1001-1100/1007.html

http://www.nealauction.com/archive/1109/lot/lottext/1001-1100.shtml