The dustbin of history

Question ...

Michael Farinella

How did you sign your work? If at all?

Signing stuff

Ellis Walentine

Hi Mike,

On pieces that I designed from scratch and built, I inlaid a little ivory rosebud somewhere visible on the piece. I understood it to be a Sufi symbol of the quest for perfection, but historically, the white rose has had lots of different interpretations in different traditions, usually having to do with love and innocence. On pieces and projects built to spec, I didn't sign at all. In later years, when I started turning a lot of pieces, I had a branding iron made of my rosebud insignia.

Ellis

good question...

David Weaver

...I had the same thought. "what's someone going to know of ellis in 50 years? or is it even marked to tell?"

My grandparents were friends with a clock and cabinetmaker near gettysburg. He made a lot of pieces that were semi-traditional, semi-modern. very cleanly made, but we'd find their styling a bit blah these days. I'd have noticed nothing about them, but they are marked, the felllow was local, and they sold shockingly well at their estate sale (for prices that someone could profitably make them today).

If the maker wasn't known, I don't think they'd stand out.