u/Seafoamjones

This is 8’ tall and 53” wide. It’s been in my parent’s garage since 1994, uncovered and yet somehow not too damaged. It weighs probably 250-300lb. My dad took it home from the downtown Chicago luxury men’s store Baskin when they went bankrupt and basically left everything behind in the store. He had dreams of putting it in his own mansion someday but instead it sat in the garage facing the wall for 32yrs. They just moved and he was as going to leave it behind for the scrappers, which I couldn’t bare something so beautiful possibly ending up in a dumpster. My dad said the guy who owned Baskin was obsessed with old furniture and would travel around looking for cool pieces for his stores. When he was helping liquidate the store he said a guy off the street offered him 5k for it. Is that 100% true/accurate I don’t know. At the time he said it wasn’t his to sell bc we could have definitely used that much money back then. Anyway, that’s the only info I have on its history.

It has a bowed glass cabinet door and the inside glass is beveled. It’s still extremely dirty so excuse the dirty looking photos. None of the glass is cracked, I added the painters tape for moving. Looks to be crotch mahogany wood. The outer side panels are popped in and the glass doors that go over the two side cabinets are off and missing the hinge pins. The glass is not cracked on them either. There’s some dents and missing bits of scroll work in places. The shelves that go inside the outer cabinets are missing. What I’m looking for:

• ⁠what do I have? I have not found any makers marks. The middle drawer I can’t open, seems tied to the lock in the bowed glass door. Haven’t found any writing or marks on the back. There’s no key. Ai search says it’s Mahogany and possibly 1880’s-early 1900’s. I know better to trust Ai but thats all I have access to at the moment. • ⁠How do I safely clean it? So far I’ve vacuumed and used water with a little dawn and barely damp rag as to not let water pool anywhere. I used goo gone to get the old ‘94 tape off the glass door. Very carefully and slowly scrubbed. There’s still a little film but I think another goo scrub will remove it all. Am not using the goo gone on the wood. I’ve read mixed things about using wood soap so I haven’t. • ⁠how do I get it appraised? I was offered $400 by a salvage place which is not worth the effort of moving it out of the garage and into a warehouse in the city. It’s currently in a temp controlled space. They did recommend listing on some other sites. They could only offer that amount bc they have a high overhead. So they were honest about the low offer which was nice. I figure other salvage shops will do the same? I was told I’d be better off finding a private buyer but I have no idea how to do that currently. • ⁠I do want to sell it for as much as possible and am willing to do the work. I am a prop fabricator for tv/film and manage a shop so I have decent carpentry skills and access to tools. That being said this restoration is WAY above my skill set and I currently will not attempt anything other than cleaning and possibly picking the lock to get the middle drawer open to hopefully find a makers mark. • ⁠any help identifying this and how to properly sell it for max profit would be greatly appreciated. Thank you! less

This is 8’ tall and 53” wide. It’s been in my parent’s garage since 1994, uncovered and yet somehow not too damaged. It weighs probably 250-300lb. My dad took it home from the downtown Chicago luxury men’s store Baskin when they went bankrupt and basically left everything behind in the store. He had dreams of putting it in his own mansion someday but instead it sat in the garage facing the wall for 32yrs. They just moved and he was as going to leave it behind for the scrappers, which I couldn’t bare something so beautiful possibly ending up in a dumpster. My dad said the guy who owned Baskin was obsessed with old furniture and would travel around looking for cool pieces for his stores. When he was helping liquidate the store he said a guy off the street offered him 5k for it. Is that 100% true/accurate I don’t know. At the time he said it wasn’t his to sell bc we could have definitely used that much money back then. Anyway, that’s the only info I have on its history.

It has a bowed glass cabinet door and the inside glass is beveled. It’s still extremely dirty so excuse the dirty looking photos. None of the glass is cracked, I added the painters tape for moving. The outer side panels are popped in and the glass doors that go over the two side cabinets are off and missing the hinge pins. The glass is not cracked on them either. There’s some dents and missing bits of scroll work in places. The shelves that go inside the outer cabinets are missing. What I’m looking for:

• what do I have? I have not found any makers marks. The middle drawer I can’t open, seems tied to the lock in the bowed glass door. Haven’t found any writing or marks on the back. There’s no key. Ai search says it’s Mahogany and possibly 1880’s-early 1900’s. I know better to trust Ai but thats all I have access to at the moment.
• How do I safely clean it? So far I’ve vacuumed and used water with a little dawn and barely damp rag as to not let water pool anywhere. I used goo gone to get the old ‘94 tape off the glass door. Very carefully and slowly scrubbed. There’s still a little film but I think another goo scrub will remove it all. Am not using the goo gone on the wood. I’ve read mixed things about using wood soap so I haven’t.
• how do I get it appraised? I was offered $400 by a salvage place which is not worth the effort of moving it out of the garage and into a warehouse in the city. It’s currently in a temp controlled space. They did recommend listing on some other sites. They could only offer that amount bc they have a high overhead. So they were honest about the low offer which was nice. I figure other salvage shops will do the same? I was told I’d be better off finding a private buyer but I have no idea how to do that currently.
• I do want to sell it for as much as possible and am willing to do the work. I am a prop fabricator for tv/film and manage a shop so I have decent carpentry skills and access to tools. That being said this restoration is WAY above my skill set and I currently will not attempt anything other than cleaning and possibly picking the lock to get the middle drawer open to hopefully find a makers mark.
• any help identifying this and how to properly sell it for max profit would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Probably on me over 24 hours but not sure. No bullseye or rash, little raised bump. Removed Wednesday morning with tweezers and cleaned area with alcohol swab. Next day I had a headache all day but that’s not super unusual for me so thought nothing of it until later that night I was hit with extreme fatigue and started experiencing extremely painful lymph node swelling in armpits. Went to doctor next morning, Friday and did blood tests and have been taking Doxycycline since Friday afternoon. Supposed to get another blood test and I’m trying to make appointment with infectious disease specialist today. I’ve had a persistent headache, soreness in the bite area, muscle pain and feeling feverish but no actual fever but the persistent headache isn’t going away with Ibprophen and is starting to get to me. Hopefully I got the antibiotics in me in time to prevent an actual disease. Just not sure how long it was on me. It was on my back and I swear I did a check but can’t say 100% I remember doing it Monday after my hang at the lake. I’m pretty sure this tick is from my Memorial Day visit to the lake but I had also found one crawling on me the previous week in my apartment. I do visit the southern lakeshore and its wildlife areas in Chicago often and have pre- treated my clothes and shoes with Perimenthin. It might have hopped onto my backpack that was chilling in the grass for a bit. Any advice is welcome. Didn’t keep the tick unfortunately. I had no bullseye rash or initial symptoms so I figured I was fine. Also this was in the city, Hyde Park.