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 The Belter Bill of Sale |
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The
Original Bill of Sale
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In the beginning, it was assumed, erroneously, that Benjamin Smith Jordan was the first owner because the original bill of sale for the Belter parlor set, dated September 5, 1855, is made out to Col. B. S. Jordan.
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| As fate would have it, David Warren knows a cousin of the individual who sold the furniture to Miss Hogg. The friend contacted him when he learned from the owner that Miss Hogg had purchased the furniture. As a result, other family members wrote letters, and in the process of the letters, it was discovered that there was another set of Belter furniture that belonged to Benjamin Smith Jordan. | ||
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A
Stroke of Luck
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| It was at this point that David Warren looked at the back of the original bill of sale and realized that Benjamin Smith had paid for the set on behalf of Mrs. Green Hill Jordan, his brother's widow. It was determined from the date on the bill and the date of his brother's death that sometime between the time the furniture was ordered and the time it was delivered, Green Hill Jordan died. Benjamin Smith Jordan was simply helping to settle his sister-in-law's affairs. It was the museum's good fortune that the family seemed to have a special regard for the importance of this furniture in that they saw fit to keep it together all these years along with its original bill of sale. The Belter parlor set at Bayou Bend is the only documented set of Belter furniture which has its original bill of sale. |
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This website was a created as a class project by students at the University of Houston College of Education. It is not the approved website for the Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens or the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Refer to the MFAH website for information about Bayou Bend at: http://www.mfah.org.
