Joseph Wiessinger has collected antiques for more than 40 years because of his fondness
for fine workmanship and construction materials of various time periods.
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021 | TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE 139
When Belleair resident Joseph
Wiessinger moved to Kansas
from Ohio to be employed
by the Reuter Pipe Organ
Company, his parents sent their organist
son an antique wardrobe for his new home.
That piece of furniture ignited his interest
in antiques and began his collection, which
includes several pieces from the 1800s made
by John Henry Belter and his brothers for
titans such as William H. Vanderbilt, son
of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and places like the
White House in Washington, D.C.
Wiessinger, who moved to Florida in 1976
to sell and maintain pipe organs, collects
among other things, items made by 19th
century custom cabinetmakers using highquality
rosewood and walnut with superior
color and graining. He looks for interesting
pieces with pleasing proportions and shapes.
After acquiring a Herter Brothers chair
and discovering it was made between 1879-
1881 and came from W.H. Vanderbilt’s Fifth
Avenue mansion in New York City, Wiessinger
decided to donate the chair to the Metropolitan
Museum for its American Decorative Arts
Wing that holds a collection of Herter-made
furniture. This led him to give other pieces
from his collection to museums, so the public
could share the enjoyment he received from
discovering his finds.
He has donated three pieces of his Herter
Brothers furniture to the Lockwood-Mathews
Mansion Museum in Norwalk, Connecticut.
Built in the 1860s, the National Historic
Landmark home turned museum is said to
have cost $2 million when it was built. The
Lockwood family who built it purchased
furnishings for it from the Herter Brothers
and had artwork in it from noted artists
such as Albert Bierstadt and Jasper Cropsey.
Charles Mathews purchased the home in
1876 as a summer retreat, and his daughter
lived there until 1938. The museum has an
extensive collection of furniture made by
Herter Brothers, and Wiessinger’s generosity
surely enhances this tribute to the past. 9
COMMUNITY
COLLECTING ANTIQUES
Joseph Wiessinger
By Aaron Fodiman
Joseph Wiessinger
of Belleair recently
donated this 1870s
Herter Brothers
rosewood bergere parlor
chair to the Lockwood-
Mathews Mansion
Museum in Norwalk,
Connecticut. It has
a portrait medallion
in the crest, gilt
encasing throughout
and is upholstered in
a patterned floral of
cream, green and yellow
with burgundy accents.
SARAH GROTE PHOTOGRAPHY