By Sarah Stebbins
Photos by Erin Little
From our August 2024 issue
Prudence and Roger Kiessling can trace their relationship through the many antiques in their 1937 Bremen Cape. In Prudence’s studio, there’s the first piece they bought together, a battered turquoise wardrobe they call Narnia because it conjures a portal to a fantasyland. Nearby is a vintage cursive typewriter Roger gifted Prudence, who fondly remembers the letters with fancy typed script her aunt used to send her mother. In a living-room corner is an aged copper spire from one of their favorite hotels, Quebec City’s Château Frontenac. The couple owns Damariscotta vintage store and gift shop The Kingfisher & The Queen, and the stories they tell about their thrifting adventures provide another window into their union. Standing in the studio, Roger excitedly recalled the time he toted “two naked women mannequins” through the streets of Quebec City. “There was only one,” Prudence gently countered. “And remember? We put a bag over it because we were so embarrassed.”
Exterior
The Kiesslings previously owned a rambling 1770 Georgian, in Alna, that they adored. But when the kids in their blended family began heading off to college, “it felt like we were chasing ghosts around the rooms,” Prudence says. Both longed to return to the coast: Roger summered in Georgetown as a child and the couple owned their first house together in Bremen. The Cape (pictured at top), perched on a ledgy hilltop above Muscongus Bay, faces a jumble of islands, including Allen, Harbor, and Monhegan. “It’s all my favorite places, with a lighthouse thrown in,” Prudence says, referencing Friendship’s Franklin Island Light.
Studio
After purchasing what had been a summer home, in 2022, the Kiesslings converted an attached garage into a mudroom and laundry room and a pair of rudimentary rear workspaces into his-and-hers studios. Prudence’s features a circa 1700s carved- wood table topped with an antique display case from a French shop, both from Round Pond’s The Art of Antiquing, along with her collections of vintage typewriters, mannequins, and telephones.
Desk
To brighten Prudence’s studio, the couple removed a drop ceiling, whitewashed the wood paneling, and installed a bay-facing picture window from Portland Architectural Salvage. Prudence uses the L-shaped desk to create collages with antique and vintage papers, textiles, and buttons, to take product photos for The Kingfisher & The Queen, and to transcribe favorite quotes and poems on her typewriters to place around the shop. “It’s very therapeutic to sit here in the morning and type things out, instead of being on my phone,” she says.
Sunroom
Coming from a home with six fireplaces and walls of decorative paneling with fluted pilasters, “the 1930s style feels so simple,” Prudence says. “But we love that the house is classic and has good flow” — plus a sweet sunroom overlooking a wide lawn and the bay beyond. Furnishings rotate between the Kiesslings’ house and shop frequently, but the vintage barrister bookcase displaying Roger’s grandfather’s golf trophies is a mainstay. The vintage sofa and 19th-century marble-topped table are from The Art of Antiquing, and the ceramic lamp is from the Georgetown transfer station.
Den
George Washington, depicted in a $25 auction portrait, and a circa 1600s Spanish santo, or “saint,” from The Art of Antiquing, keep their eyes on couch sitters in the den. The santo sports a 19th-century Masonic bicorne hat “so he looks a little less scary,” Prudence says. A watercolor seascape by her daughter and an old nautical map of Maine, mounted above a vintage Italian leather chair and circa 1700s console from The Art of Antiquing, complement the founder’s shadowy backdrop.
Bedroom
The couple outfitted their bedroom with a steel IKEA four-poster, blankets from Portland’s Evangeline Linens, thrift- and antiques-store art, a vintage Persian rug, and a sitting area where they never actually sit. “I wish we did, but we keep finding more work to do,” Prudence says. She and Roger are currently in the process of renovating one of the home’s baths and opening a coffee shop next to their store. “Maybe someday we’ll sell everything and travel.” Until then, the only ones lounging around here will be the nudes above the bed.
