Armchair

About this Brooklyn Icon

The Brooklyn Museum is commemorating its 200th anniversary by spotlighting 200 standout objects in its encyclopedic collection.

Mahogany furniture was the epitome of 18th-century high style and luxury. Such pieces were valued not only for the wood’s beauty and its ability to be carved into complex forms, but also its durability and resistance to insects and rot. Fabricated from the finest mahogany in a Mexican cabinet-making workshop, this chair was destined for the sitting room of a wealthy white Spanish colonist. To convey affluence and status, the owner would have wanted the most stylish European designs. The chair’s quintessentially European origins are seen in the curved legs, ball-and-claw front feet, rounded back with a lace-like frill, and overall solidity and restraint.

This chair’s mahogany was harvested in Honduras or Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. In fact, the majority of the mahogany used for such furniture came from solid blocks or planks of wood from old-growth trees found in the Caribbean. The wood was harvested and processed by enslaved labor, overseen by white settler colonists. By the early 19th century, mahogany had been over-harvested. Cabinetmakers turned to fabricating chair and table legs, seat backs, and tabletops from local woods covered in thin veneers, or layers of wood.