Side Chair
Decorative Arts and Design
MAKER
Unknown
MEDIUM
Ebonized wood (cherry?), gilt incising, modern horsehair upholstery
DATES
ca. 1885
DIMENSIONS
33 x 18 x 20 in. (83.8 x 45.7 x 50.8 cm) (show scale)
MARKINGS
Unmarked
COLLECTIONS
Decorative Arts and Design
ACCESSION NUMBER
2012.89
CREDIT LINE
Gift of Robert J. Mehlman
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION
An ebonized side chair with gilt decoration of rectilinear form in the Anglo-Japanese style, the square seat and U-shaped back with modern horsehair upholstery in a two-tone light red color woven in a stylized rosette pattern. The top rail is decorated with a shallowly-carved stylized floral motif on a textured gilt ground, above a machine-carved band of fretwork alternating with evenly spaced halved flowers. The angled finials are topped with carved parallel grooves, their sides decorated with a geometrical scrolling motif. The rectangular stiles are decorated with a carved pattern of gilded clustered dots above an abstracted floral design on a gilt ground, resting on turned cylinders decorated with a gilded pattern above stylized rectangular fluted columns terminating in an abstracted crisscross gilded design on a black ground. The solid area surrounding the rounded upholstered back is carved in a shallow key pattern on a textured black ground, above an open lower rail with evenly spaced turned spindles evoking stylized machine parts and a rectangular cartouche decorated with a shallowly-carved floral pattern that echoes the carving above the top rail. The seat rail is carved with simple grooves that evoke the design on the angled finials, around a central rectangular cartouche with an identical floral motif to that on the lower back rail, flanked by a gilded triangular design above a narrow apron with a geometrical outline, adorned with a carved and gilded linear pattern and two gilded trefoils inscribed within carved semi-circles. The knees are decorated with a square motif representing an abstracted leaf or seed shallowly carved on a gilt ground. The whole sits on turned legs of urn shape terminating in rotating brass castors.
CONDITION:
Overall good condition. The frame slightly fragile but ebonized ground and gilded decoration in good condition.
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
CAPTION
Unknown. Side Chair, ca. 1885. Ebonized wood (cherry?), gilt incising, modern horsehair upholstery, 33 x 18 x 20 in. (83.8 x 45.7 x 50.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Robert J. Mehlman, 2012.89. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.2012.89.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, CUR.2012.89.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2012
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RIGHTS STATEMENT
Creative Commons-BY
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