ID: 700000380 Page link: http://vocab.getty.edu/page/cona/700000380	Record Type: Movable Work
Images: 1

Chair (chair (furniture form); Herter Brothers (American, active 1864-1906); 1877/1879; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City, New York state, U...; 1992.80)

Note: The slender proportions and attenuated stiles of this chair proclaim an awareness of progressive British art furniture, especially that of E. W. Godwin (1833-1886), the British architect and originator of the so-called Anglo-Japanese style. It is often compared with a similar chair designed by H. W. Batley (1846-1932) and displayed by the British firm Collinson & Lock at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876. Herter Brothers' interpretation, with a panel of carved flowers across the back and floating blossoms in marquetry on the crest rail, is distinctly its own, however. Lightweight and linear in conception, ebonized to allude to Japanese lacquer, with ring-turned legs, repeated spindles, and elongated uprights, these chairs abstain from specific European historical references in favor of a new aesthetic derived, at least in spirit, from Japanese decorative arts and architecture. Ebonized chairs such as this were typically made in pairs by the firm for use in conjunction with bedroom suites. The mate to this chair is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The showcover is a replacement and replicates documented fabric designed by Bruce J. Talbert.

Titles:

Chair (preferred,C,U,D,English-P,U,U)

Catalog Level: item

Work Types:

chair (furniture form) [300037772] (preferred)

..... (Objects Facet, Furnishings and Equipment (hierarchy name), Furnishings (hierarchy name), furnishings (works), <furnishings by form or function>, furniture, <furniture by form or function>, seating furniture, single seating furniture)

Classifications:

furniture (preferred)

Creation Date: 1877/1879

Creator Display:

Herter Brothers (American, active 1864-1906) [preferred,VP]

furniture makers Herter Brothers (American design firm, active 1864-1906) [500274670]

Locations:

Current: Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City, New York state, United States) [500125157] Corporate Bodies (Corp. Body)

Repository Numbers: 1992.80

Credit Line: Purchase, Barrie A. and Deedee Wigmore Foundation Gift, 1992

Address Note: On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 746

Other: Creation: New York [7007567] New York state (state), United States (nation), North and Central America (continent), World (facet) (Geographic)

Display Materials: Ebonized cherry, marquetry of lighter woods, gilding

	cherry (wood) [300012403]
	.......(Materials Facet, Materials (hierarchy name), materials (substances), <materials by origin>, biological material, plant material, <wood and wood by product>, wood (plant material), <wood by composition or origin>, hardwood, prunus (wood))

	marquetry (process or technique) [300053853]
	.......(Activities Facet, Processes and Techniques (hierarchy name), <processes and techniques by specific type>, <additive and joining processes and techniques>, <surface covering processes and techniques>)

	gilding (technique) [300053789]
	.......(Activities Facet, Processes and Techniques (hierarchy name), <processes and techniques by specific type>, <additive and joining processes and techniques>, <surface covering processes and techniques>, metallizing)

	ebonized wood [300404849]
	.......(Materials Facet, Materials (hierarchy name), materials (substances), <materials by origin>, biological material, plant material, <wood and wood by product>, wood (plant material), <wood by form or function>)

Dimensions: 94.8 x 43.3 x 46 cm (37 5/16 x 17 1/16 x 18 1/8 in.)

Cultures:

American (preferred)

General Subject:

utilitarian objects (preferred,isness)

Provenance: Sale, Sotheby's, New York, June 29, 1989; Margot Johnson Inc., New York, 1989–1992

Inscriptions: Marking: [die-stamped numbers on bottom of rear seat rail] 4430 [partly obscured by holes from old upholstery tacks]

List/Hierarchical Position:

..... Movable Works

.......... Movable Works by class: decorative and utilitarian works

Sources and Contributors:
Chair	........ [VP]
	........ Metropolitan Museum of Art [online] (2001-) accessed 21 May 2012

Subject: ....... [VP]

Note:
English	..... [VP]
	..... Metropolitan Museum of Art [online] (2001-)