A CARVED AND GILT-DECORATED NEO-GREC MAHOGANY UPHOLSTERED ARMCHAIR

ATTRIBUTED TO POTTIER & STYMUS (ACTIVE 1859-1919), NEW YORK CITY, 1870-1875

Details

A CARVED AND GILT-DECORATED NEO-GREC MAHOGANY UPHOLSTERED ARMCHAIR
Attributed to Pottier & Stymus (active 1859-1919), New York City, 1870-1875
The tufted and pleated ovoid back with conforming carved and inlaid inset frame flanked by backward scrolling stiles capped with brass rosettes and inlaid with opposing bell flowers and diamonds supported by a carved scrolling base with stylized drop panel over rectangular padded seat with outward scrolling padded arms with carved, inlaid, and capped arm supports on a curule-form inlaid base, on castors
33½in. high, 30½in. wide, 21½in. deep

Lot Essay

Although based loosely on the antique curule and the medieval throne, this chair utilizes a combination of techniques and vocabulary to a unique and innovative end. Barnutz, Diehl & Co., New York made a similar chair which was published in Kimball's Book of Designs, 1876 (for an illustration of this design, see Ames, "Sitting in (Neo-Grec) Style," Nineteenth Century (Autumn 1976):56.

A related armchair is in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and is recorded in the Winterthur Library: Decorative Arts Photographic Collection, 81.1508.