Lot Essay
The form of this table is a loose interpretation of a design published by Charles Percier and Pierre Fontaine in their Receuil de Decorations Interieures (Paris, 1801-1812; Plate 16, figs. 5 & 6). Although the form was largely ignored by Percier and Fontaine's American contemporaries, it became an extremely popular and frequently reproduced form in late 19th century America.
Herter Brothers is associated with several versions of the table illustrated here, each differentiated according to the degree of expense dictated by the patron. A simple table in the general form of the example illustrated here, attributed to Herter Brothers and from the Estate of Nelson A. Rockefeller was sold Sotheby's New York, Victorian International, January 23 & 24, 1981, lot 708. The most sumptuous example of this form by Herter Brothers is the famous desk made by the firm for William H. Vanderbilt inlaid with mother-of-pearl stars and celestial globes. This desk is now in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and is illustrated and discussed in Voorsanger, et al., Herter Brothers: Furniture and Interiors for a Gilded Age (New York, 1994), pp. 206-208, fig. 39. With its nasturtium and corn-cob carved volute supports, the table illustrated here shows Herter Brothers proficiency with both a popular aesthetic vocabulary and with a highly individualistic, customer specific decorative motif. In its subtle corn-cob carving, the decoration of this table celebrates its owner's distinctly American and specifically mid-western roots.
In 1871, Marshall Field (1835-1906), the successful dry-goods merchant whose stores still exist bearing his name, hired the fashionable New York architect, Richard Morris Hunt, to build a home on Chicago's wealthy Prairie Avenue. Designed in the opulent and popular Second Empire style, Hunt's scheme for Field's house functioned as a link between Field and the courtly architectural traditions of aristocratic Europe. The success of Hunt's design resulted in Field's inclusion in the seminal 1883-84 publication Artistic Houses: Being a Series of Interior Views of a Number of the Most Beautiful and Celebrated Homes in the United States with a Description of the Art Treasures Contained Therein. Clearly visible in the reproduction of the Library of Marshall Field's home is the nasturtium-carving of the table illustrated here.
Herter Brothers is associated with several versions of the table illustrated here, each differentiated according to the degree of expense dictated by the patron. A simple table in the general form of the example illustrated here, attributed to Herter Brothers and from the Estate of Nelson A. Rockefeller was sold Sotheby's New York, Victorian International, January 23 & 24, 1981, lot 708. The most sumptuous example of this form by Herter Brothers is the famous desk made by the firm for William H. Vanderbilt inlaid with mother-of-pearl stars and celestial globes. This desk is now in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and is illustrated and discussed in Voorsanger, et al., Herter Brothers: Furniture and Interiors for a Gilded Age (New York, 1994), pp. 206-208, fig. 39. With its nasturtium and corn-cob carved volute supports, the table illustrated here shows Herter Brothers proficiency with both a popular aesthetic vocabulary and with a highly individualistic, customer specific decorative motif. In its subtle corn-cob carving, the decoration of this table celebrates its owner's distinctly American and specifically mid-western roots.
In 1871, Marshall Field (1835-1906), the successful dry-goods merchant whose stores still exist bearing his name, hired the fashionable New York architect, Richard Morris Hunt, to build a home on Chicago's wealthy Prairie Avenue. Designed in the opulent and popular Second Empire style, Hunt's scheme for Field's house functioned as a link between Field and the courtly architectural traditions of aristocratic Europe. The success of Hunt's design resulted in Field's inclusion in the seminal 1883-84 publication Artistic Houses: Being a Series of Interior Views of a Number of the Most Beautiful and Celebrated Homes in the United States with a Description of the Art Treasures Contained Therein. Clearly visible in the reproduction of the Library of Marshall Field's home is the nasturtium-carving of the table illustrated here.