Lot Essay
This magnificent armchair, with scrolled armsa and Egyptian motifs was made by Duncan Phyfe and descended in the family of Luman Reed. It was likely included in the bill for furniture dated 25 March 1833 between Phyfe and Reed and may well be the "1 Arm chair with cover...25" listed in the first floor office of Reed's 1836 inventory.
Made in the fashion of the French Restoration style, this chair represents a departure from the anglicized French furniture produced in America earlier in the century. Even though emigré craftsmen and imported furniture brought French designs directly to America, and patterns were available through La Mésangère's Meubles et Ojets de Gout, published since 1802, many of the forms were not accepted outright, even though some of the French furniture patterns were influenced from England. Many of the French designs were introduced to America via english sources, such as Rudolph Ackermann's A Repository of the Arts and the 1817 Selection of Ornaments, which reissued certain plates from La Mesangere. The delayed acceptance of French forms, which one might expect to have been more sudden after the Revolution, was due to an American clientele that was generally still largely influenced by English pattern books and sources rather than the more ostentatious French furniture. The impact of direct French influence occurred after the Restoration of Louis XVIII in 1814 and 1815 when French furniture became less ornate and therefore appealed to a larger American audience.
This armchair is based upon plate 667 of La Mésangère's 1829 installment of Meubles et Objets de Gout, pictured above and identified as a Fauteuil de Salon. In addition to the French appearance of this chair, the carved lotus motifs were integrated into French nineteenth century furniture designs after Napoleon's 1798 campaign into Egypt and the publication in 1802 of Baron Vivant Denon's Voyage dans la Basse et la Haute Égypte. The fashion for Egyptian motifs spread to English and American decorative arts and craftsmen integrated motifs into furniture throughout the first three decades of the century, although they were never as popular as classical designs. See Waxman, "French Influence on Americn Decorative Arts of the Nineteenth Centur (Master's thesis, University of Delaware, 1958; Woodside, "French Influence on American Furniture" (Dissertation, University of Chicago, 1986).
A photograph of a related chair attributed to New York, with open arms and squared back but with similar scrolled arms, carved lotus capitals and cabriole front legs, is in the collection of the Decorative Arts photographic colletion, Winterthur Museum.
Made in the fashion of the French Restoration style, this chair represents a departure from the anglicized French furniture produced in America earlier in the century. Even though emigré craftsmen and imported furniture brought French designs directly to America, and patterns were available through La Mésangère's Meubles et Ojets de Gout, published since 1802, many of the forms were not accepted outright, even though some of the French furniture patterns were influenced from England. Many of the French designs were introduced to America via english sources, such as Rudolph Ackermann's A Repository of the Arts and the 1817 Selection of Ornaments, which reissued certain plates from La Mesangere. The delayed acceptance of French forms, which one might expect to have been more sudden after the Revolution, was due to an American clientele that was generally still largely influenced by English pattern books and sources rather than the more ostentatious French furniture. The impact of direct French influence occurred after the Restoration of Louis XVIII in 1814 and 1815 when French furniture became less ornate and therefore appealed to a larger American audience.
This armchair is based upon plate 667 of La Mésangère's 1829 installment of Meubles et Objets de Gout, pictured above and identified as a Fauteuil de Salon. In addition to the French appearance of this chair, the carved lotus motifs were integrated into French nineteenth century furniture designs after Napoleon's 1798 campaign into Egypt and the publication in 1802 of Baron Vivant Denon's Voyage dans la Basse et la Haute Égypte. The fashion for Egyptian motifs spread to English and American decorative arts and craftsmen integrated motifs into furniture throughout the first three decades of the century, although they were never as popular as classical designs. See Waxman, "French Influence on Americn Decorative Arts of the Nineteenth Centur (Master's thesis, University of Delaware, 1958; Woodside, "French Influence on American Furniture" (Dissertation, University of Chicago, 1986).
A photograph of a related chair attributed to New York, with open arms and squared back but with similar scrolled arms, carved lotus capitals and cabriole front legs, is in the collection of the Decorative Arts photographic colletion, Winterthur Museum.