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Lot Essay
Through the use of high quality materials, an unmatched level of workmanship and a remarkable and recognizable form, Herter Brothers has created in this demilune cabinet a whimsical yet formal and architectural cabinet. Though not signed, this cabinet is typical of both the signed and attributed objects that comprise the best of the company's work. A very similar unmarked demilune cabinet is illustrated in Howe, Herter Brothers: Furniture and Interiors for a Gilded Age (Houston: Abrams), fig. 15, p. 156. Given the identical decorative inlaid griffins, column treatments, drawer pulls and carved and gilded ball-and-claw feet, these cabinets were probably made at about the same time. The only differences between the cabinets is the treatment of the doors. The cabinet in private collection has doors which are painted with an architectural scene, while the one offered here has a central door painted with a classical figure of a woman with a cherub, and the side doors are glass. Another similar example, of this demilune cabinet form but with marquetry, is illustrated in Howe, fig. 104.