ATTRIBUTED TO HERTER BROTHERS, NEW YORK CITY, 1880-1883

A number of Herter Brothers' most sumptuous interiors featured gilded or partially gilded furniture, including those of William H. Vanderbilt, J. Pierpont Morgan, and Jay Gould. While lesser known, the interiors of Mary Stuart (1883) and Jacob Ruppert (1881-1883) also apparently included such expensive options. Period photographs of the interiors show four chairs in the Stuart drawing room that appear to be identical to the pair offered here, and examples in the Ruppert House are also of this design (see Artistic Houses: Being a Series of Interior Views of a Number of the Most Beautiful and Celebrated Homes in the United States (New York, 1883-84, reprint). In the image of the Stuart interior, the inlaid garlands on the crest are clearly evident. Stuart spent $150,000 to furnish the first floor of her 5th Avenue house in 1883. Both the Stuart and Ruppert interiors feature ivory tones that would have complemented the inlay in the chair backs. Gilded furniture by Herter Brothers is quite rare, and rarer still are furnishings that retain their original gilt surfaces, as do the chairs offered here. An apparently identical example that has been re-gilt is in the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute.