Footnotes

• Herter Brothers.
  
  Gustave and Christian Herter were expert cabinet makers and interior decorators renowned for their unique style in American furniture design. The New York based firm had started from the family's home in Stuttgart, Germany. As a young man Gustav trained under the eminent architect Leins and produced wood work for the interior of the Palace at Berg. Emigrating in 1848, the brothers went on to work for Tiffany, Young and Ellis before finally listing themselves as 'cabinet makers' in the New York City Directories of 1851. Herter Brothers became known for elaborately carved Furniture in the Gothic style, exhibiting three such pieces at the Crystal Palace exhibition in New York 1853-54.
  The firm was soon to be at the very forefront of American progressive furniture design. Whilst Gustave Herter was abroad in Paris he was influenced by both avant-garde oriental art and British furniture ideals as found in the writings of E.W. Gowin. This is demonstrated by the displays mounted for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876 for which the Herter Brothers produced their unique designs of Anglo-Japanesque style furniture.
  This furniture, like the one offered here, shows elements of this unique design with the contrasting tones of ebony coloured wood set against light toned marquetry in stylised and often asymmetrical patterns. To complete the design many other skills were employed with their use of highly etched copper and brass fret work in Oriental patterns. Detailed mouldings, carved galleries and embossed leather all added to the unique style of this type of furniture.
  
  Literature,
  In the Pursuit of Beauty; Americas and the Aesthetic movement, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1987, p 438.
  Art & Design in Europe and America 1800-1900, Victoria and Albert Museum, New York, 1987, p 116.

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Category: Furniture / European Furniture and Works of Art

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