Lot 723
Notes: The cabinet offered for sale bears distinct similarity to a cabinet made by Herter Brothers circa 1880-1882 for the financier, banker and art collector J. Pierpont Morgan. In 1880, Morgan purchased a c.1853-1856 brownstone house at the northeast corner of Madison Avenue and East 36th Street in New York City. He commissioned the New York firm of Herter Brothers to remodel the house and to decorate and furnish the interior. The project was overseen by Christian Herter, who worked closely with Morgan's wife, Frances Morgan, on the interior decoration and on the selection of textiles and other furnishings. For the drawing room, a long interior with a central bay window facing Madison Avenue, the firm created a "Pompeian" decorative scheme featuring dado paneling painted ivory with gold flecks, pilasters and frieze in Pompeian red and a mosaic-style coved ceiling. Herter Brothers also provided much of the furniture, including a cabinet similar to the one featured in the current auction. The cabinet can be seen in a photograph of the Morgan drawing room, published in 1883 in George Sheldon's "Artistic Houses." The cabinet offered for sale has a painted finish of ivory with gold flecks, red highlights and gilt details, similar to the ivory, red and gold color scheme of the Morgan drawing room. A year after the Morgan commission was completed, Herter Brothers decorated the drawing room of the Oliver Ames house in Boston and supplied a gilt cabinet of similar design, which is now in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Publications: Doreen Bolger Burke et al., "In Pursuit of Beauty: Americans and the Aesthetic Movement," 1986, p. 167 (for an illustration of the cabinet offered for sale); George William Sheldon, "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," New York, 1883 and Arnold Lewis et al., "The Opulent Interiors of the Gilded Age," New York, 1987, p. 146. (for period photographs of the Morgan drawing room); Katherine S. Howe et al., "Herter Brothers: Furniture and Interiors for a Gilded Age," 1994, pp. 86-88 (for a discussion of the 1880-1882 Morgan commission and a photograph of the Morgan drawing room). |
