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Side Chair

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Bookmark: http://triarte.brynmawr.edu/objects-1/info/165803



Designed by
Lockwood de Forest
American (1850 - 1932) Primary



Side Chair

1881
Wood, paint, upholstery

35 in. x 19.75 in. x 19.75 in. (88.9 cm x 50.17 cm x 50.17 cm)

Bryn Mawr College
Accession Number: Deanery.371
Acquisition Date: 1935
Geography: North and Central America and Asia, United States and India
Classification: Furnishings and Furniture; Furniture
Culture/Nationality: American design; Indian manufacture
Collection: Deanery Collection
Description: Lockwood de Forest (1850-1932) was an American-born artist who is most well-known for his landscape painting and interior design, as well as for his partnership with Louis Comfort Tiffany and the Associated Artists in New York. As a young man he travelled frequently with his family, touring Europe, North Africa, and parts of the Middle East before the age of 25, but his greatest interest was in the decorative arts of Eastern India. De Forest spent many years in Ahmedabad overseeing a workshop where craftsmen produced carved furniture, tracery panels, jewelry, and textiles for export to New York City.

This side chair is one of a pair with Deanery.372 and part of a set with another pair of side chairs, Deanery.369 and Deanery.370. Its frame is gilt and decorated with raised enamel floral designs. The banister back of the chair has eight spindles. The turned stiles have mushroom finials, and its turned legs end in bell-shaped feet.

The set of chairs was used in M. Carey Thomas’s large sitting room, the Dorothy Vernon Room. The room was modeled after one in Haddon Hall, Derbyshire, England, which Thomas had visited numerous times while she was a student, traveling in Europe. De Forest designed the room as a mixture of English and East Indian design, although Japanese teakwood tables and Tiffany lamps were used in the room as well. After the Deanery was razed in 1968, a new Dorothy Vernon Room was installed in Haffner Hall, about a quarter size of the original room, where many of the ceiling stencils, furniture, and other furnishings were re-located.

Keywords Click a term to view the records with the same keyword
This object has the following keywords:
  • Arts and Crafts - An aesthetic and social movement of the late 19th century that originated in England and spread to the United States, Germany, and Northern Europe. A reaction against industrialization and the quality of manufactured goods, the movement is marked by a desire to revive the craftsmanship associated with traditional arts, a form follows function philosophy, and an idealized view of the medieval craft guilds.
  • enamel - A semi-transparent or opaque vitreous, porcelain-like coating applied by fusion to metal, glass, or ceramic, having a glossy appearance after hardening. Enamel is typically made from powdered fusible glasses (e.g., quartz, feldspar, clay, soda, and borax) and opaque colorants (e.g., cobalt blue, tin oxide) mixed with oil or water, then painted or sprayed on the object and fired up to 800 C. Enamel is used to protect a surface, to decorate objects in various colors and patterns, to form a surface for encaustic painting, and for other purposes.
  • Indian - Nationality, styles, and culture of the modern nation of India, or more broadly to cultures that developed on the subcontinent of India, which is bounded by the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal, and the Himalayn Mountains. It may also refer even more broadly to cultures of India, the East Indies, and the former British Indian Empire. It was formerly used less specifically to refer to any Oriental or Asian culture. Do not use this term to refer to the indigenous populations of North or South America; see "Native American" or other appropriate terms.
  • paint - Any dispersion of pigment in a liquid binder. Paint is applied with a brush, roller, sprayer, or by dipping and dries to form a decorative or protective film.
  • side chairs - Term generally applied to a wide range of chairs without arms to distinguish them from armchairs.
  • spindle-back chairs - Chairs whose backs are comprised of framed cylindrical bars or "spindles."
  • upholstery - Refers to the fixed soft coverings for furniture, especially seating and reclining furniture. Originally referred to all the textile components of a room supplied by upholsterers, including wall hangings, bed hangings, window curtains, and table coverings.
  • wood - The principal tissue of trees and other plants that provides both strength and a means of conducting nutrients. Wood is one of the most versatile materials known.

Additional Images Click an image to view a larger version
Additional Image Deanery.370_BMC_f_2.jpg
Deanery.370_BMC_f_2.jpg

Bibliography List
The following Bibliography exist for this object:

Related Object(s) Click a record to view
Image of Side Chair
Side Chair

Deanery.369
Image of Side Chair
Side Chair

Deanery.370
Image of Side Chair
Side Chair

Deanery.372

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This object is a member of the following portfolios:

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<ref name=BMC>cite web |url=http://triarte.brynmawr.edu/objects-1/info/165803 |title=Side Chair |author=Bryn Mawr College Library Special Collections |accessdate=3/28/2024 |publisher=Bryn Mawr College</ref>

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