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Sofa

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Photo Credit: Photograph by Karen Mauch


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Bookmark: http://triarte.brynmawr.edu/objects-1/info/165818



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

Manufactured by
Ahmedabad Wood Carving Company
Indian Manufacturer



Sofa

ca. 1881-1886
Wood, upholstery

30 in. x 72.5 in. x 32.5 in. (76.2 cm x 184.15 cm x 82.55 cm)

Bryn Mawr College
Accession Number: Deanery.362
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 sofa was manufactured by the Ahmedabad Wood Carving Co.; its low back and frame are intricately carved, including a procession of elephants along its strut. It 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.

This impeccably carved sofa represents the peak of The Ahmedabad Wood Carving Company production. Delicate floral motifs pierce through the back of the sofa and spiral along all of its surfaces. The carving was so detailed that, although the sofa features in images of de Forest’s showrooms, it may have been too expensive for him to keep. Like a woodblock used for decorating textiles, the depth and sharp detail of the sofa’s carved armrests would leave an impression on the sitter’s skin. Although this sofa is one of the few which can be directly connected with a design sketch by de Forest, the paneled form predates his arrival. In Gujarat, similar sofas are referred to as bankdo, a term deriving from the Portuguese banco, or bench.


Keywords Click a term to view the records with the same keyword
This object has the following keywords:
  • Animalia - Kingdom containing multicellular organisms having cells bound by a plasma membrane and organized into tissue and specialized tissue systems that permit them to either move about in search of food or to draw food toward themselves. Unable to make their own food within themselves, as photosynthetic plants do, they rely on consuming preformed food. They possess a nervous system with sensory and motor nerves, enabling them to receive environmental stimuli and to respond with specialized movements.
  • 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.
  • carvings - Refers to works executed by cutting a figure or design out of a solid material such as stone or wood. It typically refers to works that are relatively small in size, are part of a larger work, or are not considered art. For large and medium-sized three-dimensional works of art, use the broader term "sculpture" or another appropriate term.
  • 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.
  • sofas - Long, upholstered seating objects with a back and two ends, and primarily used for sitting rather than reclining. Distinct from "couches (reclining furniture)" which have a back support and one end and are primarily used for reclining rather than sitting. The term "sofa" was first used in France at the end of the 17th century as an alternative for canapé. The terms sofa and settee are virtually interchangeable in 20th-century usage but there is a distinction between the two; a sofa is generally completely upholstered.
  • teak - Wood of the species Tectona grandis, native to south and southeast Asia, including India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Myanmar; it is cultivated in many additional areas, including Africa and the Caribbean. Teak is a golden brown wood with a straight grain and coarse texture, very resistant to insects and decay. It is used for high quality furniture, boxes, chests, doors, shipbuilding, railway carriages, veneer, and in India also for building houses. Teak wood retains an aromatic leathery smell for over a hundred years or more.
  • 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.

Additional Images Click an image to view a larger version
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Additional Image Deanery.362_BMC_d_3.jpg
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Additional Image Deanery.362_BMC_d_2.jpg
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Exhibition List
This object was included in the following exhibitions:

Bibliography List
The following Bibliography exist for this object:
  • Roberta A. Mayer, Lockwood De Forest University of Delaware Press. Newark, NJ, 2008
    Page Number: 149, Figure Number: 127
  • Manufacturers' Appraisal Company, 1949 Manufacturers' Appraisal. 1949
    Page Number: 19
  • Manufacturers' Appraisal Company, 1954 Manufacturers' Appraisal. 1954
    Page Number: 26

Related Object(s) Click a record to view
Image of Hanging Seat
Hanging Seat

Deanery.363
Image of Side Chair
Side Chair

Deanery.367
Image of Side Chair
Side Chair

Deanery.368

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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/165818 |title=Sofa |author=Bryn Mawr College Library Special Collections |accessdate=3/28/2024 |publisher=Bryn Mawr College</ref>

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