Loan Exhibition of Duncan Phyfe Furniture

THE M FTROPOI, ITAV MLSEUM OF ART LOAN EXHIBITION OF DUNCAN PHYFE FURNITURE VAul: I<ýIlul', ý, II()I'. AND AAARIHOI'SG Uf DINCAN I'II1IG, I-1'LTON STRI'fi'I', N'F\V YORK IItUM \\': \II-. DI<. BY 7lIL MUSLUM .\ RCOLOUR \WING OWNED N I-=XV Y0 RK OCTOBER 16-DECEMBER 15 1922 a COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART .................. ýýý ý3ýjý3ý =- ýýäýýýýý Illllýlllllllllllýa'" ýýý IIIIIýIIIIýII ýý>ýýýý.ýýrýu,, ý'ý ý14IººIIIIIIIIIIIIII AN EXHIBITION OF FURNITURE The death of Washington in December, FROM THE WORKSHOP OF 1799, marked, as it were, the end of one I)UNCAN PHYFF epoch in the country's history and the be- He in his lifetime had THROUGH ginning of a new. the courtesy of a number seen the growth of self-sufficiency in the of its friends, the Museum is able to show, colonies and its assertion in the war for in- from October 16 to dependence. He, December t;, in the too, had seen the in- large gallery, 1) 6, a auguration of a new group of more than form of government one hundred ex- whose reins he had amples of furniture held during the try- from the workshop(( ing period of recon- Duncan Phvfe, the struction, and had New York cabinet- assisted in the forma- The maker. piece; tion of important na- from exhibited are all tional policies. York its ini- New or The Years succeed- nmediate vicinity and, ing his death witness- although they show a ed a testing of the considerable range (f ties which bound to- design, they have gether the union for been limited to whose creation he Phyfe's best period. had boen so largely which dates before responsible. Political 182;. The exhibition h. irties developed constitutes what i, \0 hick had lain dor- probably the mo. t mant during his presi- important group ever dencY, international gathered together of had to ARMCHAIR BY DUNCAN I'IIYFE complications furniture by a single he large SHOWING SHERATON INFLUENCE resolved, and American cabinet- questions of impor- maker; and in as- tance to internal sembling the pieces a number of unusual commerce and prosperity arose for answer. items came to light, which were unsuspected Such matters as the Louisiana Purchase even by Phvfe enthusiasts. Phvfe, too, is took careful handling. I he war with I. ng- the one American cabinet-maker to whom land, resulting from the strained relations it is possible definitely to attribute a large produced by the Napoleonic conflicts, tried group of furniture upon other than circum- dangerously the unity of the nation, while stantial evidence. the improvements in transportation brought The first quarter of the nineteenth cen- up many questions of national improve- tury, like all transitional periods, was in ment, of which the Erie Canal was a strik- the United States one of the most impor- ingly successful example. tant in its history. Assured of its inde- In New York City this activity in the pendence, the new republic was first test- nation was reflected in concentrated form. ing its strength in its internal affairs and in The character of the city changed from its relations with other nations. that of a provincial town into the beginning S q`f7d8 I HI-, METROPOLI I AN MUSEUM OE AR'I of a cosmopolitan metropolis. From a lei- ity of the city was the building of handsome surely, overgrown village in which Dutch houses. These required furnishing in the stolidity was mingled with English down- prevailing taste which was growing more rightness, in twenty-five years the town and more sophisticated. To Duncan I'hyfe had changed to one whose flavor was pre- would seem to have come the patronage dominantly French. This was so marked- of the most prominent people of the time, Iv true that Mrs. Frances Trollope tells us and in his work may be seen one form of that she felt herself in a French provincial the record of the tastes and customs of his town during her visit to New York. day, its cultural quality and commercial Expression to this change was given in prosperity. many ways-artistically, economically, and Phvfe's importance to us today is thus scientifically. A group of young writers, twofold. First of all, it forms a record of I'HY"I-E I. \BLE SUI'I'ORTED UPON A PEDES I AL Will-I THREE LE(; S of whom Washington Irving was the par- a day which is gone. In the second place, ticular bright star, created a literature his importance arises from the fact that based upon national themes. These writ- he, as the heir of the great cabinet-makers ers acted both as recorders of the dying of the end of the eighteenth century, carry- New York of Knickerbocker days and as ing on their noble traditions of fine design heralds of a cosmopolitan attitude toward and consummate craftsmanship well into society. Painters such as Vanderlyn and the nineteenth century (farther than they Morse, architects such as McComb and had seemed destined to go), presents in his Thompson, were adding to the physical work an example to modern cabinet-makers beauties of the city. Fulton, in his for- of the manner in which furniture for con- warding of steam motive power in naviga- temporary use may be designed in the terms tion, Clinton in his championship of the of an ancient tradition. Frie Canal, and Morse in his invention of Partly as a result of the Industrial the telegraph were men of the day whose Revolution, which occupied almost exclu- interest contributions led to the great commercial sively the of the public throughout advance of the nineteenth century. the second and third quarters of the cen- A concomitant of the increasing prosper- tury, this tradition broke down at the end 4 wvlýý m= SIDE-CHAIRS FROM THE WORKSHOP OF DUNCAN PHYFE THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ARI of the first quarter. In searching today for of the full French Empire style rune into the earlier traditions which may well be vogue, and much of his furniture was of this revived in the architecture and decorative type, simplified, ornamented in a restrained art of our own time and carried on with the manner with gilt-bronze, and possessing, in adaptation dictated by modern tastes and spite of its over-solidity, the qualities of usage, the point of departure would seem good craftsmanship and material, as well as to lie in the period when Phvfe was at his of intelligent design. With the period of best and when such notable buildings as black walnut and so-called "butcher" fur- the City Hall in New York, the Capitol niture, he entered with the public of his day at Washington, an] the State House at on the downward path of bad taste along Boston were be- which there was ing built. for some time no Duncan Phyfe. return. Thus a a Scotchman hý part of his later birth, came to work need not be this country with , onsidered as a his family about , ontribution to 1783, at the age the history of of sixteen years, furniture design, settling first in though it does Albany, where he form a record in plied his trade of the history of cabinet -maker. taste. Attracted by the Before i8oo he growing fame of settled at No. 35 the young me- Partition Street, tropolis, he came not far from to New York llroadway. As some time early h is business grow, in the 1700's. we lind him in- where after a few creasing his years of struggle property, first at a fortunate con- No. 34 in 1807, nect ion was then at No. ;3 Partition Street made with cer- PHYFE TABLE SUPPORTED BY COUPLED tain in The members of COLONNETTES 1811. the family of original house at John Jacob No. 35 was still Astor. This meant for him a start in busi- his dwelling, with the salesrooms next door ness under the auspices of one of the wealthi- at No. 34, and the workshop and warehouse est families of the day. From this time on, at No. 33. Shortly after Robert Fulton's his output increased continuously, reflect- death, in 1815, measures were taken to ing the changing tastes of the time. open a street from the East to the North At first his work was purely Hepplewhite River, to be called by his name. About and Sheraton in inspiration, but by 18o2 or this time Phyfe acquired the house di- 1803 the artistic influence of France, which rectly across from his sales-shop, so that was rapidly increasing in the new cosmo- when in 181(1-1817 Partition and Fair politan New York, brought to him certain Streets -the same thoroughfare running elements of Directoire, Consulate, and early cast and west of Broadway-were re- Empire origin. These he combined grace- christened Fulton Street and the houses fully and successfully with the English renumbered, Phvfe's addresses were Nos. forms and details with which he was most 108,170, and 172, with his house at No. familiar. Still later, the heavy, solid lines i(x) opposite. The former dwelling house 6 DUNCAN I'HYEF SOFA SHOWING DIRECTOIRE INFLUENCE DUNCAN I'HYFE SOFA OF SHERATON DERIVATION '1H1: METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ARl then became the warehouse. In this street many to take up in detail in this place. Phvfe lived and worked, within a stone's Among the side-chairs which are shown, throw of St. Paul's and not far from the there are those with Sheraton influence pre- new City Hall.

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