A Fine Renaissance Revival Parcel Gilt and Ivory-Painted Cabinet

Attributed to George Schastey, New York, Circa 1875

Height 67 x width 64 x depth 22 inches.

Note:

The recent scholarship and subsequent exhibition entitled Artistic Furniture and the Gilded Age, held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, explored the work of George Schastey, one of the pre-eminent furniture makers in America during the last quarter of the 19th century. His work had often previously been attributed to his competitors, including Herter Brothers and Pottier & Stymus, and with good reason. By 1869, he was known to have worked for Pottier & Stymus as well as Herter Brothers, and later was subcontracted by both to supplement large projects, especially contributing to the extensive commissions for the Big Four- Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, Charles Crocker and Collis Huntington. Schastey exhibited at the International Centennial Exhibition of 1876 in Philadelphia, being awarded a bronze medal (first place).

Schastey has now been credited with a body of work, including the Arabella Huntington Dressing Room installed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as examples now in the collections of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, the Munson-Williams Proctor Arts Institute, the Richard H. Driehaus Museum, Chicago, the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, the Seattle Art Museum and the Brooklyln Museum to name a few.

For an extensive discussion of Schastey's work, see Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, Nicholas C. Vincent and Moira Gallagher, Artistic Furniture of the Gilded Age, Metropolitan Museum of Art.