RENAISSANCE REVIVAL WALNUT & PART-EBONIZED, GILT-DECORATED SIDE CABINET

Ca. 1880

Attributed to Pottier and Stymus. The serpentine outline rectangular top with concave-sided inlaid central superstructure with hinged lid, the conforming outline case with central door inlaid with foliate inlaid panel, flanked by fluted uprights headed by gilt-metal stylized acanthus capitals, corresponding inlaid panels to either side, on conforming base with recessed castors; decorated throughout with graffito-work and decorative burr veneers. H: 25, W: 61, D: 18 in. NOTE: Pottier & Stymus was one of the leading American furniture and decoration firms during the third quarter of the 19th century. This company worked in a variety of styles, often simultaneously, ranging from the Renaissance through the Aesthetic and was perhaps best known for works in the Egyptian Revival style. Very few pieces can be positively identified as being the work of Pottier & Stymus. An armchair produced for the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition was subsequently presented to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Auguste Pottier in 1888. Other works attributed to Pottier & Stymus are now in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of the City of New York, and the Margaret Woodbury Strong Museum, Rochester, New York..