Armchair

Pottier and Stymus Manufacturing Company

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This armchair, along with a matching side chair and cabinet, was made for Pottier and Stymus’ display at the 1876 Centennial International Exhibition in Philadelphia. This seminal event offered unprecedented exposure to potential patrons and sparked the nation’s preference for the Aesthetic style. Founding partner Auguste Pottier then donated the pieces to the Metropolitan Museum as examples of distinguished contemporary craftsmanship. During the late 1870s and early 1880s, New York City emerged as the center for the production of luxury furniture, interior woodwork, and decoration. Companies including George A. Schastey & Co., Herter Brothers, Pottier and Stymus Manufacturing Company, and Herts Brothers flourished during this period of unparalleled financial growth. With showrooms and manufactories located in the city’s thriving commercial district at Union Square, they received commissions from wealthy financiers and railroad magnates in New York City and across the country for custom-made furnishings. These full-service firms depended on the skills of highly trained émigré craftsmen, many of whom had fled political strife and economic hardship in regions that compose modern-day France and Germany.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art