SAPFM Museum Furniture Collection

Sideboard

Herter Brothers

Sideboard, Herter Brothers, 1876–80, Oak with white pine
Maker
Herter Brothers
Date
1876–80
Medium
Oak with white pine
Dimensions
230 × 213.4 × 73.7 cm (91 1/2 × 84 × 29 in.)
Form
Case Piece
Origin
New York City
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession
1982.1113
Credit line
Robert R. McCormick Charitable Trust
Founded by the German immigrant Gustave Herter in the 1850s, Herter Brothers began as a furniture manufacturing shop, but the company soon became one of America's most notable tastemakers of the late 19th century. The firm specialized in creating the eclectic yet unified interiors popular during the Aesthetic movement. Ornamented with foliate panels, Romanesque arches, and small turned and chamfered pillars, this "modern Gothic" sideboard reinterprets the medieval past, using, for instance, the favorite Aesthetic element of the sunflower arranged in a Gothic tree-of-life motif.
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