Exhibitions: Decorative Arts: Period Rooms

The Weil-Worgelt Study is the only twentieth-century period room on exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. It was originally part of the Park Avenue apartment of Mr. and Mrs. Milton Weil. The decorating firm of Alavoine, of Paris and New York, supervised its creation, using a unified concept that designed all the room’s elements, including the paneling, the furnishings, and the accessories in the style now known as Art Deco. The room is paneled in veneers of palisander (Brazilian rosewood) and olive and incorporates a painted lacquered panel designed by Henri Redard and executed by Jean Dunand. In one corner, the interior of a closet opens to become a bar, and the bar itself slides out across the doorway. When the apartment was designed, the United States was in the midst of Prohibition, and building the bar into the closet provided a quick and easy way to conceal its function.