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Contents of Case 3: 9 objects

Shelves C & D: Special Exhibition on Metamorphic Furniture

Displayed here are examples of American nineteenth-century metamorphic, or convertible, furniture. Furniture that changes form and offers multiple functions can trace its roots to the eighteenth century. There are rare American colonial examples (such as a table that becomes a chair when the top is rotated), and ingenious cabinetmakers of pre-Revolutionary France created sophisticated pieces with hidden drawers and multiple uses to amuse an elite audience. Convertible furniture is largely a nineteenth-century development, however, that met the needs of middle-class city dwellers with limited living space. While this nineteenth-century furniture was practical, it also embodied ideas of newness and invention that both amused and intrigued early modern consumers.

Visible Storage: Case 3, Shelf A (Special Exhibition)
2002.107.4 Charles Eames
Rocker ca. 1950

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Visible Storage: Case 3, Shelf B (Special Exhibition)
75.108 Clement Uhl
"Perfection" Chair, model 151 1903

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1991.92a-b Tom Loeser
Folding Chair 1982

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1992.242 Douglas G. Fitch
Armchair 1986

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1994.110 Harold L. Cohen
Chair ca. 1950

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1996.142.46 George Nakashima
Stool, "Mira" ca. 1965

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1996.142.58 Charles Eames
Armchair ca. 1950

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Visible Storage: Case 3, Shelf C (Special Exhibition)
2008.75 Augustus (Auguste Emmanuel) Eliaers
Library Step-Chair patented October 25, 1853

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2011.80 Rudolph Ackermann
"Metamorphic Library Chair", from "Repository of Arts, Literature, Fashions Etc.." Plate 29 (volume I, July 1811) 1811

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