Armchair
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About this Brooklyn Icon
The Brooklyn Museum is commemorating its 200th anniversary by spotlighting 200 standout objects in its encyclopedic collection.
The Brooklyn Museum is the major repository for works by George Hunzinger, one of the most idiosyncratic yet innovative American furniture designers and makers of the 19th century. His distinctive designs were influential due to his success in mass-producing a range of furniture that catered to a variety of budgets. This armchair was a popular model, with its patented diagonal front leg design—a feature reiterated in other Hunzinger works in the collection.
Trained in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1855 Hunzinger joined New York’s rapidly growing German community. He settled in Brooklyn, where he began manufacturing his furniture, before moving to Manhattan in 1860. Hunzinger’s specialty was patent furniture: by incorporating new technology, such as adjustable mechanisms, he secured 21 patents for table, chair, and bed designs. Well suited to mass production, his concepts appealed to middle-class Americans’ desire for creativity, adaptability, and affordability in their home goods. The prices for his wares, ranging from $10 to $70 for a chair, depended on the quality of the upholstery, staining, gilding, and other finishes. This chair retains its original woven-steel seat and back, which were probably covered by upholstered cushions for comfort.
Object Label
George Jacob Hunzinger was one of the first designers for whom the machine became an aesthetic influence. Indeed, the structural members of this chair, with its pared-down design, resemble parts of the machines used to produce it. This is a very early example of the machine aesthetic, which would become the norm in the early twentieth century.
Hunzinger secured twenty-one patents for the wide range of furniture that he designed, including folding and reclining chairs, flip-top gaming tables, and folding beds. He used the ideas of novelty and invention as selling tools and proudly marked each chair with the patent date.
Caption
George Jacob Hunzinger American, born Germany, 1835–1898. Armchair, ca. 1876. Walnut, steel mesh, fabric, 33 3/8 x 21 x 18 1/2 in. (84.8 x 53.3 x 47 cm). Brooklyn Museum, H. Randolph Lever Fund, 83.27. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 83.27_IMLS_SL2.jpg)
Tags
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Title
Armchair
Date
ca. 1876
Geography
Place manufactured: New York, New York, United States
Medium
Walnut, steel mesh, fabric
Classification
Dimensions
33 3/8 x 21 x 18 1/2 in. (84.8 x 53.3 x 47 cm)
Signatures
no signature
Inscriptions
no inscriptions
Markings
Impressed into proper left rear leg at rear, on diagonal, just behind seat: "PAT. A [loss where dowel has been repaired] 1876 / PAT. MARCH 30 / 1869 / HUNZINGER."
Credit Line
H. Randolph Lever Fund
Accession Number
83.27
Rights
Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
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