Desk

Although instances of the conscious re-creation of the past called the Colonial Revival are known from the first half of the nineteenth century, it was the Centennial celebration of the country in 1876 that focused attention on the colonial past. This side chair by Ernest F. Hagen is a rather faithful reproduction of a famous design by Duncan Phyfe (1768–1854), the most famous cabinetmaker in New York in the early nineteenth century. Hagen emigrated from Hamburg, Germany, to New York in 1844 and worked for a number of cabinetmakers before opening his own business that specialized in restoring antique furniture and imitating earlier Neoclassical designs. The desk directly quotes a colonial form—an eighteenth-century Chippendale slant-top desk—but embellishes it with an elaborate Renaissance-style inlaid design.