Chair
Daniel Pabst; Daniel Pabst
1 of 2
Caption
Daniel Pabst (American, born Germany, 1826–1910); Daniel Pabst (American, born Germany, 1826–1910). Chair, ca. 1880. Ebonized cherry, old, but not original, silk velvet fabric, 37 1/8 x 21 3/4 x 19 in. (94.3 x 55.2 x 48.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Marie Bernice Bitzer Fund, 2002.11. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
Designer
Maker
Title
Chair
Date
ca. 1880
Geography
Possible place made: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Medium
Ebonized cherry, old, but not original, silk velvet fabric
Classification
Dimensions
37 1/8 x 21 3/4 x 19 in. (94.3 x 55.2 x 48.3 cm)
Credit Line
Marie Bernice Bitzer Fund
Accession Number
2002.11
Frequent Art Questions
Pabst made a rather uncomfortable chair but he seems ahead of his time. I suppose the triangles are the gothic motif here. Did this work inspire the Arts and Crafts artists 30 years later?
The Pabst chair demonstrates both the modern Gothic style, incorporating arches and incised decoration, and his own reduction and modernization of the style. The pointed shapes, ebonized wood, and carved chevrons are all common in modern Gothic Revival furniture. Pabst, however, has taken away any overt references to the Gothic in favor of elements that refer to machinery and industrialization. The Arts and Crafts Movement came only a bit later--and actually rejected the machine, in favor of what was or at least looked handcrafted.Tell me more.
The carvings on this chair are inspired by the late 19th-century interest in Asian and African decorative arts in Europe and the US.
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