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Side Chair

Decorative Arts and Design

The inventor and designer George Hunzinger secured twenty-one furniture patents between 1860 and 1898, more than any other American manufacturer, for a wide array of folding chairs, tables, chaises, and novel structural innovations. He was both a prescient genius of abstract, spare design and a man of his times: the Japanese tatami matting on one of these chairs illustrates the contemporary taste for exoticism, while the Neoclassically inspired, symmetrical back splats on the other acknowledge the taste for historicism.
MEDIUM Wood, cane, straw braid.
  • Place Manufactured: New York, New York, United States
  • DATES Patented March 13, 1883
    DIMENSIONS 35 3/8 x 17 1/2 x 20 3/8 in. (89.9 x 44.5 x 51.8 cm)  (show scale)
    MARKINGS unmarked
    ACCESSION NUMBER 2011.13
    CREDIT LINE Designated Purchase Fund
    CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Side chair with cane seat and back and inset straw braid on rails, stiles, legs and apron. Side chair with slightly canted back, small central splat of cane, square cane seat, front legs slightly curved downwards, rear sabre legs, four stretchers; stiles, top rail and mid rails, apron, legs, stretchers all inset with straw braid.
    EXHIBITIONS
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
    CAPTION George Jacob Hunzinger (American, born Germany, 1835-1898). Side Chair, Patented March 13, 1883. Wood, cane, straw braid., 35 3/8 x 17 1/2 x 20 3/8 in. (89.9 x 44.5 x 51.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Designated Purchase Fund, 2011.13. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.2011.13_back.jpg)
    IMAGE back, CUR.2011.13_back.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2011
    "CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
    RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
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    George Jacob Hunzinger (American, born Germany, 1835-1898). <em>Side Chair</em>, Patented March 13, 1883. Wood, cane, straw braid., 35 3/8 x 17 1/2 x 20 3/8 in. (89.9 x 44.5 x 51.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Designated Purchase Fund, 2011.13. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.2011.13_back.jpg)