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

Decorative Arts and Design

On View: Luce Visible Storage and Study Center, 5th Floor
Morgan & Sanders’s metamorphic library chair established the basic mechanical design for this form. Their chair was rendered in the then-fashionable Neoclassical, or Regency, style, characterized by a concave back, scrolling arms, and curved, saber-shaped legs. The form of Eliaers’s library step-chair derives directly from this English example of forty years earlier.
MEDIUM Printed paper and watercolor
  • Place Published: London, England
  • DATES 1811
    DIMENSIONS Other: 9 1/4 x 5 1/8 in. (23.5 x 13 cm)  (show scale)
    ACCESSION NUMBER 2011.80
    CREDIT LINE Gift of H. Blairman & Sons Ltd.
    CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Printed double image of: above, a Klismos style armchair with light blue cushion; below, the same chair folded over backwards to become a step ladder with four light-blue colored steps. At top proper left corner printed in black: "Plate 3 Vol 6" At bottom center printed in black: "METAMORPHIC LIBRARY CHAIR/ No. 31 of R. ACKERMANN'S REPOSITORY of ARTS etc. Pub. July 1 1811, at 101 Strand LONDON"
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in Luce Visible Storage and Study Center, 5th Floor
    CAPTION Rudolph Ackermann (British, 1764-1830). "Metamorphic Library Chair", from "Repository of Arts, Literature, Fashions Etc.." Plate 29 (volume I, July 1811), 1811. Printed paper and watercolor, Other: 9 1/4 x 5 1/8 in. (23.5 x 13 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of H. Blairman & Sons Ltd., 2011.80 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2011.80_PS6.jpg)
    IMAGE group, 2011.80_PS6.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2012
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