Side chair
Inventiveness and an entrepreneurial spirt define the mentality of late nineteenth-century furniture manufacturers. The original design for this chair was by the famed Gothic Revival architect E.W. Pugin for the Granville Hotel in 1870. Capitalizing on the notoriety of the Pugin name and the taste for the revival of medieval forms and decorations, a number of contemporaneous church furniture manufactures reproduced Pugin’s chair for their clients. They uniquely made slight adjustments to the design to adapt it for mass production and avoid patent infringement. Arguably, their interpretation of the chair is a more precise and refined design. While the proportions of the more traditionally crafted Granville model are bulky and rustic, this mass produced design has an elegance and grace to its lines, demonstrating the brilliant sophistication in design and industrial production capacity that some manufactures had attained. Indeed embodying an enterprising spirit, this chair demonstrates these manufactures’ creativity to turn a profit and deliver high quality on popular consumer demand.
Artwork Details
- Title: Side chair
- Designer: Edward Welby Pugin (British, London 1834–1875 London)
- Date: ca. 1870–80
- Culture: British
- Medium: Oak, horn
- Dimensions: confirmed: 32 1/2 × 18 1/2 × 19 1/2 in. (82.6 × 47 × 49.5 cm)
- Classification: Woodwork-Furniture
- Credit Line: Purchase, Friends of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Gifts, 2018
- Object Number: 2018.817
- Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
More Artwork
A slider containing 5 items.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.
Edward Welby Pugin
1870
George Edmund Street
Gillow & Co.
ca. 1880
Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin
George Myers
ca. 1844
Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin
ca. 1845–59
Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin
ca. 1847
Research Resources
The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.