Herter Brothers Aesthetic Movement Chair, ca. 1875
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GUEST:
Well, this was in my grandmother's house in Philadelphia, and when she died, we inherited it. And we didn't have a lot of information. We don't know how she got it. I was in Boston with my son, who was going to school there.
APPRAISER:
Uh-huh. And went to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. And there was one of these like, looking like this sitting there.
APPRAISER:
Ah-hah!
GUEST:
I told my son, "I think I have one of those at home." And of course, he was very incredulous at that point.
APPRAISER:
(laughing)
GUEST:
And we were able to look it up and find out Herter Brothers were a major supplier to the wealthy in New York City.
APPRAISER:
You're absolutely right. The Herters, Christian and Gustave, had come from Germany, and by the time the 1870s rolled around, they had developed this very prosperous business designing and decorating for the wealthiest people in the country, both in New York-- you know, William Vanderbilt, Jay Gould-- but also in Ohio and California. They had major commissions from them, and this was big business. Styles come and go, and tastes change over the years, but this was a very chic and fashionable chair when it was made in the, probably 1875 period. This is when Herter Brothers had hit their full stride, they were working on their major commissions. And it's part of what we call the Aesthetic movement, and that's when designers were looking to all different sort of cultures and drawing from different parts of the world for design inspiration. And this has a very Japanese flavor to it. And ten years earlier, you see all the deep carving of the Renaissance Revival, and forms are very heavy. This is a very linear and simple design, but very, very fine craftsmanship. And this was known as artistic furniture in the period, because it really was meant to set the tone in an artistic way in an interior that was very cohesive. So they might have had a whole room that was very Japanese in, in design and style. They used two different designs for these. One would have been solid rosewood. This is actually ebonized cherry, which was very typical for Herter and pretty distinctive to them. Did you ever find any marks or stamps on it?
GUEST:
The only thing we found underneath here was a number, but that's all. There was no label on it saying, "Herter Brothers."
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
That we could find.
APPRAISER:
Sometimes Herter Brothers gives us clues that we can't see without doing a little bit more digging. And if I tip the chair back, I saw where you saw the stamp. It's just a four-digit number. That number corresponded to the commission. But if we take the dust scrim off the bottom, there's a chance that we might find a pencil inscription there that would tell us more.
GUEST:
If you think.
APPRAISER:
That would mean...
GUEST:
Go ahead.
APPRAISER:
...tearing into your chair. And if you watch the ROADSHOW, you know we're always saying, "Oh, if only you hadn't refinished it. If only you hadn't this and that." So if this was an original upholstery, we wouldn't want to disturb it. This is a second-round upholstery, and it's simply the dust scrim, so it doesn't have any impact on the value of the chair. Do you want to do it?
Guest: Sure. I'm not going to do it.
APPRAISER:
You don't... you want me to do it?
Guest: Yeah.
APPRAISER:
(chuckles): Okay. It's a very gauzy thing, and it should just pull right off. Um... And you can see here... oh, look at that. I see an inscription. This might be our lucky day, Phil. It looks to me like it says, "Store." (chuckles): But, look, over here, there's something else. Let's see if we can make it out. It says "Mr.," and that's a last name. This is so enticing. Well, the clues are there. It's super-exciting, because it may allow us to connect this to other pieces that were made for a larger suite. So that's, that's great fun. I didn't, I didn't expect to find anything under there, but I think with a little more homework, it's going to tell us more about the chair. What do you think the chair is worth?
Guest: I have no idea.
APPRAISER:
No idea?
GUEST:
None at all.
APPRAISER:
So, there are fancier chairs that are better documented, that have more bells and whistles, but this is a real Herter Brothers chair. This chair, I would think at auction, would probably have an estimate of $8,000 to $12,000.
GUEST:
Wow. That's a lot more than I thought.
APPRAISER:
So, you, maybe go back and look for another one at the house? Maybe you have a pair?
GUEST:
(chuckles): No, I'm afraid we don't.
APPRAISER:
Well, you might want to take one of those ribbons now and put it, put it top to bottom on there so nobody plunks themself down in it.
GUEST:
Yeah.
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