Daniel Pabst (American, born Germany, 1826-1910). <em>Chair</em>, 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. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2002.11_SL3.jpg)

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. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2002.11_SL3.jpg)

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Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

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.

Chair

Decorative Arts

MAKER Daniel Pabst, American, born Germany, 1826-1910

MEDIUM Ebonized cherry, old, but not original, silk velvet fabric

Possible Place Made: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

DATES ca. 1880

DIMENSIONS 37 1/8 x 21 3/4 x 19 in. (94.3 x 55.2 x 48.3 cm) (show scale)

COLLECTIONS Decorative Arts

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view

EXHIBITIONS

19th Century Modern

ACCESSION NUMBER 2002.11

CREDIT LINE Marie Bernice Bitzer Fund

RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY

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CAPTION 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. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2002.11_SL3.jpg)

IMAGE threequarter front left, 2002.11_SL3.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph

"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.

CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Side Chair. Square seat with identical broad seat rail on all four sides with shallowly carved horizontal zig-zag chevron pattern of alternating triangles with vertical reeding and triangles with three small hollowed circles. Identical front and back square profile legs with carved inverted fleur-de-lys at mid-point of outer legs that terminate in small square stops with horizontal reeding above pyramidal feet with scallop edges raised on semispheres. Below the seat rail and adjoining each side of the legs are eight elongated flat triangular supports decorated with carved concentric circles at the corners and horizontal and vertical reeding. All four legs connected with identical tubular stretchers with small square stops and four carved rings at ends and large centered stop with carved graduated rings. Back tubular stiles rise vertically to horizontal crest capped on either end with large circular disks with hollowed outer centers inset with graduated finials. Scooped crest rail carved with same chevron design as seat rails. Cross bar identical to stretchers connects back stiles at mid-point. Raised flat rectangular seat upholstered in old green velvet with modern green trim.

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Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

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?

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.