These fine Rococo Revival pieces of seating furniture, in contrast with the work of John Henry Belter, offer both a more subdued and more archaeologically correct interpretation of the eighteenth-century Rococo. As such, they are probably more typical of the better Rococo Revival parlor furniture produced in the innumerable manufactories that had sprung up in New York by the mid-nineteenth century. Many of these shops were staffed with talented European craftsmen. Indeed, this furniture has an oral tradition of being purchased from a French maker in New York City. As these pieces were used along with the pair of card tables (B.74.4.1–.2) that can be clearly attributed to the shop of Charles Baudouine, it is tempting to leap to the assumption that these pieces were also made there. However, buyers did not always limit themselves to a single source, and as the Bayou Bend pieces display no strong stylistic tie to documented Baudouine pieces, there does not seem to be a reasonable basis for such an attribution.

Technical notes: B.82.5.2: Rosewood, rosewood veneer; ash (center brace in seat back, seat rails). Chair backs and pierced crests are carved out of the solid rather than laminated. The original upholstery foundation remains on both armchairs and ottoman; two fragments of an 1850s cotton and silk lampas with a pink ground, woven with a bright green repeat motif, found under original nails indicate the original show cover.

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.