Gustave Herter/ Herter Brothers Parlor Suite, c. 1860-1870
Gustave Herter/Herter Brothers, New York.
En Suite with sofa in the collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond.
This design follows Gustave Herter’s only known sketch for a sofa of this design, and was probably inspired by the French maker Alexandre-Georges Fourdinois, who showed similar pieces at the 1855 Paris Exposition.
Gustave Herter came to New York from Stuttgart, Germany in 1848. Six years leater he formed Herter Brothers with his brother Christian, and Christian took over the business when Gustave returned to Germany in 1870.
The Parlor Suite
This richly carved parlor suite reflects the sophisticated furniture produced in New York by Gustave Herter and the early Herter Brothers firm during the decades following the Civil War. Comprising a settee, armchair, and side chairs, the suite combines sweeping upholstered forms with unusually sculptural carved decoration.
Most striking are the carved female figures incorporated into the arms of the settee and armchair. Rather than applied ornament, these figures become part of the architecture of the furniture itself — their heads and shoulders emerging dramatically from the arm supports. This integration of sculpture and cabinetmaking was characteristic of Gustave Herter’s most ambitious work.
Gustave Herter Sofa at the Virginia Museum of fine Arts, Richmond, VA
