Center Table (c. 1875): Art, History and Details

Center Table (c. 1875) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Herter Brothers (American).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The general form of this table is based on 19th-century English pieces that are variously described as modern Gothic or Eastlakian. They tend to be rectilinear with incised ornament, and are often, as here, gilded. Combined with this form are decorative elements of Japanese derivation—the carved panel of the stretcher and the inlaid medallions on the frieze beneath the top. The elaborate marquetry, or inlay, of the top includes motifs of classical origin. The top was perhaps made in France and imported to America to be used on furniture made here.

Object facts

• Title: Center Table
• Date: c. 1875
• Creator attribution: Herter Brothers (American)
• Culture: America, New York
• Type: Furniture and woodwork
• Technique: rosewood inlaid with other woods and bone
• Dimensions: Overall: 76.5 x 122 x 76.2 cm (30 1/8 x 48 1/16 x 30 in.)
• Collection: Furniture
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1987.53

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Piña, Leslie. Furniture in History, 3000 B.C.–2000 A.D. Boston: Prentice Hall, 2010. p. 128.
• Howe, Katherine S. et al. Herter Brothers: Furniture and Interiors for a Gilded Age. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1994.
• Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1987.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 2 (February 1988): 30–71.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.