Stayton said, "and asked me to buy some of it for him for Christmas.Fausts Alptraum Game Walkthrough / Solutions and Completion Guide "My 7-year-old nephew saw the show's brochure," Mr. This collection is chock full of whimsy, which helps us understand that the Victorians were human, too."Īnd it appeals to people of all ages, even the very young. "Most people view the 19th century as straitlaced and somber. "We had lots of technologically innovative pieces from the period but nothing as engaging as these pieces," Mr. The collection represents a delightful addition to the Brooklyn Museum's holdings. Stayton said, "something new and mysterious was created." "By replacing the desk's superstructure with a dream landscape," Mr. His favorite piece in the collection is a late-19th-century Japanese desk with a three-dimensional rendering of mountains, pavilions and a bridge in cinnabar lacquer. "Not knowing exactly what the image is blurs its reality and increases its attraction." "The gargoyle figure may be an insect, beast or dragon," he said. Stayton is also unsure as to what is depicted on the vigorously carved calling-card stand. Among the exhibition's images open to interpretation is the layered detailing on the legs of a silvered Austrian chair. "The Prince Regent, who built the place, certainly had a sense of humor."Īccording to Kevin Stayton, the museum's curator of decorative arts, the ambiguity of fantasy furniture is part of its charm. "I thought it was the surrealist land of Oz," he said. Newman said that he first realized how witty and enchanting fantasy furniture can be during a visit in 1950 to the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, the country mansion built and extravagantly furnished by the man who later became George IV of England. The chair is shaped like a peacock, too, its wings spread to form the seat, its tail feathers the fanlike back and its long legs the feet. After completing the table, which has a treelike base, he added a pair of peacocks to the top, carved so that their tails and beaks are joined. Peacocks probably inspired the Florentine craftsman Andrea Baccetti to carve the splendid feather-surfaced chair and table on view and to paint them red, silver and peacock blue. Some British lord with a sense of humor may have commissioned it to stand in the corner of his library - daring someone to try it." "When you look at that chair, you feel decadent. The dragon's tail forms a headrest, its exposed spine the back and its grinning face the footrest. Also from Germany there is a table designed for calling cards, on which a leering beast appears to be chewing up the top the piece is an example of the mythological style.Īlso from the Belle Epoque period is a far more restrained French plant stand, with a wrought-iron frame that suggests vivid red and green branches, leaves and flowers.Ī carved mahogany dragon chair is a tour de force of undulation. From Germany comes a lethal-looking smoking stand in the horn-and-antler style. The Black Forest style - surprisingly all such furniture is Swiss, not German - is typified by a bench flanked by two robustly carved bears. The Venetian grotto style is represented by a curvaceous shell chair and a table with a dolphin-shaped base. The collection includes five types of fantasy furniture from the 19th century. He and his wife, Judith, have written a book on the subject, "Fantasy Furniture," and they have recently donated 16 exuberantly embellished pieces to the Brooklyn Museum, where they are now on permanent exhibition. Newman, a New York dealer and collector of such exotica. "Fantasy furniture is more popular now than it's ever been," said Bruce M. And in 1938 Jean-Michel Frank, the French decorator, commissioned Salvador Dali to design a sofa shaped like the mouth of Mae West for the showroom of Schiaparelli, the Paris couturiere. In the late 1930's, for example, Helena Rubinstein acquired a flamboyant suite of shell-shaped furniture for her New York apartment. Throughout history, the most outrageous and romantic forms of fantasy furniture have flourished when the economy sagged and dreams flourished.
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