Most of the furniture was made in New York by
Duncan Phyfe about 1810.
Among his wares was a mahogany Sheraton Pembroke table, with reeded legs and clover top, circa 1790 to 1810, built by
Duncan Phyfe. The Scotsman came to the United States in the 18th century.
'
Duncan Phyfe: Master Cabinetmaker in New York', currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the show travels to Houston in June) can be celebrated on both counts.
Breaking the Color Barrier in Major League Baseball, through June 17,
Duncan Phyfe: Master Cabinetmaker in New York, through May 6, Storytelling in Japanese Art, through May 6, Chinese Art in an Age of Revolution: Fu Baoshi (1904-1965), Rembrandt and Degas: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, through May 20, and The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant.Garde, through June 3, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
"There was this
Duncan Phyfe table with a mahogany top.
In Barbara Cosgrove Lamps' space, the focus will be on occasional tables, including a wooden tulip table and a
Duncan Phyfe coffee table.
Shapiro's mixed diction in "The Fly," whose early stanzas liken the insect to "snot," a polyhedron, and a
Duncan Phyfe chair, echoes in a Phillips poem such as "Ode to a Banana," which moves from the neo-Romantic through Yiddish slang to pop culture, from aesthetic rapture through comedy to horror.
Jay, who's from an old New England family who settled in Athol, Mass., brought to the marriage Windsor and Hitchcock chairs,
Duncan Phyfe tables, oil paintings--some done by his mother, Adele--and a growing collection of some 30 antique clocks.
Some of the more well-known members include Stephen Allen, Andrew Carnegie, Peter Cooper, Robert Fulton, Andrew Hagstrom, James Harper, Abram Hewitt, Jacob Lorillard, and
Duncan Phyfe, who were craftsmen, politicians, industrialists, and inventors.
Names to look for include Aeolian, Vocalion and
Duncan Phyfe, which was a rather smart walnut version with reeded legs.
Compare them with a silversmith like Paul Revere or an artisan of furniture like
Duncan Phyfe! And men, in the too often blind reaction of their distaste for this, have tried to compensate for it by the wrong solutions -- by falsely calling themselves "wageslaves" and by demanding only less hours and more pay.
As our own country blossomed, early cabinetmakers such as John Goddard and
Duncan Phyfe also used mahogany in adding their own unique touches of individuality.