The Richard H. Driehaus Museum DriehausMuseum.org [email protected] 40 East Erie Street Chicago, Illinois 60611 Phone 312 482 8933 Fax 312 482 8934
The Museum Collection
The Driehaus Collection of Fine and Decorative Arts stands as a testimony to Richard H. Driehaus’s passion for the preservation and appreciation of classical design. Housed in the historic Samuel M. Nickerson House, selections from this diverse collection of European and American fine and decorative arts feature artifacts created predominantly between 1880 and 1920, the approximate period during which the mansion was occupied as a private residence. When Mr. Driehaus began collecting in the early 1970s, his acquisitions focused primarily on Art Nouveau posters by Alphonse Mucha and his contemporaries. From that essential core, the collection has grown to include master works of design by such Belle Epoque luminaries as Louis Majorelle, Herter Brothers, Édouard Colonna, John La Farge, Émile Gallé, and Josef Hoffman. In addition to these important holdings, the Driehaus Collection is one of the country’s leading private collections of works by preeminent American decorative designer Louis Comfort Tiffany.
In 2003, Mr. Driehaus founded the Driehaus Museum to publicly exhibit and preserve
important objects from his collection. Today the Museum is a showcase for late 19th and early 20th-century art and design, displayed against the magnificent backdrop of the meticulously restored Nickerson mansion. Avoiding the traditionally cluttered appearance that defined wealthy interiors of the Gilded Age, the galleries are conservatively furnished with period pieces from the Driehaus Collection selected for their harmony with the mansion’s interiors and surviving furnishings.
Collection Highlights:
Parlor (Gallery A)
Brown-patinated bronze and favrile glass peacock lamp Tiffany Studios
The Richard H. Driehaus Museum DriehausMuseum.org [email protected]
40 East Erie Street Chicago, Illinois 60611 Phone 312 482 8933 Fax 312 482 8934 2
1899-1928
The dominical shade with a pattern of peacock feathering, in striated blue, purple, and aquamarine, the eyes in amber, lime-green, and sapphire-blue, raised on a three-arm support, baluster reeded standard and raised on five ball feet, with finial, the shade impressed TIFFANY STUDIOS / NEW YORK, the base impressed TIFFANY STUDIOS / NEW YORK / 9510. (30306)
Five-piece carved walnut salon suite Ca. 1883-4
Original to the Nickerson House. Comprising a settee, three side chairs, and a rocking armchair, all with a tablet crest rail carved with a grotesque mask beneath undulating ribbons, flanked by scrolling acanthus leaves and lozenge-and-bead banding on a stippled ground, within Greek-key-carved and leafy ears, on reeded stylized leaf-carved stiles, above a rectangular upholstered seat with guilloche-carved apron enclosed by fluted blocks on ring-turned tapering cylindrical legs set on casters.
(The settee, 10656; the side chairs, 10657, 10659, and 10660; the rocking armchair, 10658)
Favrile glass and bronze harp-form floor lamp Tiffany Studios
Ca. 1900
The domed shade inscribed LCT Favrile, the base impressed Tiffany Studios / New York / 425.
(30966)
Drawing Room (Gallery B) Landscape
Agnes Northrop for Tiffany Studios Gouache and oil on board
(150494)
Set of four Neo-Empire carved satinwood armchairs George A. Schastey & Co.
The Richard H. Driehaus Museum DriehausMuseum.org [email protected]
40 East Erie Street Chicago, Illinois 60611 Phone 312 482 8933 Fax 312 482 8934 3
Original to the Nickerson House. The rectangular upholstered back with a serpentine crest rail centering an oval beaded cartouche panel with spiral-carved cabochon surmounted by leafage and enclosed by oak-leaf garlands and trailing ribbons, above reeded stiles leading to padded arms, on winged female caryatid supports terminating in knuckled feet on casters at front, slight serpentine square legs at back, joined by rod stretchers.
(10662, 10663, 10664, 10665) Chickering ‘Model S’ grand piano Chickering & Sons
Late 19th century
The satinwood veneer hand-painted with floral decorations, stamped #98, the soundboard signed Chickering Sons, Boston, U.S.A.
(10143)
Library (Gallery C) Ebonized wood side chair Herter Brothers
Ca. 1883
Original to the Nickerson House. The rectangular upholstered back with pierced galleried crest rail with tongue-and-dart banding, enclosed by fluted Doric columnar and molded stiles, above a flared rectangular seat above a carved apron, on spherule strapwork and square paneled legs terminating in knuckled feet. (10668)
Victorian Renaissance Revival ebonized wood, satinwood, and leather-inset library table
Herter Brothers Ca. 1883
Original to the Nickerson House. Of rectangular form, the burgundy leather-inset top within a gadrooned border and above a stop-fluted apron interspersed by molded volutes, the corner blocks with lion-mask and angular ring mounts, on strap work spherule-carved ring-turned legs joined by a paneled platform stretcher centering narrow shelves, on leafy knuckled feet.
The Richard H. Driehaus Museum DriehausMuseum.org [email protected]
40 East Erie Street Chicago, Illinois 60611 Phone 312 482 8933 Fax 312 482 8934 4
Victorian carved and ebonized wood two-piece salon suite Ca. 1883
Original to the Nickerson House. Comprising a settee and an armchair, with rectangular back with molded rail and leaf-carved ears leading to padded arms on lion- and leaf-carved scrolling band terminals, above a paneled and fluted apron, on tapering cylindrical legs set on casters at front, serpentine block legs at back.
(1066, the settee; 10667, the armchair) Smoking Room (Gallery E)
Bronze and leaded glass curtain border floor lamp Tiffany Studios
Ca. 1899-1920
The shade tag impressed TIFFANY STUDIOS / NEW YORK, the base impressed TIFFANY STUDIOS / NEW YORK / 337
(30888)
Gothic style gilt-bronze and marbleized glass crown-form memorial chandelier Tiffany Studios
Late 19th century
With lobed opalescent glass cabochons on the serpentine supports leading to an interlaced wirework band backed by green marbleized glass panels. Shade interior inscribed “A memorial by her children to Mary Bliss Hodges Clark died January 16 1899 in the seventy-second year of her age. ‘The path of the just is as the shining light’ Proverbs IV XVIII.”
(30012)
Reception Room (Gallery F)
Green-glass and patinated-bronze humidor Tiffany Studios
Ca. 1902-1910
The green reticulated glass blown into a swirling copper-wire cage with domed hand-tooled copper cover and applied swirling copper-wire decoration and mushroom finial, stamped Tiffany Studios New York 1025.
The Richard H. Driehaus Museum DriehausMuseum.org [email protected]
40 East Erie Street Chicago, Illinois 60611 Phone 312 482 8933 Fax 312 482 8934 5
(80246)
Gilt-bronze, favrile glass, mother-of-pearl and nautilus shell centerpiece lamp Tiffany Studios
Ca. 1899-1920
The shade composed of panels of pearlescent shell with borders of small multicolored iridescent glass tiles, the border with chain-mail tiles in amber iridescent glass, raised on an elaborate standard, the upper section fitting into the lower with a wave-edged juncture, the lower section set with eight large nautilus shells mounted with gilt-metal rims mounts supporting gilt inserts, the wide flaring base cast with pearling and inset with rows of pearl-like jewels, large mother-of-pearl ovals and an amber iridescent glass sphere, the base impressed TIFFANY STUDIOS / NEW YORK.
(30744)
Renaissance Revival oak settee Ca. 1780
Original to the Nickerson House. The rectangular paneled back with stepped and tongue-and-groove-carved crest over a pair of panels each with maenads flanking a cartouche and enclosed by acanthus leaf and blossoms interspersed by fluted pilasters, enclosed by padded arms with female caryatid supports, above a dentil-carved apron on reeded columnar supports.
(10669)
Dining Room (Gallery G)
Patinated-bronze and opalescent glass curtain border floor lamp Tiffany Studios
1889-1920
The shade with graduating rectangular glass tiles in mottled shades of lemon and green striated opalescent glass above a pattern of lozenge devices and vertical mottled amber rippled glass border, raised on a decorated senior flower base, with pigtail finial, green-brown patina, the shade unsigned, the base impressed TIFFANY STUDIOS / NEW YORK / D936.
The Richard H. Driehaus Museum DriehausMuseum.org [email protected]
40 East Erie Street Chicago, Illinois 60611 Phone 312 482 8933 Fax 312 482 8934 6
Carved oak extension dining table Attributed to Herter Brothers Ca. 1883-4
Original to the Nickerson House. The rectangular top above a leaf- and lappet-carved apron, on block and writhen-twist turned supports terminating in knuckled square feet joined by stretchers.
(10671)
Silver covered punch bowl Tiffany & Co.
New York, 1893
The triform base raised on three paw feet, centered by a drunken infant Bacchus sprawled on a wineskin surrounded by grapevines, the spirally fluted and
beaded bowl supported by three winged female caryatids rising from claw feet, the rim applied with a cast band of grapevine, the matching dome cover with a finial in the form of a two-handled covered tureen, chased to match, gilt interior to bowl and finial, marked on base and numbered 11232-3218, and with Columbian Exposition mark to the right of one caryatid.
(80400)
Renaissance Revival 24-light gilt-and-patinated bronze chandelier Ca. 1872
With leafy corona and chain leading to oak-leaf cornice above a shaft of tapering arrows, leading to an annular ring with four hunting horn-form oil cisterns with key mantel and molded and frosted glass flame-form shades, flanking boars’ heads issuing five S-scroll oak leaf-encrusted arms terminating in leafy nozzles and bobêche.
(30530)
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