Description

(lot of 14) Important American Renaissance Revival dining suite by Pottier and Stymus, New York, for Alfred A. Cohen's Alameda, California estate ''Fernside'', executed in white oak, the extension dining table having a marquetry frieze flanked by the burlwood border centering the 10 leaves, above a pedestal base having relief carved lion figural mounts, the supports having acanthus detail terminating on carved paw feet, and rising on four baluster turned legs having banded leaf detail at the shoulder terminating on casters, (retains the original servant's bell) 29.5''h x 17'4''w (extended) x 65''d, the twelve chairs each having full relief carved lion head finials above the leather padded backs and rising on turned legs, consisting of two armchairs 43.5''h x 23.5''w x 24''d, and ten side chairs 41''h, the sideboard (table leaf cabinet) having a relief carved 15'' wild boar medallion centering the later granite top above the two drawer case having an open gallery surmounting the fold down single door opening to the slotted interior used for table leaf storage, verso stenciled 44288/Pho/Cohen. Provenance: 1957-2012 Property from the collection of Raul A. Pena, thence by family descent__________ "FERNSIDE", THE ESTATE OF ALFRED ANDREW COHEN AND EMILIE GIBBONS COHEN, The Cohens Alfred Andrew Cohen was born in England, July 17, 1829. After reversals of family fortunes he left Exeter Academy and went to work for a London solicitor. He immigrated to Canada in 1843, then to Jamaica, and finally in 1849 to Sacramento, California, arriving via Panama. Settling in San Francisco he married Emilie Gibbons, daughter of former Wilmington, Delaware, residents Martha Poole and Dr. Henry Gibbons. The Cohens had four sons and three daughters. Cohen's business activities were varied. He engaged in railroad and ferry enterprises with William Ralston and Darius Ogden Mills, two of California's early taste-makers. In 1857 he was admitted to the practice of law by the California Supreme Court. Cohen had several dealings with Central Pacific Railroad representing both defendants and plaintiffs. It had been said he was so successful in winning cases against the railroad that the owners made peace with him and hired him as their counsel. Cohen died in 1887 in Nebraska in route from Washington D.C., where he had been representing Central Pacific before the federal railroad commission. Newspaper accounts have estimated the value of his estate to be $5 million. His widow Emilie Cohen continued to live at Fernside until her death in 1925. The Estate and House Fernside, located in Alameda, an island community in San Francisco Bay southwest of Oakland, was acquired in the mid- 1850's. A map dated September 9, 1859, shows the estate/working farm to be 110 acres and five buildings, including the residence, a substantial Gothic Revival structure. Over the years, buildings were added to the estate, including an elaborate stable built in 1870 for prize thoroughbred horses and a bowling alley building. In 1872 buildings began for a new grand ''Italianate'' house of some 52 rooms. Wright and Sanders, the architects, were noted for their churches, institutional buildings and the San Francisco home of Mark Hopkins. On March 24, 1897, a fire began in the building's tower and spread quickly until the house burned to the ground. When it was found there was insufficient water to save the home, firemen and volunteers concentrated on removing furnishings, decorative objects, and bric-a-brac from the ground floor of the burning building. THE INTERIORS______ The insurance papers together with interior photographs by Eadweard Muybridge and the Cohen's third son, Edgar, give an idea of the interior fittings. Furnishing took place from occupancy in 1874 to 1888 (shortly after Cohen died). The photographs and invoices tell a story of continual change and upgrading. Herter Brothers, Pottier and Stymus, W. & J. Sloan and other New York and California firms supplied items for the house. In a letter dated October 15, 1874, Cohen mentions Mr. Schastie (likely George A. Schastey) in reference to the dining room of the house. The reference implies Schastey was on site at the house. Why the Cohen's used more than one firm and the extent of the involvement of the firms is not clear. Likely, the strong personalities of both A. A. and Emilie G. Cohen were a factor. _________THE DINING ROOM. None of the Fernside post fire documents on the dining room are known to exist. The four photographs of the Dining Room in the VPCO's collection at the Cohen/Bray House, give different views of the dining room. Two of the pictures, likely Muybridge photo's found in a family album show the table & chairs. A latter photo by Edgar Cohen, a noted California photographer, shows the dining room and the table leaf storage cabinet in more detail. The original upholstery is apparent in this photograph. This leather upholstery is still found on the back of the chairs in their current state. The fourth picture shows the table and four chairs in the building converted to a residence for Mrs. Cohen after the main house burned in 1897. Of interest is a paragraph in a letter from A. A. Cohen to his wife Emilie Gibbons Cohen, dated October 15, 1874. I quote as follows: ''Dear Em, {in pencil added to the letter ''cover kept''} I learned this morning for the first time from Schasteys man that he sent a Red Marble slab for dinning room sideboard instead of Egyptian Green as I ordered. This is very provoking as the carpet for that room was changed to Green to suit the marble. I telegraphed to Will today to tell Schastey that I do not want the red marble---- I do not want the red marble---- It will be out the question using a green carpet with the red marble. If the marble is retained I do not know what can be done except we change the carpet and use in the dining the carpets original intended for that room but which we afterwards concluded to use in the library. When you get this telegraph me what you think we had better do. If necessary I can get a new carpet for either library or dinning room & use the one we may put aside for the 2nd floor bed rooms. I have shipped the billiard room carpet it is intended that the [ballgrio ?] shall run across the mantel there is a nice border with it. I think now we will leave here on the morning of Nov. 3rd stopping one day at Niagara and one day at Chicago which I expect will bring us home on Nov. 12.'' [Note: these letters have been typed and numbered. FERNSIDE, SATURDAY EVE. JUNE 17, 1876] Schastey is known to have worked with Pottier & Stymus. The leaf cabinet is known to have a replaced marble top when acquired by the current owners family. At present, the history of the dining set after her death in 1927 is not known.________AN OVERVIEW OF POTTIER AND STYMUS From its inception in 1859, the Pottier and Stymus firm quickly rose to prominence as one of the nation's most elite decorating and cabinetmaking firms. They retained their position at the forefront of American decorating firms well into the 20th century. August Pottier emigrated from France in 1847, gaining employment with the E. W. Hutchings and Son firm in New York City. During his tenure with Hutchings, Pottier apparently became acquainted with the cabinetmaker Gustave Herter, who would also become prominent in the emerging custom decorating field. In 1853, the two formed the short-lived Herter, Pottier and Company. By the end of the decade, Pottier was working with Rochefort and Skaaren as general foreman, where William Stymus was foreman of the upholstery room. Following the death of Rochefort, August Pottier and William Stymus assumed control of the business, forming their own partnership, Pottier and Stymus, in 1859. Shortly after its inception, the firm secured a number of important commissions, most notably to design and furnish the rooms occupied by the Secretary of the Treasury in 1863, and the Navy Department (1861-64). During these years, The Pottier and Stymus firm grew quickly, expanding the employ nearly 700 laborers. The firm's preeminence amongst decorating firms is attested to by subsequent commissions, including an 1869 commission to furnish the President's office and Cabinet room in the White House. Important private commissions came for the William Rockefeller, Fred Steinway, James Flood, Mark Hopkins and in 1875, Alfred Cohen's business associate, Leland Stanford. Pottier and Stymus, and its successor firm, Pottier, Stymus and Co. retained its position at the pinnacle of gilded-age decorating firms as evidenced by the 1902 commission to decorate Henry Flagler's palatial Palm Springs estate, Whitehall.________THE WORK OF POTTIER AND STYMUS Pottier and Stymus are best known for their elaborately executed work in the Neo-Grec and Egyptian Revival furniture styles through the 1860's to mid 1870's. At the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, they displayed a monumental, highly carved walnut cabinet in the Italian Renaissance style. Recent scholarship has disclosed work in the modern gothic style by the early 1880's. The Cohen cabinet, conceived in an idiom derived from the English art furniture movement, and produced nearly contemporaneously with the strikingly different Centennial Exhibition cabinet, is an important link in establishing the breadth of Pottier and Stymus' decorative vocabulary. The Cohen cabinet is strikingly early (1877) embodiment of a design aesthetic the firm gave further expression to in furniture produced for Arabella Worsham in 1871, and an inlaid chair made for Auguster Pottier's residence c. 1880. (The Worsham furniture is now in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum and the Museum if the City of New York. Pottier's armchair is also in the collection of the latter institution.)________SPECIAL THANKS TO: Professor Hank Dunlop and the archives of the VPCO's Cohen/Bray House Information from the archives of the VPCO's Cohen/Bray House, 1440 29th St., Oakland. California 510-536-1703. Email cohenbrayhouse@gmail.com Copyright Hank Dunlop, Professor Emeritus. California College of the Arts.