Settee

About this artwork

This artwork titled "Settee" by George Jakob Hunzinger dates to ca. 1876–85. Executed in ebonized cherry, fabric-covered steel mesh, this work represents American, Mid-Atlantic artistic traditions. The piece demonstrates the technical skill and artistic vision characteristic of its period. The work's presence in a major museum collection attests to its significance in the broader narrative of art history. As part of institutional holdings, it serves both scholarly research and public education, ...

Art Historical Context

George Jakob Hunzinger’s Settee, dating from about 1876 to 1885, captures the inventive spirit of American furniture making in the post-Civil War decades. Created in the Mid-Atlantic region, the piece reflects a moment when traditional craftsmanship began to embrace industrial materials and processes. Its elegant form, executed in ebonized cherry, demonstrates the period’s taste for dark, richly finished woods that evoked luxury while remaining distinctly American in production. The settee’s most striking feature is its fabric-covered steel mesh, an unusual choice that combined comfort with the durability of new metal technologies. This thoughtful pairing of natural wood and modern mesh highlights Hunzinger’s technical skill and willingness to experiment, qualities that set his work apart within the American decorative arts tradition. Now part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s American Wing, the settee invites visitors to consider how everyday objects embodied the era’s shifting ideas about design, industry, and comfort. Its presence in the collection underscores its lasting value as both a functional seating piece and a window into nineteenth-century American aesthetics.