Chest of Drawers,

1901

This chiffonier, or high chest of drawers (from the French term “chiffon,” for cloth), is the largest of an important group of Rohlfs furnishings donated by his son in recognition of the Museum’s pioneering exhibition “The Arts and Crafts Movement in America, 1876-1916” (1972), which promoted and revived interest in the style. Like the chair beside it, the chiffonier was used in the Rohlfs home, although another, closely related example was widely seen by visitors to the Pan-American Exhibition, held in 1901 in Buffalo, New York, where the family lived. It is distinguished by the expressive, Art Nouveau-inspired carving of its side panels and revealed through-tenon construction, with large vertical keys holding the tenons in place and providing a rhythmic decorative element. The use of richly grained oak was typical of Rohlfs’s production and that of Arts and Crafts furniture makers, generally.