Nina Gray
Leon Marcotte: Cabinetmaker and Interior Decorator
Here, for instance, is my house. . . . It is superbly furnished. Mrs.
P. and I dont know much about such things. She was only stringent
for buhl, and the latest Parisian models, so we delivered our house into
the hands of certain eminent upholsterers to be furnished, as we send
Frederic to the tailors to be clothed. To be sure, I asked what
proof we had that the upholsterer was possessed of taste. But Mrs. P.
silenced me, by saying that it was his business to have taste, and that
a man who sold furniture naturally knew what was handsome and proper for
my house. . . . The furnishing was certainly performed with great splendor
and expense. . . . They are there, because my house was large . . . and
because, as Mrs. P. says one must have buhl and or molu, and new forms
of furniture, and do as well as ones neighbors, and show that one
is rich.1
In this passage of The Potiphar Papers, George William Curtis expressed
the intense desire felt by many mid-nineteenth-century New Yorkers for
the most stylish furniture and decoration. Curtiss characterization
of the eminent upholsterer capable of supplying the
latest Parisian models fits an interior decorator such as Leon Alexandre
Marcotte, renowned in his own day as a decorator and cabinetmaker whose
clientele included the affluent and sophisticated elite of New York. Marcotte
was among the upper echelon of cabinetmakers that included Herter Brothers,
Alexander Roux, and Pottier and Stymus.
In the middle of the nineteenth century, New York was full of promise
economically and culturally. Wealthy New Yorkers were enthusiastic for
the French styles and fashions that they encountered in their trips abroad.
As New York flourished financially, the demand for French articles grew,
reflecting the influence of imports, immigrant tradesmen, and French-trained
architects and designers.2
Marcotte was in a fine position to succeed in New York because of his
partnership with Auguste-Emile Ringuet-Leprince (heir to a dynasty of
French ébénistes), his knowledge and training in French
design, and his connections with Paris, assuring his clients of the very
latest style. Although a contemporary cabinetmaker, Ernest Hagen, wrote
that Marcotte and Co. worked principally in the pure Louis XVI style
and . . . [did] the very best work, the firm was proficient in many
of the successive revivalist styles that dominated the latter part of
the nineteenth century.3
Leon Marcotte, born on May 15, 1824, in Valognes, Manche, France, attended
the École des Beaux Arts and trained as an architect in the studio
of the leading neoclassical, rationalist architect, Henri Labrouste. While
working for Labrouste, he probably met Danish-born architect Detlef Lienau.
Lienau and Marcotte both came to New York in 1848, and several years later,
they became business partners. Marcottes architectural background
and training were an important foundation for the part of his business
that encompassed interior architectural work and decoration. His furniture
designs also have an architectural quality marked by particularly fine
proportions.4
Marcottes involvement with the furniture making trades began by
the time that his sister, Marie-Felicité, married Parisian ébéniste
Auguste-Emile Ringuet-Leprince in 1835. Ringuet-Leprinces reputation
was well established through his descent from a line of ébénistes
dating back to the late eighteenth century and through the prestige he
gained by winning a bronze medal for a buhl table, an armchair, a priedieu,
and a side cabinet at the 1844 Universal Exposition in London. During
the 1840s Ringuet-Leprince built up a strong client base and network of
referrals from wealthy Americans who bought furniture and decorations
from him in Paris. One of Ringuet-Leprinces earliest American clients
was Mathew Morgan of New York, who in 1842 redecorated his parlor in the
Louis Quartorze style and subsequently advised his friend James Colles
that Ringuet was a man of good taste in his line. Other wealthy
New York clients during the 1840s included Mrs. Samuel Jaudon, a Mrs.
Henderson, a Mr. Deacon, and Delancy Kane, all of whom moved in the same
social circle. Colles was an especially valuable client since he referred
his friends to the Parisian establishment and promised Ringuet-Leprince,
We shall cheerfully continue to commend you to our friends whenever
an opportunity offers. We are pleased and satisfied with various articles
you have furnished us: they are in excellent taste and we thank you for
your care and attention. The issue of good taste was an important
one, as Mrs. Jaudon explained: We on this side feel as if everything
was so much hansomer, and better, and desirable that comes from Paris.5
Ringuet-Leprinces prosperity was based on the wide range of services
he provided, including furniture, tapestries, curtains, ornamental architectural
elements, carpets, bronzes, and chandeliers, as well as advice concerning
the overall effect of a room. In short, he acted as a decorator, albeit
long distance. The 1848 revolution adversely affected his local trade,
so Ringuet-Leprince focused his attention on the more promising New York
prospects. On March 30, 1848, he wrote Colles:
|
My
intention . . . is to go in the autumn with my brother in law who
is an architect. . . . Our business would be first to give projects
for townhouses or any construction whatever. Second to make the inside
decorations in papier maché or paper or carved wood. Third
to furnish them with any kind of furniture from my factory in Paris,
Aubusson, Lyon etc., after choice of my designs, patterns, etc. |
Ringuet-Leprince and his brother-in-law, Marcotte, arrived in New York
sometime toward the end of 1848 and set up business on lower Broadway.
Marcotte was put in charge of the New York branch, Ringuet-Leprince returned
to France, and a third man traveled between the two to fill the orders.
6
It is possible to reconstruct the business, known successively as Maison
Ringuet-Leprince (18401849), Ringuet-Leprince & L. Marcotte
(18491860), and L. Marcotte & Co. (18601918), through
the Paris and New York city directories, the New York copartnership directories,
the credit ledgers of R. G. Dun, the 1855 New York census, and various
receipts and personal documents. During the 1850s, Ringuet-Leprince &
L. Marcotte relocated several times both in Paris and New York (fig. 1).
The variety of professional titles, services, and products listed in the
directories is broad: architect, cabinetmaker, decorator, furniture dealer,
rug dealer, supplier and maker of bronzes, exporter, commissioned merchant
in deluxe furnishings as well as in papers (presumably wallpapers), silk,
woolen and lace materials for curtains and chair coverings, gas fixtures,
chandeliers, art furniture, looking glass plates, and tapestries. In New
York, Marcotte was in partnership with Detlef Lienau from 1851 to 1854.7
Lienau subsequently designed Marcottes factory and store (fig. 2)
and worked with him on the Lockwood Mathews mansion in Norwalk, Connecticut.
In 1852 (Étienne Simon Eugène) Roudillon was listed in the
Paris city directory as the successor to the Maison Ringuet-Leprince;
however, Ringuet-Leprince was listed at the same address until 1858. The
double listings suggest that Ringuet-Leprince found his New York business
more promising and relinquished his French trade to Roudillon, while maintaining
the Paris shop and/or factory solely for export purposes. This interpretation
is supported by post-1858 Paris directories that list Ringuet-Leprince
as a commissioned merchant.8
Bill headings specify that the Paris business operated under the name
Ringuet-Leprince and that the New York branch was Ringuet-Leprince and
Marcotte. The 1855 New York census valued the building at 347 Fourth Street
at $17,000. Living with Marcotte were his younger brother Charles, who
was also a cabinetmaker, his mother, and a French-trained cabinetmaker,
Augustus Fredin. Fredin is listed as a partner with Marcotte and Ringuet-Leprince
in the copartnership directories from 1853 to 1857. The R. G. Dun appraisals
began in 1854, and approximately every six months a representative called
on Marcotte to write an evaluation and commentary on the business. The
first entry on Ringuet-Leprince and Marcotte reveals that they imported
both plain and rich furniture, but that a majority of their
work was ornamenting houses. The report valued the business
at $50,000, noted the firms potential for expansion, and described
Marcotte as smart and reliable with much artistic taste and
business acumen. The following year Dun reported that Ringuet-Leprince
and Marcotte employed 150 second-class hands. By 1858 Ringuet-Leprince
and Marcotte reportedly made first class work for the best and wealthiest
clients, at their own prices, and showed a large profit.9
With business thriving, Marcotte turned his attention to personal matters.
On May 23, 1859, he married Louise-Marie de Rudder, the daughter of a
Parisian painter. Their marriage certificate stated that Marcotte was
residing in Paris. He may have been there making arrangements to assume
the added responsibility of Ringuet-Leprinces approaching retirement.10
In July 1860, Ringuet-Leprince retired and the firm name changed to L.
Marcotte & Co., with Marcotte in charge. Throughout the 1860s, the
firm reported excellent profits, had good customers, and maintained good
standing in the business community. In 1866, the Mercantile Agency (a
forerunner to Dun and Bradstreet) gave L. Marcotte & Co. a high credit
rating and estimated the pecuniary strength of the firm to be $50,000/$100,000.
By 1869, this figure rose to $100,000, reflecting the growth of the company
and the addition of a new factory (built 18671868) at 158164
West 32nd Street. Lienau designed the factory as well as the shop and
showroom built two years later (see fig. 2).11
As this was a time of great expansion, Marcotte and Ringuet-Leprince made
Adrian Herzog a partner in 1868. Herzog remained with the company until
his death in the early 1890s.
The firm continued to grow rapidly during the 1870s, and R. G. Dun frequently
described L. Marcotte & Co. as an old and well established house
or an old rich house. In 1874 the firm did $200,000 worth
of business, and in 1878 it had stock valued at $200,000 and outstanding
invoices totaling $50,000. Ringuet-Leprince sold his interest the following
year, and Marcotte decided to make Paris his permanent residence, although
he spent equal time in New York.12
Back in France, Marcotte advertised the services of the Parisian branch
in great detail and relocated the shop from Avenue de Villars 15 to the
more fashionable Avenue de lOpera 11. In 1882, the New York branch
followed suit by moving to 298 Fifth Avenue at 31st Street. R. G. Dun
estimated the strength of the business to be $200,000 to $250,000, despite
strong competition from other leading decorating firms such
as Herter Brothers and Pottier and Stymus. The high ratings continued
throughout the 1880s. Leon Marcotte died on January 25, 1887, in Paris
at the age of 62, but L. Marcotte & Co. continued under the direction
of Adrian Herzog and his family in New York and Edmond Leprince Ringuet
in Paris. The last listing for the firm in Paris is 1911. The New York
branch moved to Long Island City in 1918 and went out of business by 1922.13
During the last half of the nineteenth century, Marcottes firm kept
pace with what was fashionable and in demand. Most of the styles were
historic revivals, but they were interpreted in a very distinctive manner.
Included were the Louis XIV, XV, and XVI styles, all based on eighteenth-century
French models, and the Renaissance revival, an eclectic blend of Henri
II, François I, and Louis XIII styles. The aesthetic styleanother
important artistic movement of the late nineteenth centurywas considerably
more diverse, incorporating elements of Far Eastern, Middle Eastern, and
European design. While R. G. Duns ledgers and the Mercantile Agency
show that Marcottes firm did a tremendous amount of business, only
a small portion of this work is documented by bills of sale and correspondence
or attributable through connoisseurship.
Marcotte and Ringuet-Leprince are best known for their interpretations
of the Louis XV and Louis XVI styles in a broad range of forms, each of
which was offered at a variety of levels to accommodate different tastes
and budgets. An armchair from a suite of two sofas, two armchairs, four
side chairs, a center table, and a firescreen made for John Taylor Johnston,
the first president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is a fine example
of the firms Louis XV-style furniture (fig. 3).
The style was the last phase of the rococo revival, and Ringuet-Leprince
& L. Marcottes interpretation was particularly refined. A distinctive
feature of their furniture is the almost spherical shape of scroll feet.
Possibly imported from France, the elegant chased mounts on the Johnston
chair are exceptional even for the firms finest work. Johnstons
father-in-law, James Colles, may have recommended Marcotte and Ringuet-Leprince
to the Johnstons when they began decorating their new home on Fifth Avenue
and 8th Street. Johnston was an important client for Marcotte; he was
a central figure in New York society, and his family was a continual source
of patronage.
William Shepard Wetmore of Newport, Rhode Island, and Samuel Colt of Hartford,
Connecticut, also purchased Louis XV-style furniture. Wetmore was a wealthy
New York City banker and merchant who retired about 1850 and hired architect
Seth Bradford to built his Newport mansion, Chateau-Sur-Mer.
He commissioned Marcotte to design a suite of ebonized Louis XV-style
furniturefour sofas, four armchairs, and eight side chairsfor
the ballroom (fig. 4).14
The gold floral brocade upholstery complemented the gilt-bronze mounts
on the furniture and the gilt highlights on the shaded grey walls. Although
based on Louis XV furniture, Marcotte altered the proportions to suit
the nineteenth-century taste for robust, florid forms and broke from eighteenth-century
tradition by using ebonizing and ormolu mounts on seating furniture.
Marcottes work for Samuel Colts house, Armsmear,
included architectural elements, furniture, upholstery fabrics, draperies,
carpets, chandeliers, and lamps for the drawing room, dining room, office,
library, bedrooms, and a dressing room. The New York shop made the furniture
and architectural components, and the Paris shop furnished many fabrics
and lighting devices. After receiving a letter from Marcotte advising
him to call at our establishment where you will find my brother-in-law
to your entire disposition, Colt traveled to Paris and ordered two
carpets, five chandeliers, and two lamps from Ringuet-Leprince. On November
26, 1856, Marcotte advised, The parlour set of furniture same as
the dining room are very nearly finished. This last one however I cannot
complete as you have decided upon different covering in Paris. . . . For
the three bedrooms of the second story I am hurrying the work as fast
as possible but I have only one set of mahogany furniture ready. If you
would decide to have your bedroom furnished with rosewood I could send
you a set at once. Colt chose the rosewood suite, about which Marcotte
assured him, We have calculated to have everything substantial and
made in the best manner and not too elaborate. There is more ornamental
carving on the rosewood parlor furniture than on the ebonized suites with
gilt-bronze mounts, as if Marcotte compensated for the absence of applied,
gilded ornament (fig. 5).15
Henry Marquand, another of Marcottes socially prominent New York
clients, was the second president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and
may have been introduced to Marcotte by John Taylor Johnston. Marcotte
probably made the center table illustrated in figure 6
for Marquands Madison Avenue mansion. The table has an exceptionally
bold stretcher and sculptural mounts that envelop the scrolled legs.
Marcottes business blossomed with the growing popularity of the
Louis XVI style in the 1860s and 1870s. As late as 1878, Harriet Spofford
wrote, Louis Seize is again the favorite of that fashion. . . .
It is as well suited to the frivolities of the life too frequently led
nowadays by the extraordinarily wealthy as more stable and solid and dignified
furniture could.16
Several of Marcottes old clients, including Johnston, ordered new
suites of Louis XVI-style furniture. The side chair illustrated in figure
7 is from a large
suitetwo sofas, six side chairs, two lyre-back chairs, two armchairs,
a firescreen, two single-door side cabinets, and a three-door side cabinetmade
for Johnstons music room about 1860. As the chair demonstrates,
Marcottes Louis XVI-style pieces are typically richer and bolder
than their eighteenth-century counterparts, and they often have gilt-bronze
beading emphasizing the silhouettes.
A number of Louis XVI suites by L. Marcotte & Co. have survived. Although
there are differences in the mounts and carving, there is little variation
in the proportions and dimensions of each furniture form. The chairs illustrated
in figures 8 and
9, for example,
are virtually identical in measurement to other Louis XVI-style chairs
documented to L. Marcotte & Co., but they have several unique features.
The crest rails have a single arch rather than the usual Chapeau de Gendarme
shape (reverse curve), and the twisted column arm supports, carving, and
gilt-bronze mounts are very distinctive.
Marcottes establishment offered several lines of furniture. At the
high end were custom-designed pieces, such as those commissioned by Colt,
and in the middle range were items or suites of furniture that could be
embellished with a variety of structural and decorative options: turned
and fluted legs, carving, gilt-bronze mounts, and expensive upholstery
fabrics and details (compare figs. 7
and 10). This
sort of semi-custom work probably accounted for a substantial portion
of his business.
A Louis XVI side chair made by Marcotte for Eliphalet Wood of Irvington,
New York, has extraordinary covers that Wood purchased at Aux Genre Gobelins
in Paris, while on a grand tour of Europe in 1869 (fig. 11).
After deciding that a Marcotte suite purchased second hand through Sypher
and Company of New York was not suitable for the upholstery, Wood ordered
a new suite from Marcotte (fig. 12).
Except for the absence of a gilt-bronze bow-knot in the center of the
crest rail, the chairs from Woods second suite are identical to
those from two other suites by Marcotteone in the Metropolitan Museum
of Art and the other in the Lockwood Mathews Mansion Museum. Woods
open-back side chair is an extremely elegant form marked by the repetition
of the Chapeau de Gendarme shape. Marcotte used the term Light
Chair[s] to describe open-back examples of this general form.
Whereas Marcottes Louis XVI seating furniture was unmistakably nineteenth
century, his designs for case pieces were more faithful to eighteenth-century
prototypes. The earliest Louis XVI-style casework documented to Ringuet-Leprince
& L. Marcotte is a marble-top rosewood cabinet with gilt-bronze mounts
made for the drawing room at Armsmear for which Colt paid Leprince and
Marcotte $280 in March 1857. The cabinet is similar in form to one L.
Marcotte & Co. made three years later for John Taylor Johnston as
part of a suite of three cabinets, all of which closely resemble French
neoclassical forms (fig. 13).
These parallel the 1860 Marcotte and Ringuet-Leprince advertisement offering
rich suites of Black Wood and Gilt and Black and Gilt
Carved Centre Tables with . . . elegant Cabinets to Match.17
A library table with a history of ownership by Johnstons daughter,
Emily Johnston de Forest, represents a slightly more interpretive version
of the French classical style (fig. 14).
Marcotte used expensive amboyna veneers, stained hornbeam banding, ivory
stringing, and small amboyna-veneered tablets to create repetitive geometric
patterns that complement the linear shape of the stretchers and vertical
orientation of the legs. The corners of the top also have inlaid ivory
scrolls, leaves, and stringing that are reminiscent of marquetry on eighteenth-century
French furniture.18
Here, too, Marcotte offered basic forms that a buyer could upgrade by
choosing different legs, exotic veneers, metal mounts, marquetry, and
carving. A library table made for Mr. Eugene Keteltas, who purchased Lansmeer
in Newport in 1870, is very similar to de Forests, but it is made
of different materials (fig. 15).
Keteltass table is inlaid with exotic woods in geometric and floral
patterns and, in place of the carved acanthus leaves and ionic capitals,
has gilt-bronze mounts. Keteltass daughter, Edith, had married William
Shepherd Wetmores son George in 1869, and the newlyweds were ordering
furniture for Chateau-Sur-Mer from Marcotte at the same time.
At the lower end of Marcottes business was stock furniture. A simple
work table is one of several stock items that Ogden Codman, Sr., purchased
for The Grange, his house in Lincoln, Massachusetts (fig.
16). Marcotte
also sold Codman mantles and a variety of wallpapers and fabrics.19
In the omnipresent Renaissance revival style, which manifested itself
in a number of subcategories romantically evocative of great ages of the
past, such as Henri II, François I, and Louis XIII, Marcotte could
draw upon architectural details, including columns, pediments, caryatids,
and classical decorative motifs. Marcottes firm was a leader in
the production of Renaissance revival furniture in America. One of his
earliest Renaissance revival pieces was a sideboard made for the Crystal
Palace Exhibition in 1853 (fig. 17).
Marcotte and Ringuet-Leprince were aware of the acclaim received by the
sideboard that Alexandre Georges Fourdinois made for the London Crystal
Palace Exhibition in 1851, and they chose to exhibit the same form to
demonstrate that their work was equal to Fourdinoiss.20
Samuel Colt ordered a large number of Renaissance revival pieces, including
a side chair with scrolled arms and legs and arched ogee-shaped stretchers
derived from Louis XIII designs and fringe and elaborate decorative nailing
that were pure mid-nineteenth-century conventions (fig. 18).
Likewise, Marcottes desk for Armsmear is a rather loose interpretation
of the Bureau Mazarin, a design distinguished by the number and shape
of the legs and the H-stretcher (fig. 19).
Marcottes principal deviation from the historic model was the completely
horizontal arrangement of the drawers.
A side chair from a dining-room suite in the Grange represents the other
end of the financial spectrum in this line (fig. 20).
On this stock item, the swan motif is derived from the early-nineteenth-century
Empire vocabulary of Charles Percier and Pierre Fontaine, and the overall
form of the chair and the incised decoration presage the Eastlake style
(fig. 21).21
Marcottes Renaissance revival designs occasionally resemble popular
pieces derived from pattern books and periodicals of the day, with the
major differences being the choice of woods and ornamental details. A
suite of furniture Marcotte made for George and Edith Wetmore has a distinct
American quality that contrasts with Marcottes purer French designs
(fig. 22). Georges
father, William Shepard Wetmore, had patronized Marcotte and Ringuet-Leprince
two decades earlier by purchasing a large Louis XV-style, ebonized suite
for his ballroom.22
LeGrand Lockwoods mansion contains some of Marcottes finest
Renaissance revival work (figs. 23,
24). The original
contents of the library included a throne-like black walnut and steel
divan with a looking glass and a canopy.23
Marcottes furniture and interior decoration perfectly complemented
the house design by his former partner, Lienau. The library has walnut
woodwork and a parquetry floorcomposed of five different species
of woodthat repeated the star patterns of the door panels and the
ceiling.
Marcottes work of the 1870s brought him even more fame, and the
exhibits at the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia marked a high point
in the firms history. Marcotte displayed two interiors, an Henri
II-style library and a Louis XIII-style dining room. The library had ebonized
woodwork and furnishings, including a variety of seating forms upholstered
in stamped leather and a large carved cabinet with enamel plaques and
oxidized silver mounts. The dining room had walnut woodwork and a monumental,
9' cast-iron fireplace with carved putti and faience medallions. The exhibits
were hailed as a splendid illustration of the latest phases of decorative
art, as employed by the French in the adornment of house interiors; .
. . the best effort of its kind in the American Department, and
Marcotte was praised for his artistic design, carving
perfect in detail of execution and effect, and beautiful proportions
and excellent workmanship. An equal, if not greater, triumph was
accorded Marcotte two years later at the Exposition Universelle in Paris
where his ebonized cabinet won a gold medal (fig. 25).
Critics judged the cabinet a work of very great merit and beauty.
. . . Although a production of the New World it competes with the very
best work of the old. The American firm has assuredly shown that its home
manufactures of the loftier order may in no way shrink from competition
with the issues of the long established ébenistes of Paris.24
Marcottes greatest known private commissionthe 18771878
decoration of Cyrus Hall McCormicks house at 675 Rush Street in
Chicagooccurred shortly after the Philadelphia exposition. Marcottes
bid of $60,597 for the furniture, decorations, and woodwork was higher
than Herter Brothers ($53,370) and Pottier and Stymuss ($53,742);
yet, Marcotte received the contract.25
The contract specified the materials to be used in each room, stated exactly
what woodwork and trim Marcotte was responsible for providing, and noted
where the building contractors responsibilities ended and where
Marcottes began. These specifics proved advantageous to all parties
since the McCormicks made several changes during the construction of their
house.
The widely traveled McCormicks wanted their public rooms furnished in
a variety of styles. The dining room had mahogany woodwork and a painted
ceiling decorated with harvest scenes, an obvious reference to Cyrus McCormicks
invention of the reaper (fig. 26).
The sideboard that Marcotte provided for the dining room cost $800 and
is a superb example of his best custom work. Designed in proportion with
the room, the sideboard has twisted Ionic columns, engaged pilasters,
galleries, and arches that give it a strong architectural presence (fig.
27). The central
panel of the lower section is carved with McCormicks initials.
Marcotte also decorated the hall in formal Renaissance revival style (fig.
28) and secured
several of the decorations, including the hall lamp and the pair of Japanese
vases on the mantel, from his Paris shop. The McCormicks visited Marcottes
establishment in Paris in 1879. Just prior to one of the McCormicks
trips abroad, Marcotte wrote,
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Your
enquiring of the address of Mr. Herters agent in Paris has made
me think that you always contemplated to have the decorating and furnishing
done by him. I have been told several times that Herter had some of
the furniture already in hand. If such was the case I would be obliged
to you to let me know of it as I would not like to interfere with
Mr. Herters plans and want to save my time about matters of
no direct interest to me. I have done the part intrusted to me with
my best ability and feel confident in having given to you capitol
work. I would certainly like to complete the work but to do it with
satisfaction I would like to know if you have entire confidence in
my judgement. |
Marcotte ultimately completed the furnishing of the McCormick mansion
and Herter Brothers broke off their relationship with the McCormicks entirely
in 1879.26
The following year, L. Marcotte & Co. provided furniture for rooms
decorated by Herter Brothers in the Seventh Regiment Armory in New York
City. The furniture was similar in formality to that in the hall of the
McCormick mansion. Like the Lockwood Mathews mansion, the interiors of
the Seventh Regiment Armory were contracted to a number of prominent decorators.
L. Marcotte & Co. made furniture for the Board of Officers Room (fig.
29) and the Colonels
Room. The presiding officers chair (fig. 30)
was the most elaborate piece of furniture made for the Board Room. Marcotte
used Ionic pilasters for the back posts to complement the architecture
of the room, and he incorporated a crest with ball finials and a shield
carved with the number 7 to reflect the commission of the chair by the
Armory.
Marcottes aesthetic-style furniture encompassed all the exotic influences
that came to bear on American interior design during the last quarter
of the nineteenth century. Mexican is the term Marcotte used
to describe an ebonized side chair that Ogden Codman ordered in 1869 (fig.
31). Possibly
derived from the chaise longue mexicane illustrated in Victor Louis
Quentins Le Magasin de Meubles, the chair is a loose interpretation
of that pattern books details.27
Other stock pieces Codman purchased from Marcotte were a chair and firescreen
in the Chinese style (fig. 32).
Though their overall design clearly is Western, both pieces have bamboo
frets and other Oriental details that kept Marcottes designs
in the vanguard of American work of the period. A self-conscious trendsetter,
Marcotte was among the first to capitalize on the growing taste for Japanese,
Far Eastern, Turkish, and Moroccan design in the 1870s and 1880s.
The aesthetic-style interiors, furniture, and decorations that Marcotte
provided for the McCormick mansion were, by contrast to Codmans,
extremely costly. Particularly intriguing are the library and music room,
which would not be attributed to Marcotte were it not for the surviving
contract, drawings, and bills that document his involvement (figs. 33,
34). The original
plan for the library called for ebonized wood inlaid with tin, but the
bookcases, mantle, door surrounds, cornice moldings, and other components
installed by Marcotte were red-stained walnut. The shallow geometric carving
on the bookcases and mantel is a superb American interpretation of Eastlake
design. Each of the large armchairs upholstered in red silk with fancy
trim and tassels cost $70, whereas the gilt side chairs with matching
upholstery cost $60 (fig. 33).
The library table, for which Marcotte charged $300, was the most expensive
piece in the suite.28
Ebonized and inlaid with tin, the table provided a striking contrast with
the walnut bookcases and other interior fittings. Marcottes rich
combination of materials and colors even extended to the wallpaper, which
had a gold ground and blue tapestry designs.
The woodwork in the McCormicks music room was maple, selectively
decorated with exotic-wood marquetry with gilded incising (fig. 34).
The delicate floral inlays complemented the marquetry of the ceiling and
the shallow-carved capitals of the doorways and mantle. Marcottes
Paris factory made the over-stuffed chairs and sofa and upholstered them
in plush fabric with Chinese-style motifs that harmonized with the exotic
character of the room.29
The last interiors documented to Marcotte are those for the Vanderbilt
family of New York. The Vanderbilts sumptuous city residences and
country houses were among the most ambitious domestic dwellings con-
structed during the late nineteenth century. William Henry Vanderbilt
hired Marcotte to decorate the Fifth Avenue houses of his daughters Margaret
Vanderbilt Shepherd and Emily Vanderbilt Sloane. In 1886, Marcotte wrote,
I feel very happy . . . that our plans have been accepted and the
contract signed a few days ago. This order is a very important one amounting
to $120,000 for the woodwork only, and the decoration and furniture will
certainly double that amount. Little is known about the furnishings
of these two houses, but the interior of the Shepherd house was predominantly
Renaissance revival, with heavily carved woodwork.30
Marcotte also worked for William K. and Alva Vanderbilt whose extraordinary
French-style townhouse (designed by Richard Morris Hunt) was just up the
street at 660 Fifth Avenue. The interiors of this house were among the
most ambitious and sophisticated of the period. Mrs. Vanderbilt hired
the most prominent decorators to furnish the rooms, including Herter Brothers
and Jules Allard et Fils who created a Regence salon. The billiard room,
decorated in the Moorish style, is the most exotic interior designed by
Marcotte (figs. 35,
36). The room
had a geometric frieze, recesses with Islamic-inspired serrated arches,
walls covered with complex floral tiles and a geometric frieze, and a
ceiling with three spiderweb blocks and a geometric border on either side.
Marcotte was actively involved with his firm until his death in 1887.
L. Marcotte & Co. continued without change in title under the direction
of Adrian Herzog and his family in New York and Edmund Leprince Ringuet
in Paris before passing out of the family. The architectural firm McKim,
Mead, & White hired L. Marcotte & Co. to provide architectural
appointments for the library of the Robert W. Patterson house, built in
Washington, D.C., between 1900 and 1903, and furnish a suite of white
and gilt furniture for the Blue Room of the White House. Other than a
few commissions recorded in the financial papers of architectural firms,
little is known about the management and direction of L. Marcotte &
Co. under Herzog and Ringuet. In general, the business seems to have lost
strength after Marcottes death, for the capital never exceeded $150,000
whereas previously it was closer to $250,000.31
Renowned for the quality and artistic integrity of his interiors, furniture,
and decorations, his awards at international expositions, and his work
for many of Americas wealthiest and most socially prominent families,
Leon Marcotte stood above many contemporaries in the decorating profession.
The ever-opinionated Mark Twain summed up the esteem Marcotte aroused
in a letter to the superintendent of construction of the Connecticut State
Capitol:
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We have
three rooms in our house which will prove to anybody that Marcotte
knows his business. . . . [He] ought to have chance to bid. But thunder
and blazes! These folks are bound to go to the wall before the gaudy
rubbish of . . . nevermind. I wont mention names, though I could.
New York is full of bastard furniture-constructors and decorators.32 |
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