1. George William Curtis, The Potiphar Papers (New York: G. P. Putnam, 1854), pp. 117–18.
2. For a contemporary comment on the “mania . . . for expensive French furniture,” see Alexander J. Davis, The Architecture of Country Houses (New York: D. Appleton &. Co., 1850), p. 410. On the broader question of influence, see Kenneth Ames, “Designed in France, Notes on the Transmission of French Style to America,” Winterthur Portfolio 12 (Charlottesville, Va.: University Press of Virginia, 1977), pp. 103–14; Peter Strickland, “Influence of the Second Empire on American Furniture,” Connoisseur 119, no. 802 (December 1978): 256–63; and Marilynn Johnson et al., 19th Century America, Furniture and Other Decorative Arts (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1970).
3. Elizabeth Ingerman, “Personal Experiences of an Old New York Cabinet-Maker,” Antiques 84, no. 5 (November 1963): 580.
4. Acte de Naissance, M. le Maire, Valognes, Manche, France. César Daly, Revue Generale de L’Architecture 34 (1877): 60–61. American Institute of Architects, Proceedings of the Annual Convention (Philadelphia: AIA, 1870), p. 27. Marcotte is recorded as a lifetime member of the American Institute of Architects.
5. The Marcotte and Ringuet families may have been related prior to Leon and Marie-Felicitié’s marriage, for Marcotte’s mother’s maiden name was Ringuet (Acte de Naissance). The author thanks Mme. Louis Leprince Ringuet for background information on Marcotte and Ringuet-Leprince. Further details are in the Acte de Mariage, Archives de Paris, kindly furnished by Mme. Denise Ledoux-Lebard. Auguste-Emile Ringuet-Leprince was the adopted stepson of the tapissier and fabricant de meubles, Julien-Daniel-René Ringuet (1777–1839). They were in business together from 1835 to 1839 (see Denise Ledoux-Lebard, Les Ébénistes Parisiens du XIXe Siécle [1795–1889] Leurs Oeuvres et Leurs Marques [Paris: Les Editions de L’Amateur, 1984], pp. 555–56). Emily Johnston Deforest, James Colles, 1788–1883, Life and Letters (New York: published privately, 1926), p. 130. Mathew Morgan to James Colles, March 30, 1848, James Colles Papers (hereafter JCP), New York Public Library. For more on Ringuet-Leprince’s New York clients, see Mrs. Samuel Jaudon to Mrs. James Colles, July 14, 1844; Ringuet-Leprince to James Colles, January 30, 1845; James Colles to Ringuet-Leprince, April 23, 1845, James Colles to Ringuet-Leprince, November 29, 1845; Ringuet-Leprince to James Colles, December 31, 1845; James Colles to Ringuet-Leprince, November 29, 1845; Mrs. Samuel Jaudon to Mrs. James Colles, July 14, 1844; all in JCP.
6. R. G. Dun Ledgers, Baker Library, Harvard University. January 17, 1854, 191: 441. Auguste-Emile Ringuet-Leprince to James Colles, March 30, 1848, JCP.
7. In New York they were located at 477 Broadway from 1849–1854, 55 West 16th Street and 343–347 Fourth Street from 1854–1864 (Rodes New York City Business Directory; Trows New York City Directory; and Wilson’s Business Directory of New York City). There are two documented projects by Lienau and Marcotte. The first is the Hart M. Shiff residence at 32 Fifth Avenue, New York, 1850–1852. Shiff was a French financier. The house was Second Empire in style, and Marcotte and Lienau were credited with some of the interior work. See Ellen Kramer, “The Domestic Architecture of Detlef Lienau, A Conservative Victorian,” Ph.D. dissertation, Institute of Fine Arts, New York, 1957, p. 110. There is a drawing for a church on Fifth Avenue, signed Lienau and Marcotte, in the Lienau Collection, Avery Library, Columbia University. The church was never built. Kramer believed that Marcotte came “to this country from France very highly recommended and with good contacts, so it is not unlikely that he may have been instrumental in getting Lienau some of his early commissions” (Kramer, “Domestic Architecture of Lienau,” p. 85).
8. Ledoux-Lebard believes that Ringuet-Leprince sold his business to Étienne Simon Eugène Roudillon in 1853 ( Ledoux-Lebard, Les Ébénistes Parisiennes, p. 563). In reference to the sale of Ringuet-Leprince’s business to Roudillon, see Paris Almanach du Commerce 1853. There is no indication of a sale in the New York directories.
9. Numerous bills sent from New York and Paris during the 1850s are in the Samuel Colt Collection, State Historical Society of Connecticut. Dun Ledgers, January 17, 1854; September 15, 1855; April 5, 1858, 191: 441.
10. Acte de Mariage, Archives de Paris. An addenda to the marriage certificate in 1874 reported that Marcotte was living in New York with his mother, who was a proprietaire in the business.
11. New York Tribune, July 1, 1860. Dun Ledgers, July 1860; May 14, 1862; December 21, 1863; February 25, 1868; June 11, 1869, 194: 735. R. G. Dun and Company, The Mercantile Agency Reference Book and Key, Containing the Ratings of the Merchants, Manufacturers and Traders Generally Throughout the United States (New York: Dun, Barlow & Co., 1866). Department of Buildings, Boss Tweed Court House: New Building Docket #1067, 1867, filed 8/30, value $25,000, size: 95.6 x 40.4, height 51.61, no. of stories, 4, 5. Kramer, “Domestic Architecture of Lienau,” p. 274. By 1878 the value of the company was $90,000 (Dun Ledgers, January 12, 1878, 194: 800).
12. Dun Ledgers, January 25, 1871; January 24, 1874 ; January 12, 1878; November 11, 1879, 194: 800.
13. Dun Ledgers, January 28, 1881; February 23, 1884, 194: A59. Marcotte obituary, New York Daily Tribune, January 26, 1887. It is not known why Edmond Leprince Ringuet reversed the order of his last name from Ringuet-Leprince.
14. For a profile of Chateau-Sur-Mer, see John Cherol, “Chateau-Sur-Mer in Newport, Rhode Island,” Antiques 118, no. 6 (December 1980): 1220–25.
15. For a detailed account of the Armsmear commission, see Phillip Johnston, “Dialogues between Designer and Client, Furnishings Proposed by Leon Marcotte to Samuel Colt in the 1850s,” Winterthur Portfolio 19, no. 4 (Winter 1984): 257–75. The letters, bills, correspondence, and drawings relating to this commission are in the Colt Collection, Connecticut Historical Society—Leon Marcotte to Samuel Colt, May 31, 1856; Bill from Ringuet-Leprince to Samuel Colt, Paris, November 7, 1856; Leon Marcotte to Samuel Colt, November 26, 1856; and Leon Marcotte to Samuel Colt, May 28, 1856. A drawing for this chair shows a cartouche-shaped back rather than the shield-back of the executed chair (Colt Collection). See also Johnston, “Dialogues,” p. 270.
16. Harriet Spofford, Art Decoration Applied to Furniture (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1878), pp. 129–30.
17. For more on Colt’s cabinet, see Johnston, “Dialogues,” p. 268, fig. 16. Advertisement is as quoted in Marilynn Johnson, 19th Century America, fig. 153.
18. Marilynn Johnson, 19th Century America, fig. 155.
19. Richard Nylander, “Documenting the Interior of Codman House: The Last Two Generations,” Old Time New England 71, no. 258 (1981): 84 ff.
20. On the Renaissance revival, see Kenneth Ames, “Renaissance Revival Furniture in America,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1970; and Kenneth Ames, “The Battle of the Sideboards,” Winterthur Portfolio 9 (Charlottesville, Va.: University Press of Virginia, 1974): 4, 8–27.
21. Marcotte’s drawing for the chair is in the Colt Collection. The drawing is illustrated in Johnston, “Dialogues,” p. 272, fig. 24. The chairs originally had springs and were covered in a figured enamel cloth. The bill from Marcotte is dated September 1863. The bills and correspondence relating to this commission are in the collection of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, Boston.
22. Other American cabinetmakers used the same design, which probably first appeared in a pattern book. Examples by Alexander Roux and George Henkels are in the Henry Shaw house in St. Louis and the Asa Packer mansion in the Borough of Tim Thorpe, Pennsylvania.
23. Other decorators involved in furnishing Lockwood’s mansion were Herter Brothers and George Platt. Leavitt Auctioneers sold the contents in New York (Leavitt Auctioneers, Unique and Artistic Furniture from the House at Norwalk, Conn. of the Late Le Grand Lockwood, October 30 and 31, 1873). The catalogue describes the furniture, but the present location of the pieces is not known.
24. American Architect and Building News, (December 1876): 413. Francis A. Walker, ed., United States Centennial Commission International Exhibition, 1876, Reports and Awards, Group VI, 5 vols. (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1877), 5: 47. Art Journal (London: Virtue & Co. 1878), p. 144.
25. McCormick made copious notes comparing the estimates room by room, with columns for each firm and itemized entries for the architecture, frescoes, furniture, papers, lighting, and carpets (folder 2A, box 27, Cyrus Hall McCormick Papers, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison). See also Pottier and Stymus estimates, July 2 and July 21, 1877; and Herter Brothers estimate, March 18 and May 25, 1877.
26. The hall furnishings are listed in bills from L. Marcotte & Co., Paris dated January 25, 1879, and February 4, 1879; Leon Marcotte to Cyrus Hall McCormick, September 26, 1878; and Cyrus McCormick, Peekskill Depot, to Mrs. C. H. McCormick, 5th Avenue Hotel, New York, June 23, 1879, all in the McCormick Papers.
27. Marcotte may have been inspired by a chaise longue mexicane illustrated in Victor Louis Quetin, Le Magasin de
Meubles. The author found this illustration in a group of loose pages.
28. Invoice from L. Marcotte & Co. to Cyrus H. McCormick, October 19, 1877, McCormick Papers.
29. Letter from J. Rasch of L. Marcotte & Co. to Mrs. C. H. McCormick, January 7, 1880, McCormick Papers.
30. Leon Marcotte to Mrs. Cyrus Hall McCormick, June 25, 1880, McCormick Papers. Marcotte received $132,385.70 for the “hard woodwork” in the double house occupied by the Shepherds and Sloanes (John B. Snook Contract Book, p. 340, New-York Historical Society, New York). Their houses adjoined William Vanderbilt’s residence at 640 Fifth Avenue. A late-nineteenth-century album in the New-York Historical Society documents the appearance of the public rooms of the Shepherd house. Nothing is known about the Sloan interiors.
31. Trow’s Copartnership and Corporation Directory for New York City.
32. Mark Twain to General Franklin, Superintendent of Construction of the State Capitol of Connecticut, May 12, 1877, Mark Twain Memorial, Hartford, Conn. |