Renaissance Revival dining chair
by Leon Marcotte & Co.
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Signed L. Marcotte & Cie. [Leon Marcotte & Co.] (1824–1887)
New York City, circa 1870
Height 37" Width 19" Depth 20"
Courtesy, Dan Cooper, freelance writer
and interior designer, J.R. Burrows & Company,
Rockport, Mass.
One of the preeminent cabinetmakers in nineteenth-century America, Frenchman Leon Marcotte (in N. Y. C. by 1854) is best known for his Rococo and Renaissance Revival pieces of the 1850s and onward. This dining chair was purchased in Newport, Rhode Island, and is crafted from black walnut with gilt incising. It retains its original brown leather upholstery and a subsequent dark green oilcloth (not pictured).
The most important aspect of the chair is the maker’s label concealed behind the upholstery “cake” of the back. It is signed in pencil, “L. Marcotte & Cie” (by 1861), and the verso is printed, “Hair Furnished by Messrs. Manning, Glover & Co.” While much of Marcotte’s work is French in style, this piece reflects the growing popularity of the Italian-based Renaissance Revival.
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