American? parlour suite Karpen style.

Hi all, I have purchased this parlour suite locally (Warwickshire, England) and would like to ask your advice as to whether you think this could be an American made suite. It is made from mahogany and is carved with cornucopia and there are bullrushes carved just up to the top of the armrails. I have done a small amount of research and it looks to be possibly in the style of Karpen of Chicago. Any help appreciated. Best wishes, Ann

 

The feet look "funny" for an American set, but I'm not an expert. @verybrad will probably be along sooner or later and come up with more reasons why/why not.

 

Its in a revival empire style its hard to see but there are small castors under the front feet. I dont know if there are any makers marks due to the reupholstery (which I shall replace)

 

No surprise on the castors. The upholstery looks more 1980s than 1880s and seems in good shape. With any luck someone got lazy and left bits of the original underneath.

 

I would have loved to have seen the original fabric I have no idea what to recover it in at the moment. Maybe a silk damask.

 

It might have been velvet originally, especially if it really was American. Silk would look nice too. And I went looking for Karpen sets and found those same paw feet with the center shell in the back. Someone recovered the set I found in red velvet, badly but probably not too far off the original. The company did use silk damask on some pieces. The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has a gilt chair in their collection.


http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/armchair-44368

 

Wow that chair puts mine to shame.

 

Not only the overall style of high scroll/roll arms, and exposed carved top rail, but those feet scream Revival Empire style. This furniture style foot is called monopodium. Cornucopias were an associated motif with American Empire and may have been in other corners of the world??? I just don't know if this is American or not.

http://www.buffaloah.com/f/fstyles/emp/empire.html
http://www.buffaloah.com/f/fstyles/emp/empire.html#American
http://www.buffaloah.com/f/fstyles/emp/ath/index.html

--- Susan

 

Susan last link is pretty close. Not sure if I agree with this being Empire...... maybe transitional from Federal to Empire. I also don't necessarily see Karpen. With that shell motif, I would look to an Eastern maker if American. Since found in the UK, I would probably exhaust resources over there before concluding it being American. I don't know enough about English furniture to say one way or the other. I am not even sure what it might be called over there. Maybe Regency?

 

Hi all, thank you for your answers. In Britain our parlour (salon suite) suites don't feature chairs of this style and tend to be in larger sets. There's a chance it could be French or Italian but the style of the feet seem to point to it be more of an American design. Thank you Susan for the images very interesting. I have only just picked up the suite so early days of researching yet. It is difficult to put an actual style on the suite as it has so many different elements.