Alexandre Roux, cabinetmaker

The prosperity of 19th-century Americans and the fondness they held for eclectic design are readily exemplified in the furniture of Alexander Roux, a French immigrant who established an upscale company in New York. Roux’s furniture designs included costly materials, as seen here in the elaborate gilt metal mounts, ebonized wood, marquetry, and Sèvres porcelain panel. Reflecting lavish European aesthetics and popular with leading architects and their clients, Roux’s work came to be directly associated with wealth and accomplishment, and was considered a status symbol.