Sydney Richmond Burleigh, designer

Elizabeth A. Williams, curator of decorative arts: This chest in the Arts and Crafts style conveys the movement’s philosophy of “art for the people,” a progressive mindset embodied by Sydney Richmond Burleigh when he commissioned Julia Lippitt Mauran, a female woodcarver. Featuring characters and imagery from the legend of King Arthur, Mauran’s panels reflect the movement’s idealization of the medieval period as an era of sincere artisan practice. Both Burleigh and Mauran actively promoted the Arts and Crafts movement in Providence, Burleigh as a founder of the Providence Art Club and Mauran as a charter member of the Providence Handicraft Club. Isaac Bates, whose portrait hangs above, gave this chest to RISD; he was a member of the Providence Art Club and an active supporter of art in the city.

John Dunnigan, furniture designer and maker and RISD professor (Furniture Design): This piece demonstrates the permeability of the boundaries of art, design, and craft. It is a collaboration in the spirit of the Art Workers Guild, with the painter, Burleigh, designing the piece, Mauran carving the panels, and the woodworkers at Potter & Company building it. Burleigh’s choice of frame-and-panel construction allowed Potter to construct the chest with blank panels. Oak is not easy to carve, and no doubt Mauran’s work represented the most labor-intensive part of the project. It’s likely that once she completed the panels, they were returned to Potter, where the chest would have been assembled and finished.

This is a good example of how furniture can express profound ideas—things like love and fidelity, as seen in the legend of Arthur and Guinevere, or the politics of art and labor behind the Arts and Crafts movement—while giving us a place to put our stuff.