Skip to main content

Visit Main Menu Block

  • Hours & Admission
  • Accessibility & Amenities
  • Tours & Group Visits
  • Visitor Guidelines

Exhibitions and Events Main Menu Block

  • Exhibitions
  • Events

Art and Design Main Menu Block

  • The Collection
  • Projects & Publications
  • Past Exhibitions

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Give
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Image

Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 / 17 Next

Sydney Richmond Burleigh, designer

King Arthur Chest, ca. 1900

Description

Maker

  • Sydney Richmond Burleigh, 1853-1931, American, designer
  • Potter and Company, active 1878-1910, American, cabinetmaker
  • Julia Lippitt Mauran, 1860-1949, American, carver

Title

King Arthur Chest

Year

ca. 1900

Medium

Oak with paint and gilding

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • oak,
  • paint

Dimensions

55.2 x 101.6 cm (21 11/16 x 40 inches)

Type

  • Decorative Arts,
  • Furniture

Credit

Bequest of Isaac C. Bates

Object Number

13.429

Projects & Publications

Publications

Manual / Issue 13

Storage
Read Online

American Furniture In Pendleton House

Read Online

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Making It In America

October 11, 2013 - February 9, 2014

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.

Focus on Form

April 1, 1998 - May 21, 2000

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is King Arthur Chest with the accession number of 13.429. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

RISD Museum

  •  Facebook
  •  Twitter
  •  Instagram
  •  Vimeo
  •  Pinterest
  •  SoundCloud

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Give
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Footer Secondary

  • Image Request
  • Press Office
  • Rent the Museum
  • Terms of Use