An armchair formed from twisting steer horns overlapping and a leather upholstered seat. Chair is pictured on a gray background. Black and tan horns create the back, arms, and legs of the chair. Most of the horns are primarily tan and tipped with dark brown. Bow-shaped joined crest rail above similarly shaped shoulders, over a back support of twisting horns. Similarly composed arm supports surround a gray brown leather upholstered seat. Horn arms appear to pierce through the seat creating four twisting cow-horn legs terminating in brass claw-and-glass ball feet. Horns curve down and out from under the center of the seat and connect to front legs. Two smaller dark brown horns affixed at center of these horns curve and point downward, touching slightly at their center curve.

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See more objects with the tag interior, decoration, home, overlapping, nature, curving line, brass.

Object Timeline

1986	We acquired this object.
2007	We photographed this object. We photographed this object. We photographed this object.
2008	We exhibited this object.
2015	We photographed this object.
2019	We exhibited this object.
2024	You found it!

Armchair (USA)

This is a Armchair. It was attributed to Wenzel Friedrich. It is dated ca. 1885 and we acquired it in 1986. Its medium is assembled and pinned steer horn, cut and shaped horn sheets, wood, metal, brass, glass, leatherette upholstery (modern). It is a part of the Product Design and Decorative Arts department.

Trained as a cabinetmaker in his native Bohemia, Wenzel Friedrich immigrated to the US in 1853, settling in San Antonio and opening a revival-style furniture business. In 1880, he became more innovative, realizing the potential of the Texan stockyards’ plentiful supply of longhorn for use in furniture design. In Europe, antlers, horns, and other emblems of the hunt were used as decor as early as the fifteenth century, with horn seat furniture popular in the 1800s. It is likely Friedrich had seen horn furniture first-hand in Europe or in publications of international exhibitions, where it was shown. Friedrich’s longhorn furniture fulfilled the Victorian fancy for the unusual, as well as symbolized the Wild West, whose air-of Manifest Destiny was desired, as the West became increasingly linked to the Eastern seaboard. Friedrich’s horn furniture was popular in local male-dominated taverns, smoking dens, and bordellos, but was used in more sophisticated settings overseas—England's Queen Victoria even owned a piece. He used boiling water to soften the raw material’s exterior surfaces, which were then scraped, cleaned, dried in the sun, and buffed. Boiling water also made the horn pliable, allowing Friedrich to create exaggerated curves for his various tables, settees, hat racks, and benches.

This object was donated by Jack Lenor Larsen. It is credited Gift of Jack Lenor Larsen.

Its dimensions are

H x W x D: 96 x 97.5 x 88cm (37 13/16 x 38 3/8 x 34 5/8in.)

Cite this object as

Armchair (USA); Attributed to Wenzel Friedrich (Bohemian, 1827–1902); assembled and pinned steer horn, cut and shaped horn sheets, wood, metal, brass, glass, leatherette upholstery (modern); H x W x D: 96 x 97.5 x 88cm (37 13/16 x 38 3/8 x 34 5/8in.); Gift of Jack Lenor Larsen; 1986-39-1

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibitions Plastics and Campana Brothers Select: Works from the Permanent Collection.

Short URL http://cprhw.tt/o/2DriT/
Accession Number 1986-39-1
Object ID 18620777