An Aesthetic Movement Ebonized Parcel-Gilt and Polychrome Decorated Sideboard Cabinet, Cottier & Co. London or New York, circa 1880

the upper doors decorated with stylized masks of Dionysus with Thyrses, the lower doors decorated and labeled with the Greek mythical heroines Sappho, representing poetry, Medea, representing marriage, Penelope, representing fidelity and domesticity, and Helen, representing beauty.



 

related literature: Max Donnelly, Cottier and Company: Art Furniture Makers, The Magazine Antiques, June 2001, p. 916

The firm of Cottier and Co. was established in London in 1869 by Daniel Cottier and very rapidly added branch offices in New York and Sydney by 1873.  Like his Contemporaries, Morris and Company and Tiffany’s “Associated Artists”, Cottier was in the business of providing his clients complete aesthetic interiors and offered a full range of furniture, stained glass, textiles and decorating services.

A nearly identical unmarked cabinet, previously attributed to E.W. Godwin, forms part of an important English private collection of Victorian decorative arts.  See  Martin Levy., 'Living with Antiques: A Collection of Victorian Decorative Arts', The Magazine Antiques, June 2000, p. 953, pl, IX.