Bookcase from the library of the Worsham-Rockefeller House
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.This bookcase is the only known element to survive from Arabella Worsham’s second-floor library, adjacent to the dressing room. Its exquisitely carved Renaissance-inspired ornament is typical of Schastey’s decorative scheme for the house, including the overlapping oak leaves on the upper rails and, at the corners, interlaced foliage emanating from an elongated baluster with attenuated turnings. The vases at the base are draped with a garland of bells, similar to designs found throughout the dressing room and undoubtedly a subtle reference to Arabella "Belle" Worsham. Schastey completed two subsequent libraries for Worsham and her husband, Collis P. Huntington: one in 1885 for their country home in the Bronx and another in the early 1890s for their grand mansion at Fifty-Seventh Street and Fifth Avenue.
Artwork Details
- Title: Bookcase from the library of the Worsham-Rockefeller House
- Maker: George A. Schastey & Co. (American, New York, 1873–1897)
- Maker: George A. Schastey (American (born Germany), Merseburg 1839–1894 at sea)
- Date: 1881–82
- Geography: Made in New York, New York, United States
- Culture: American
- Medium: Mahogany, brass, and glass
- Dimensions: 54 1/2 × 54 × 20 in. (138.4 × 137.2 × 50.8 cm)
- Credit Line: Collection of Margot Johnson
- Curatorial Department: The American Wing