With the possible association of this furniture with the Edward N. Dickerson drawing room, certain aspects of William B. Bigelow’s career are of tangential interest. William B. Bigelow was born in Massachusetts in 1852 and attended MIT. Bigelow and McKim had been classmates at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and together they formed a partnership with Mead in 1878 (other sources suggest 1876). Wikipedia states that McKim and Mead joined forces in 1872. The firm completed the Dickerson house in 1879. Bigelow also left the firm in 1879 (possibly because his sister’s marriage to Mead had ended in divorce) and was replaced by Stanford White.

What of Bigelow’s career after his stint with McKim, Mead and Bigelow? Some sources describe him as ‘retiring’ from McKim, Mead and Bigelow. True, he left the firm, but at age 27 he could hardly have been in a position to retire. He continued to work in the field and had a long career: Treasurer for the Metropolitan Art Club (organized 1893), Central Methodist Episcopal Church New York City (AABN 1898), and member of the AIA (1901 – 1903). Bigelow died in 1917.

More importantly, Bigelow appears to have had a strong connection to Herter Brothers and Christian Herter himself.

William Bigelow was involved in the decoration of the drawing room in the Mary Stuart house, New York City (started in 1881 and completed in 1883) via his employment with Herter Brothers.

Masterpieces of American Furniture from the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute describes the decoration of Mary Stuart’s drawing room by Herter Brothers (published in Artistic Houses) as thus:

In Artistic Houses Herter Brothers is credited with the fabrication of all of the embroideries, plasterwork, woodwork, furniture, and other decorations in the room, and the architect William B. Bigelow, in charge of the Herter Brothers design department at the time, was identified “in connection with their qualities of design and execution.”

From Herter Brothers Furniture and Interiors for a Gilded Age:

Sometime during the period when Herter Brothers was working on the Vanderbilt residence, William B. Bigelow joined the staff as head of the design department. Bigelow came to Herter Brothers from the architecture firm McKim, Mead & Bigelow. When Bigelow’s sister Annie and his partner Charles McKim were divorced in 1878, he left the young architecture firm for Herter Brothers.

On the eve of his retirement, Christian Herter builds a new shingle-style house at Monmouth Beach, NJ. The porch of the house bears the date 1881, suggesting it was not completed until then. The architect of the house was William B. Bigelow. From 1880 to 1883 he is listed in the city directories as an architect at 18 East 18th Street, a Herter Brothers address. In 1879 Herter Brothers moves its showroom to 18-22 East 18th Street, where it remains until 1883. [Trow’s Directory 1879]

Note: As for Christian Herter’s retirement, after completing plans for the Wm. H. Vanderbilt commission in 1879 he states, “I am just retiring from active life, and I only accept the contract with the understanding that it will be my last one.” The Vanderbilt residence would not be completed until 1882. Prophetically, it was Christian Herter’s last great work. He enjoyed little of his retirement, dying in 1883. I do not know if Bigelow continued his association with Herter Brothers after Christian’s death.

From In Pursuit of Beauty Americans and the Aesthetic Movement:

McKim and White met in 1872 in H. H. Richardson’s office in New York. McKim worked with Richardson from 1870 to 1872, when he left to form a loose partnership with Mead, also in New York, that William Bigelow joined soon after. White came to Richardson’s firm in 1872. In 1878 White left for a year of travel in Europe. When he returned in 1879 the firm of McKim, Mead and White was established.

Did William B. Bigelow design the furniture for Dickerson’s drawing room and did Herter Brothers construct the furniture? That is speculation that cannot be proved with the evidence at hand. We can’t even say that the furniture in the drawing room was a custom design for that client. The upper class furnished their houses with both custom furniture and furniture from stock. And what is ‘custom’ anyhow? Herter would produce variations on a theme, reworking furniture forms with slight differences so subtle at times to test the idea of it being custom at all. ‘Custom’ furniture can be thought of as being commissioned rather than being bought from stock or ordered from a catalog. Commissioned furniture could be completely unique or only distinguished from other similar designs. We can safely say that custom furniture from the top cabinetmakers was beyond the means of the middle class. Bigelow appears to have had the ability to design furniture, but that was a talent possessed by many architects. Any architect designing furniture would be familiar with the top shops in New York and other major cities that could turn their drawings into reality, Herter Brothers was just one among several to pick from. Many cabinetmakers supplied woodwork as well as furniture, so architects would have had regular contact with these firms as interiors were being finished. Bigelow’s swift move from McKim, Mead and Bigelow in 1879 to Herter Brothers by 1880 suggests a prior connection between Bigelow and Herter, but we do not know for certain. Clearly Christian Herter valued Bigelow’s talents highly enough to have him head the design department and to have him design his own seaside house. Like much of researching history to determine origins and authorship, the best we can say is ‘possibly.’

Just wanted to thank you personally for your diligence and investigative work in finding a chair like ours in a picture of so long ago. It was a thrill to have it documented even though the maker is undetermined. It was unfortunate the invoice from when my grandparents purchased it did not make it down the line. My grandmother said they paid $1,000.00 for it in 1911 in a letter she wrote in the early 60′s to my Dad.

Thank you again and have a wonderful Easter.

Ginny

I’ll be looking forward to the further information on the Stanny White connection.

White? i have no clue but its not out the realm of possibility, white was a renowned ladies man who could have designed furnishings for one of the many houses he did for the rich & richer.

LOL @ “tear the upholstery off to see whats inside”, not a bad idea actually.

Zeke, thanks for sharing the glow of your scanner with us. We appreciate it.

I have more information on the tie-in to White for a subsequent post. I find it curious that everyone agrees it not to be designed by White, yet I find it odd that the name has been carried along with the set for almost 100 years (not a recent attribution). There must be some link to the name somehow.

What I haven’t seen above and through my own investigation is a conclusive link to Herter, either through matching carvings, or a brand somewhere. Makes me want to tear the upholstery off to see what’s inside. Seems certain to be a NY set.

Ginny, thanks for sharing it with us.

And do something about the upholstery and uphostery job! That needs a hand-tied edge roll and a decent woven period fabric.

Ginny