Winterthur To Expand Licensed Furniture Program

Furniture World Magazine

Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library has licensed the Hickory Chair Company of Hickory, North Carolina, to produce furniture based on the vast design resources of the world-renowned institution that was the former country estate of Henry Francis du Pont (1880-1969). The partnership with Hickory Chair is significant in that new segments of the furniture collections assembled by H. F. du Pont will be reproduced and made available to the public. Hickory Chair will produce stylish, informal pieces based not only on designs from the world's premier collection of early American decorative arts but also on designs found in both garden and library collections and in the Historic Houses of Odessa (Delaware) that are owned and maintained by Winterthur. Hickory Chair's Winterthur introduction will have a lifestyle focus, blending pieces that reflect all style periods at Winterthur with a diverse selection of woods and painted finishes. The collection will be introduced in April 1999 at the International Home Furnishings Market in High Point, North Carolina. The Kindel Furniture Company of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Winterthur furniture licensee since 1980, will continue to reproduce high-style mahogany masterworks from the museum collections crafted in the major style centers of Newport, Boston, New York City, and Philadelphia between 1725 and 1850. In 1923, H. F. du Pont began the assemblage of a collection of more than 89,000 objects made or used in America between 1640-1860. The furniture collection, estimated at 5,000 pieces, is the largest, finest, and most representative group of American furniture known. It is important for the breadth of styles represented as well as for the many masterpieces and documented examples included and covers seven style periods in the 1640-1860 time span: Seventeenth Century, William and Mary, Queen Anne, Chippendale, Federal, Empire, and Rococo Revival. Winterthur launched its reproduction home furnishings program in 1982 to enhance the institution's reputation internationally and to make available to the public high-quality furnishings and decorative accessories. Today 35 companies are Winterthur licensees, and revenues generated by their Winterthur products support the institution's educational programming. Winterthur, once home to four generations of du Ponts, is today a museum filled with the unrivaled collection assembled by H. F. du Pont, a matchless 20th-century naturalistic garden that features color throughout the year, and a research library for the study of American art and material culture. On-line information is available at www.winterthur.org .