Duncan Phyfe: Master Cabinetmaker in New York December 23, 2011

Referred to during his lifetime as the "United States Rage," Duncan Phyfe (1768-1854) remains to this day America's best-known cabinetmaker. This will be the first major retrospective on Phyfe since 1922, when the Metropolitan mounted a monographic show on the cabinetmaker and his work. The exhibition will cover the full chronological sweep of Phyfe's distinguished career and include his earliest and best-known furniture based on the published designs of Thomas Sheraton, as well as work from the middle and later stages of his career, when he adopted the richer "archaeological" antique style of the 1820s and a refined plain Grecian style based on French Restauration prototypes.