Salad servers

Charles Rohlfs

1902—05 · Silver-plated copper, wood · The American Wing

Charles Rohlfs was an idiosyncratic and inventive furniture maker, designer, and creative visionary. He produced what he described as "artistic furniture" in the "Rohlfs style." Indeed, his designs are among the most original works produced during the early twentieth century. Although he is often associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement, Rohlfs resisted such characterization, and his work defies tidy classification. These muscular, oversized salad servers are notable examples of his distinctive design sensibilities, which combine Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau, and proto-modern styles. As an article in the August, 1900 Puritan titled "A New Art and a New Artist" reported, "The Rohlfs style is something entirely new and belongs in a class quite by itself. Try your best and you cannot place it in association with anything else."

Artist

Charles Rohlfs

Date

1902—05

Medium

Silver-plated copper, wood

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Gift of Jacqueline Loewe Fowler, 2020