RARE RESTAURATION MAHOGANY SOFA TABLE
Alexander Roux
New York, 1843

IMPORTANT RESTAURATION MAHOGANY SOFA TABLE

Alexander Roux (1813-1886)

New York 1838-1847

The richly figured book-matched veneer oblong top with short drop-leaves at each end on a case with two short drawers supported on a trestle base with stylized lyres at each end joined by a turned stretcher and raised on softly slopping saber legs suggesting the shape of Cupid’s bow, with recessed casters at the ends.  Marked twice, the back end and the bottom of the right drawer bear the ink stencil: FROM/ ALEXANDER ROUX/ 478 B-Way/ N.Y.

H: 30¾”  W: 33½, open 52”  D: 27”

Condition: Excellent; surviving in almost perfect condition lacking only its original drawer pulls. Polished with shellac in the manner of the period.

An almost identical example in rosewood was offered for sale in the Magazine Antiques in July 1976.  This appears to differ from the present model only in the design of the stretcher.   The “Grecian” or “modern” style of these tables, popular in America in the 1830’s, indicates that they were probably made at the earliest possible date in Roux’s New York career, circa 1840 to ’43; the very last years when this style would have been considered fashionable.<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]-->  As such, these are the earliest documented examples of the work of Alexander Roux in New York. 

Roux was to become among the most important cabinetmakers in America in the middle of the 19^th century.  In his The Architecture of Country Houses (1850), Andrew Jackson Downing, arbiter of taste observed, “In New York, the rarest and most elaborate designs, especially for the drawing-room and library use, are to be found at the warehouse of Roux, in Broadway.”  Downing continued, “At the warehouse of Mr. A. Roux, Broadway, may be found…the most tasteful designs of Louis Quatorze, Renaissance, Gothic, etc., to be found in the country…The chairs and sofas are particularly elegant.”<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[2]<!--[endif]-->

Roux arrived in America from France in 1836 and established an upholstery business in New York 1837 at 472½ Broadway.  In 1838 he continued to be listed as an upholsterer up the block at 478 Broadway and in1843 began to be listed there as cabinetmaker. 

In 1842 Roux is listed as an upholsterer and an importer as well, a claim that is supported by his advertisement in the New York Evening Post of March 5, 1840 offering from stock “iron frame Sofas and Chairs, being the first of the kind ever introduced into this country, which for comfort and durability, place them superior to anything now in use.”  This indicates that he was selling furniture much earlier than 1843 though, perhaps, not of his own manufacture.<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[3]<!--[endif]-->  It also suggests the lag time that likely existed between the commencement of a particular line of work and the directory listing reflecting that activity.

He was joined in business from 1847 to 1849 by his brother Frédéric when they were listed at 479 Broadway.  Upon Frédéric’s return to France in 1847 Roux leased additional space at 481 Broadway.  In 1867 Roux is listed at 827 & 829 Broadway and when his son Alexander J. joined him in business in 1870 they were listed at 133 Fifth Avenue, corner of 20^th Street.  The firm remained here until it closed in 1898.

Labeled examples of Roux’s furniture are in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Museum of the City of New York and the Brooklyn Museum.

T-S-080381