With its carved teak frame, vividly patterned plaited matting, and Japanese lacquer and mixed-metal finials, this unusual screen epitomizes the 1880s fascination with exotic styles and materials. The screen's designer, Lockwood de Forest, who was trained as a painter, did much to foster popular taste for such exoticism in decorative arts and architecture during the late nineteenth century. In 1881, with the ambition of reviving traditional methods of craftsmanship and indigenous designs, he established workshops in Ahmedabad, India, where carved woodwork was produced for use in American interiors and furniture. The workshops continued under his direction until 1907, when he turned over their management to Louis Comfort Tiffany. Over the years, de Forest amassed a sizeable collection of Indian, Tibetan, Chinese, and Persian objects, most of which were acquired by the Museum in 1915. This screen descended in the family of de Forest's brother Robert W. de Forest, who was the fifth president of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the great benefactor of The American Wing.
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<P>With its carved teak frame, vividly patterned plaited matting, and Japanese lacquer and mixed-metal finials, this unusual screen epitomizes the 1880s fascination with exotic styles and materials. The screen's designer, Lockwood de Forest, who was trained as a painter, did much to foster popular taste for such exoticism in decorative arts and architecture during the late nineteenth century. In 1881, with the ambition of reviving traditional methods of craftsmanship and indigenous designs, he established workshops in Ahmedabad, India, where carved woodwork was produced for use in American interiors and furniture. The workshops continued under his direction until 1907, when he turned over their management to Louis Comfort Tiffany. Over the years, de Forest amassed a sizeable collection of Indian, Tibetan, Chinese, and Persian objects, most of which were acquired by the Museum in 1915. This screen descended in the family of de Forest's brother Robert W. de Forest, who was the fifth president of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the great benefactor of The American Wing.</P>
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