|
|
|||
|
 |
 |
Researching
the Belter Parlor Furniture
|
| Gathering information about the Belter parlor furniture evolved over some twenty years. It began with the information that came with the furniture (the original bill of sale first discovered by decorative arts scholars in the late 1960s) and ended with the name of the relative who sold the furniture to Miss Ima Hogg in 1973. Because it was purchased from a direct descendant of the original owner, some oral family history also accompanied the furniture. The furniture, originally purchased by Mrs. Green Hill Jordan, descended through four successive generations of daughters named Martha. |
|
John
Henry Belter
|
| The furniture of John Henry Belter is interesting in the history and development of furniture making in that it combines both the handwork traditions of the past and the use of lamination and steam pressure that look to the future. Belter, one of the hundreds of immigrant Germans working in the New York furniture trade at the mid-nineteenth century, attained fame in his time as the inventor of a patented process by which laminated layers of wood, under steam pressure, could be shaped in molds to provide strong, curving backs for his intricately carved and pierced Rococo Revival-style furniture. The name Belter eventually became synonymous with this style of mid-nineteenth-century parlor and bedroom furniture. |
 |
Miss Hogg speaking about Belter furniture. |
Introduction
| Workshops | School Tours
| Lesson Plans | Research
Guide | Other Resources
Home | About
Bayou Bend | Information | Collection
| Gardens | Miss
Hogg | Education | Site
Map
This website was a created as a class project by students at the University of Houston College of Education. It is not the approved website for the Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens or the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Refer to the MFAH website for information about Bayou Bend at: http://www.mfah.org.
