Daniel Pabst (June 11, 1826 – July 15, 1910) was a German-born American cabinetmaker of the Victorian Era. He is credited with some of the most extraordinary custom interiors and hand-crafted furniture in the United States. Sometimes working in collaboration with architect Frank Furness (1839–1912), he made pieces in the Renaissance Revival, Neo-Grec, Modern Gothic, and Colonial Revival styles. Examples of his work are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Background Born in Langenstein, Hesse, Germany, Pabst immigrated to the U.S. in 1849 and settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he would make his professional career. The excellence of his craftsmanship elevated him above his peers, as did the strongly architectonic (building-like) quality of his furniture designs—often massively scaled, with columns, pilasters, rounded and Gothic arches, bold carving and polychromatic decoration. He was a master at cameo-carving (intaglio) in wood – veneering a light-colored wood over a darker, then carving through to create a vivid contrast. Some pieces were adorned with decorative tiles, others with painted glass panels backed with reflective foil. Elaborate strap hinges and hardware were commonly used, and sometimes the furniture was ebonized. His Philadelphia shop grew to employ up to 50 workmen, but the company's records do not survive. Of the presumably thousands of pieces produced by his shop over half a century, only two are signed, and very few are documented. Therefore, identification of his works must be done through attribution.
With Furness
The most famous pieces attributed to Pabst are a Neo-Grec desk and chair made to the designs of Frank Furness. Created for the architect's brother Horace (and slightly altered from Frank's surviving drawings), they are now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Furness family papers document a set of bookcases created by the pair – "These bookcases were placed in position this day—February 18th 1871. They were designed by Capt. Frank Furness, and made by Daniel Pabst …" The bookcases are visible in a circa-1900 photograph of Horace Howard Furness's library. One of them is now at the University of Pennsylvania, others are now in the Barrie & Deedee Wigmore collection in New York City. A circa-1870 Neo-Grec armchair from Horace Howard Furness's city house, designed by Frank Furness and attributed to Pabst, was exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston in 1987.
The newly formed architectural firm of Furness & Hewitt won the design competition for the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1871–76). The Philadelphia art-museum-and-school's original furnishings included a lectern, bookcases, and set of Neo-Grec furniture for the boardroom. Armchairs from the set, attributed to Furness and Pabst, are in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Allentown Art Museum in Pennsylvania.
A director of the academy, liquor baron Henry C. Gibson, hired Furness & Hewitt to redecorate his Greek Revival city house. The eye-popping Moorish and Neo-Grec interiors are attributed to Furness, and may have been made by Pabst.Henry C. Gibson interiors, from Wikimedia Commons. Gibson appears to have used copies of the PAFA armchairs as seating in his picture gallery.Gibson dining room, with picture gallery beyond. from Wikimedia Commons. His Neo-Grec library table – now at the Detroit Institute of Arts – is attributed to Furness and Pabst.
Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. (father of the future president) hired Furness to decorate his newly built townhouse at 6 West 57th Street, New York City (demolished). The ornate Neo-Grec paneling, bookcases, cabinetry and mantels are based on designs in Furness's sketchbook, and their manufacture is attributed to Pabst. The pair is also credited with individual pieces of Roosevelt furniture.Theodore Roosevelt furniture , from . The massive dining table (image left) – with a base featuring carved herons pinching frogs in their bills – is now in the collection of the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia. The cameo-carved master bedroom suite is now at Sagamore Hill National Historic Site, President Theodore Roosevelt's summer home in Oyster Bay, New York. The Neo-Grec case for the Roosevelts' upright piano (with cameo-carved panels) and their library table (with oversized Corinthian capitals) are unlocated. The late antiques expert/dealer Robert EdwardsRobert Edwards Collection, from Winterthur Library. – who discovered the Pabst-attributed cabinets now at the Brooklyn Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art – identified a Neo-Grec side chair (now in the Barrie & Deedee Wigmore collection) as having come from the Roosevelt library.
A 17-year-old architecture student visiting Philadelphia in June 1873, Louis Sullivan, closely examined a house nearing completion at 510 South Broad Street, and decided that he was going to work for the firm that designed it. The next day he presented himself to Frank Furness, and was hired as a draftsman at US$10 a week. The Bloomfield H. Moore House was the most ambitious Furness & Hewitt domestic commission to date, and Furness's interiors – manufacture attributed to Pabst – were his most perverse. The egrets from the Roosevelt dining table reappeared, this time supporting the dining room mantel, but the house is best remembered for the nightmarish chimneypiece in its library. The tall and massive walnut chimneypiece featured compressed columns supporting oversized piers incised with stylized sunflowers, twin "hounds of hell" grotesques snarling from behind shields, a diapered and gold-leafed tympanum bisected by a center column, a crocketed pediment rising to a finial, and twin owls staring down from the roof. The Moore house was demolished in the 1950s, but much of the chimneypiece, stripped of its grotesques and thus about 3 feet (0.91 m) shorter, survives.Bloomfield Moore chimneypiece in 2009, nos. 257 & 258, from Oley Valley Architectural Antiques. Sullivan went on to lead the Chicago School of Architecture, and become the mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright.
An -tall Modern Gothic exhibition cabinet now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is attributed to Pabst, and was once attributed also to Furness. It features cameo-carved doors in maple and walnut, painted glass panels backed with foil, a shingled-roof top, and ornate brass hardware. This tour de force piece is reminiscent of Furness's bank buildings of the late-1870s, although recent scholarship discounts Furness's participation in its design.
Without Furness
Pabst created masterworks without Furness. He received a medal for excellence at the 1876 Centennial Exposition for a large walnut sideboard (whereabouts unknown):Centennial medal won by Pabst, from Philadelphia Museum of Art. The most prominent object of the class was a black-walnut sideboard designed and made by Daniel Pabst of Philadelphia. The treatment was rather architectural throughout, too much so for practical purposes. Such a heavy piece should be built in a house, and not be treated as movable furniture. The wood was filled and highly polished on shellac, as is the common practice of our cabinet-makers with their best work … The hinges and metallic mountings were of oxidized silver of the finest workmanship and spirited in design. All the panels were filled with relief-carving, animal and floral forms being introduced; but these were not all of original design. A noticeable feature was the central mirror surmounted by a crocketed gable, richly carved, with finial composed of two birds resembling pelicans. Four finials on the posts which defined the three main divisions were finished with carved cockatoos. The amount of rich carving far surpassed that on any other Gothic piece in the Exhibition...
Pabst's "largest existing work" is thought to be the John Bond Trevor mansion, "Glenview" (1876–77), in Yonkers, New York—part of the Hudson River Museum complex. An 1877 newspaper article credits the mansion's mantels to Pabst; and the interior woodwork, ebonized library, and grand staircase are attributed to him. Although there is no evidence of Furness's involvement, Pabst used design elements that can also be found in Furness commissions—the parlor's mantel features the dog-faced beasts that flank fireplaces in several Furness houses, the entrance hall features door frames and a chimneypiece with shingled roofs (a frequent Furness motif). The 1877 article specifically credits the dining room's "very elaborate buffet" to Pabst, although only its base survives. Its relief-carved fox-and-crane panels, copied from a plate in Charles Eastlake’s book Hints on Household Taste, are repeated on the sideboard at the Art Institute of Chicago, and on other attributed pieces.
Pabst also worked with Furness's competitors. The firm of Collins & Autenrieth designed the Charles T. Parry House (1870–71) at 1921–27 Arch Street, Philadelphia,Charles T. Parry House, from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings. and its Renaissance Revival interior woodwork is attributed to Pabst.Charles T. Parry House, from Wikimedia Commons. The paneled vestibule, while still attributed to Pabst, may date from a later renovation by another firm, Wilson Brothers & Company. The house's second owner was the renowned surgeon and teacher, Dr. David Hayes Agnew – subject of the 1889 Thomas Eakins painting, The Agnew Clinic. Before it was demolished in 1968, the house was documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey.Charles T. Parry House, from HABS. The paneled vestibule, mirrors and other interior woodwork were salvaged and donated to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Joseph M. Wilson (of Wilson Brothers) was hired by Col. Joseph D. Potts to remodel a circa-1850 suburban house at 3905 Spruce Street, Philadelphia. And remodel it Wilson did, designing numerous additions – including a 4-story tower – and unifying the exterior with polychromatic diamond-patterned brickwork. The Potts House (altered 1875–76)Potts Residence, from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings. seems to have been strongly influenced by Furness's work, and has over-the-top Neo-Grec interiors that may be by Pabst.Joseph D. Potts House, from Wikimedia Commons. The dog-faced beasts appear again, flanking a fireplace, only this time they have wings! The Potts House barely escaped demolition in the late 1960s, when the University of Pennsylvania razed several city blocks to expand. From 1970 to 2005, it housed the university's radio station, WXPN. Now called "Wayne Hall," it houses the University of Pennsylvania Press.Joseph D. Potts House , from University of Pennsylvania.
Several sets of glass-doored bookcases attributed to Pabst exist—including a Modern Gothic 10-bookcase set (with shingled roofs), matching mantel (with dog-faced beasts) and overmantel mirror, that may have been part of a Furness commission. Pabst is credited with the elaborate, two-story interior of medieval scholar Henry Charles Lea's private library (1881).Henry Charles Lea Library, from University of Pennsylvania. This was removed from Lea's house at 2000 Walnut Street, Philadelphia in 1925, and installed at the University of Pennsylvania. When it was re-installed at Van Pelt Library in 1962, the fireplace was moved from one of the long walls to a short wall.