File:Dining chair - Claggett Wilson (38691625925).jpg

Dining chair by Claggett Wilson, on display as part of the "Jazz Age" exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States.

Wilson (1887-1952) gained fame before and after World War I as a Modernist painter. But he was also a costume and set designer, muralist, interior decorator, and decorative arts designer.

This chair was commissioned in 1925 by Adolph Lewisohn (1849-1938). Lewishohn was a German Jew who emigrated to the United States. He joined his father's New York City mercantile business and became somewhat wealthy. He decided to invest in copper after meeting Thomas Edison, and was one of the first co-investors in the massive copper mine at Butte, Montana. The investment made him fabulously wealthy, and he was one of the first "Copper Kings". He immediately retired, becoming a philanthropost and investment banker.

Lewisohn asked Wilson to design a dining room set which would work with his collection of Biedermeier furniture. (The Biedermeier style was common in Central Europe between 1815 and 1848. It reflected the improverished economic circumstances of the European middle class in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars, emphasizing clean lines, solid workmanship, and restrained Neoclassical detailing.)

Biedermeier style used burl for a vener. (Burl is a bulbous deformity in wood, usually caused by disease, injury, or fungus. The swirling grain of a burl is highly prized by cabinetmakers.) Wilson chose "bird's eye" sugar maple for the wood. Scientists are still puzzled by what causes the tiny swirls that disrupt the grain in some trees, but it is sought-after by cabinetmakers.

The chair's design is influenced by designs used by the Wiener Werkstätte ("Vienna Workshop"), a modern design studio in Vienna, Austria.

1. CMAJazzAge