Forging a New Vernacular: French Ébéniste in Federal New York

Peter Kenny takes us on the fantastic journey of Charles-Honoré Lannuier (1779-1819), a thoroughly trained, French cabinetmaker who became a leader in the New York school of cabinetmaking. Honoré Lannuier arrived in New York in 1803, a Parisian ébéniste who, according to his inaugural newspaper advertisement, had “worked at his trade with the most celebrated Cabinet Makers of Europe”. Honoré Lannuier was well-versed in the elegant forms of the late Louis XVI period, the harder edged yet brilliant neoclassical style of post-Revolutionary France known as Directoire (1795-99), and the Consulat (1799-1804), a heavier more monumental style featuring the more archaeologically correct forms of le goût antique. This was Honoré Lannuier’s Parisian stylistic legacy. How he transformed this legacy, ultimately becoming one of the two principal leaders of the New York school of cabinetmaking alongside his greatest rival, Duncan Phyfe, is an inspiring and uniquely American story.