Frank Lloyd Wright A Hexagon-Back "Peacock" Chair from the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, Japan, 1921-26, Matthew Brothers Furniture Company (maker, attributed), Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Oak, painted oil cloth
Affixed brass plaque stamped: "84"

(H: 37 1/2, W: 15 1/2, D: 19 in.)

Provenance

Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, Japan
Gifted to Mr. & Mrs. Howard F. Van Zandt, November 1967, according to letter affixed to underside of seat. This letter, on the stationery of Ichiro Inumaru (the long-serving president and general manager of the Imperial Hotel) and bearing his signature, gifts the chair to Mr. & Mrs. Van Zandt, and notes that it was used in the Peacock Room. Note: The Imperial Hotel closed in November 1967 for demolition amid an international campaign to preserve the structure.
Dumouchelles, Detroit, 9 April 2006, Lot 42021
Property from a Distinguished Pennsylvania Collection

Literature

John Stuart Gordon et al., A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery, 1920–1950, p. 59

Note

Examples of this chair are held in the permanent collections of the Cooper Hewitt, the Kirkland Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Yale University Art Gallery, and the Vitra Design Museum.