One of the most prominent and largest American design and manufacturing firms of high quality furniture of the Victorian period, Pottier & Stymus produced furniture in the Neo-Greco, Renaissance Revival, Egyptian Revival, and Modern Gothic styles. The company supplied furniture to the President's office and the Cabinet Room in the W hite House in 1869, and for the homes of such well-to-do families as the Rockefellers and railway baron Leland Stanford. First opened by August Pottier and William P. Stymus, Sr. in 1859, the firm’s factory occupied a full block on Lexington Avenue in New York by 1871, and in 1872, it became their headquarters and showroom employing 700 men and 50 women.
Pottier & Stymus used bronze plaques and busts in their living room pieces. The company had its own metals department, and therefore was able to cast and finish its own furniture mounts. The company also used a number to identify each completed piece and the same number for each of its component parts. Pottier & Stymus Furniture was featured in the “American Art on Display” exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in 1999.
