Carswell Rush Berlin, Inc.

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Carswell Rush Berlin, Inc. is a private, bespoke, New York City-based dealer of American antiques focusing of formal furniture of the early 19th century.

We believe that this is an important and fascinating period of American decorative arts when American craftsmen were reaching new heights of design and execution. The designs of the period were inspired by an international fascination with Classical antiquity that was manifest throughout the western world and American designers had the advantage of gleaning design ideas from multiple European sources, particularly England and France, and combining them into original compositions.

It is, perhaps, an accident of history that neo-classicism was an ascending style during the moment when the United States was forming as a nation but is no accident that leaders like Thomas Jefferson introduced classical architecture and design into the very center of American government and education. This is because, in the sprit of the Enlightenment, our founding fathers believed that the free society of ancient Greece had brought forth into the world timeless design, and that the mere contemplation of classical beauty inspired public virtue. It is not accidental that the Capitol in Washington is a Classical building or that court houses across the nation that represent American justice are typically adorned with a screen of classical columns beneath an arched pediment.

So classically inspired furniture in America represents more than just an attractive style. Since the French Revolution when it was used for its political symbolism, it has been inextricably associated with Republicanism and Democracy, evoking the free societies, Greek and Roman, that originally created it. It is a style that has endured the test of time; inspired by an aesthetic against which all others are still judged.

In an age when fine furnishings were a particularly important reflection of a persons, erudition, refinement and wealth, great classical furniture was made in the United States in Salem, Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore by a host of highly skilled designer/makers. Carswell Rush Berlin seeks to offer pieces by the finest craftsmen, made for the highest strata of American society at the time; fashionable patrons who understood its significance, appreciated it beauty and valued its quality. We strive to offer a broad array of forms and a broad array of prices. Every piece is exceptional and carefully selected from hundreds of inferior examples. Each is special for a variety of reasons including, beauty, rarity, condition, provenance and utility and every piece is an