Francis H. Bacon (1856 - 1940) American Furniture Designer

Education

He studied at the College of Technology of Massachusetts, Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1877.

Biography

He travelled to Europe from 1878 to 1879, working briefly as a draughtsman in the offices of McKim, Mead and Bigelow, New York, architects, and Prentis Treadwell, Albany, NY, architect and decorator.

He was a designer for furniture maker Herter Brothers, commissioned by the company to furnish the New York William H. Vanderbilt House, 1881-83.

For the Archaeological Institute of America, he worked on excavations in Assos (Turkey). He worked in the architect’s office of H.H. Richardson before joining the furniture firm A.H Davenport, Boston, as its principal designer.

Chair made by A.H. Davenport and attributed to Francis H. Bacon. American Furniture in the Art Institute of Chicago.

Armchair 1886–88 Designed by Francis H. Bacon

He was a vice president at Davenport from 1885-1908, where he turned hand-crafted models of furniture and furnishings into machine-made products. He may have been responsible for introducing Davenport furniture in the Colonial Revival style designed by H.H. Richardson and possibly designed the furniture attributed to Richardson for the 1886 John Jacob Glessner House in Chicago.

He tried without success to purchase the company when Albert H. Davenport died. From 1908, he managed his own business.

His work was displayed in the 1986-87 exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in Search of Beauty.

Sources

Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing.

Furniture Books – Amazon

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