The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston is one of the largest and most comprehensive art museums in the United States, with a permanent collection that spans over 6,000 years of global history. Today, the museum’s vast collection explores a wide array of artistic periods and styles, with key areas including Italian Renaissance painting, French Impressionism, American and European decorative arts, African and pre-Columbian gold, and post-1945 European and American painting and sculpture.

Among its most remarkable collections is Rienzi, a house museum dedicated to the museum’s European decorative arts collection. Rienzi opened its doors to the public in 1999, housed in the former residence of philanthropists Carroll Sterling Masterson and Harris Masterson III. This exquisite setting provides an intimate glimpse into the world of European furnishings, paintings, and porcelain, offering visitors the chance to appreciate these treasures within a domestic context that enhances their historical significance.

One particularly fascinating highlight from the collection is the Dundas Sofa, which takes centre stage in the Rienzi exhibition Grand Designs: Neoclassical Taste in the 18th Century. This rare sofa exemplifies the peak of British craftsmanship in the decorative arts. Commissioned in 1764 by Sir Lawrence Dundas for his London home, it was designed by the celebrated architect and interior designer Robert Adam and constructed by the legendary cabinetmaker Thomas Chippendale.

The Dundas Sofa is part of a larger suite of furniture that originally comprised four sofas and eight armchairs. It is the only known suite where Robert Adam’s design was executed by Thomas Chippendale, making it a rare and invaluable piece in the world of 18th-century furniture. Of the original suite, only three sofas and four armchairs remained with the Dundas family descendants following a Christie’s auction in 1934. Today, this magnificent sofa is a focal point of the MFAH’s collection, with additional pieces from the suite held by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, which displays one of the armchairs in its British Galleries.

The sofa itself is a masterpiece of gilt limewood, pine, and beech construction, with elegant carving and gilding that reflect the refined tastes of the time. When it came to the sofa’s re-upholstery, We were entrusted with recreating the silk damask fabric that would honour its 18th-century origins. Original fabric threads discovered on the sofa’s frame underwent careful colour analysis to identify the precise shade of red used in the original upholstery. The crimson damask pattern chosen is not only historically accurate but also echoes similar designs found in Scotland’s Dumfries House, adding to its rich provenance.