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Object Timeline

-0001

1931

  • Work on this object began.

1975

  • We acquired this object.

2015

2016

2017

2025

  • You found it!

Drawing, Design for Bathroom Interior, Frederick B. Patterson Apartment, 435 East 52nd Street, New York, NY

This is a Drawing. It was designed by Donald Deskey and drafted by Donald Deskey and made for (as the client) Frederick B. Patterson. It is dated 1931 and we acquired it in 1975. Its medium is brush and watercolor, brush and gouache, graphite on cream illustration board. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.

A versatile practitioner in many disciplines — exhibition, packaging, interior, lighting, and furniture design — American Donald Deskey (1894–1989) made an indelible mark as an industrial and interior designer. Despite his aspirations to design for the masses, many early projects were commissions from wealthy patrons for corporate offices or private residences, such as this 1931 drawing of an apartment bathroom for Frederick B. Patterson (then the president of National Cash Register Company in Dayton, Ohio). Inspired by both the luxurious Art Deco interiors and stark European modernism, his sleek and geometric designs of marble walls, glass shelving units, a white low-slung and rounded chair, and matching shag rug are prominently depicted here in watercolor and gouache. Deskey was commissioned to design the interiors and all the furnishings in this 15-room apartment once located on East 52nd Street, though not all were completed. Cooper-Hewitt retains over 3,000 items in the designer’s archive donated by Deskey himself in 1988.

This object was donated by Donald Deskey. It is credited Gift of Donald Deskey.

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Its dimensions are

19.7 × 19.7 cm (7 3/4 × 7 3/4 in.)

It has the following markings

Stamp in red ink, lower right: DONALD DESKEY / 145 WEST 57TH STREET / NEW YORK CITY

Cite this object as

Drawing, Design for Bathroom Interior, Frederick B. Patterson Apartment, 435 East 52nd Street, New York, NY; Designed by Donald Deskey (American, 1894–1989); Client: Frederick B. Patterson (American, 1892–1971); USA; brush and watercolor, brush and gouache, graphite on cream illustration board; 19.7 × 19.7 cm (7 3/4 × 7 3/4 in.); Gift of Donald Deskey; 1975-11-2

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s.

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If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-6.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18486063/ |title=Drawing, Design for Bathroom Interior, Frederick B. Patterson Apartment, 435 East 52nd Street, New York, NY |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=19 March 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>