Sofa. Culture: American. Dimensions: 53 1/4 x 66 x 25 in. (135.3 x 167.6 x 63.5 cm). Maker: John H. Belter (1804-1863). Date: 1850-60.This five-legged sofa exemplifies the Rococo Revival style, popular in America during the 1840s and 1850s, which combined curvilinear forms and cabriole legs from eighteenth-century French sources with the extremely detailed, naturalistic ornament favored in the mid-nineteenth century. A number of American cabinetmakers produced such furnishings for the luxury market, but the German-born Belter has long been recognized for his extraordinary talent. A prolific maker with a large factory by 1856 on what is now the Upper East Side, he was particularly known for his rosewood drawing-room furniture and for his thin, laminated construction and moded forms--as demonstrated here--which were achieved by using a patented method of steam and pressure.Although hundreds of American pieces in this genre survive, not many are documented and the best are almost alway