Posts Tagged ‘antique 18th century toilet’

19th Century Mirrors. Wall Mirrors, Picture Frames. ENGLISH WALL MIRROR, ENGLISH GILTWOOD MIRROR, AMERICAN GIRANDOLE

EARLY 19TH CENTURY MIRRORS
MIRRORS, LIKE PICTURE FRAMES, are decorative so are rarely subjected to much wear. As a result, they are often gessoed and gilded. Painted examples from this period also exist, as well as Empire pier glasses, which often have mahogany frames and ormolu mounts.
From the late 18th century larger plates became available, so early 19th-century mirrors with a divided plate became less common. Although not new, convex plates became especially fashionable in Britain and the United States, and were used in dining rooms to give servants an all-round view of the table. The convex mirror plate was usually framed by an ebonized and needed slip with a gilt frame echoing the shape of the mirror. The frame
The acanthus leaves are pierced and scroll-carved.
was often surmounted with an eagle or similar motif and frequently had candle arms attached to it.
Also fashionable was the use of verrc eglomise in which glass was back-painted in black and then engraved with a design before gilding. Verne eglomise plates were frequently inserted above normal plates. Mirrors with a more rectilinear design were also popular, particularly those intended to stand above pier tables between windows. From the late 1820s, revival styles led to the reintroduction of Chippendale-style mirrors in Britain; these are often difficult to distinguish from the 18th-century originals. In Florence, boldly carved foliate frames were introduced in imitation of the Baroque originals.
The guilloche motif is stylized.

ITALIAN WALL MIRROR
This rectangular giltwood wall mirror has a carved softwood frame featuring guilloche and stylized, scrolling acanthus leaves. The whole frame has been covered in white gesso and then given an undercoat of red paint, before
being gilded. The ornate, sculptural form of the mirror frame is reminiscent of the Baroque style of the 17th century, and harks back to the designs of Andrea Brustolon and the work of the Genoese carver, Filippo Parodi.

REGENCY MIRROR
This giltwood mirror has a moulded cornice with ball decoration above a panel with a shell cresting flanked by latticework. Columns flank both sides of the mirror. Early 19th century.
ENGLISH PIER GLASS
With a concave cornice above a ring-and-leaf frieze, this giltwood and gesso pier glass has 11 plates of varying sizes divided by astragals and flanked by half columns.

AMERICAN LOOKING GLASS
This simple, late Neoclassical maple looking glass has a rectangular mirror plate set within a relatively unadorned rectangular frame. The top and sides of the mirror frame have corner blocks joined by half-section balusters with
gilded and moulded ends. Like the mirror above, this type of overmantel mirror is sometimes erroneously referred to as “Adam”, perhaps because of its rectilinear Neoclassical styling, or perhaps because such mirrors frequently featured in Robert Adam interiors. c.1835.

This giltwood and ebonized girandole has a convex mirror plate with a reeded slip. The frame is decorated with carved leaves, has four candle arms, and is surmounted by the Federal eagle. c.1825.
The circular, mirrored plate sits within a reeded ebonized slip and a ball-moulded frame. The frame is surmounted by a dragon flanked by two sea serpents. Below is a leaf-carved apron. c.1815.
This mirror is set within a moulded gadrooned frame, surmounted by a painted figure of Neptune. At the base is a giltwood figure of Triton, and foliate arms that end in candle nozzles.
This simple Regency giltwood mirror has a convex mirror plate within a circular leaf-moulded and reeded border. It might originally have had candle arms or cresting. Early 19th century. Diarn:58cm
ENGLISH WALL MIRROR
ENGLISH GILTWOOD MIRROR
OVAL MIRROR
AMERICAN GIRANDOLE

AMERICAN LOOKING GLASS
This tall, narrow, carved mahogany looking glass frame has a moulded cornice above a veneered frieze. The mirror plate is flanked by projecting blocks linked by carved urns and slender pilasters. c.1825.
AMERICAN LOOKING GLASS
The moulded cornice of this giltwood mirror is hung with ball decoration above a wreath-andacanthus moulded frieze. Below this is a tablet. The colonnettes are rope-turned. c.1800.
IRISH OVAL MIRROR
This oval mirror, one of a pair, has its original plate set within a copper frame, which is decorated with applied, alternating blue and clear crystal facets. Late 18th–early 19th century.
BIEDERMEIER PIER GLASS
The rosewood-veneered frame of this southern German pier glass has an architectural pediment above an ebonized panel depicting the Goddess Diana in gilded brass. c.1820.
AMERICAN LOOKING GLASS
This Classical mahogany and carved giltwood looking glass has an architectural pediment above a carved eagle tablet and a mirror plate flanked by colonettes. Early 19th century.
This carved and gilded looking glass has a moulded, projecting cornice above a carved frieze, with a verre tablet, and reeled pilasters. Early 19th century.
AMERICAN GILTWOOD MIRROR
This Federal mirror has a broken pediment with ball decoration above a verre eglomise panel depicting Hope with an anchor, flanked with festoons. The columns have spiral beading.

FURNITURE: MID 19TH CENTURY CHINA

WOODWORKING AND cabinet-making
were advanced industries in the China of the late Qing dynasty (1644-1912). Although most authorities agree that the best Chinese furniture was made before the 19th century, traditional methods and forms persisted well into this period of greater communication and trade with the West.
A PERIOD OF DISTRESS
By the mid 19th century, China was home to British, American, Russian, Japanese, German,
Italian, and French colonies. Foreign influence in China was further extended when, in the aftermath of the first Opium War (1839-42), China was compelled to open five of its ports, including Canton and Shanghai, to foreign trade. This number was increased in 1860 following another Chinese military defeat. Far from being a welcome addition to the cultural diversity of China, these foreign incursions were resented
by the majority of the populace.
More pressing matters dominated political and social landscape during this period. China was beset with internal rebellion, fat-nine, and drought – a series of calamities that conspired to wipe out 60 million people in the course of the next 12 years.
Western powers were quick to help the Qing dynasty during these periods of crisis, yet their primary aim was always to open up Chinese markets to the West to improve Western economies. Consequently, Chinese Furniture of the mid 19th century; although predominantly based on Ming and early Qing ideals, bore the
stamp of Western influence to a greater extent than ever before.
A MIX OF OLD AND NEW
The last years of the Qing dynasty, though troubled, did produce some fine furniture. A deep reverence for the past kept the traditions and monumental forms of the early Qing period in production. Concurrent with this, there was a general softening of the strict rectilinearity that had previously characterized Chinese furniture. Rounded forms, such as spoon and horseshoe backs, began to proliferate, as did peculiarly European
shapes, such as the breakfront. Continuity came in the shape of plant stands, low tables, screens, and a variety of other forms that had been popular in China for many years.
Cabinet-makers continued to use lacquer to decorate a great deal of the furniture, although the quality Ming lacquer furniture was never surpassed. Three predominant styles of lacquer decoration date from this period. The most common were daqi, a thick lacquer coating applied to a paste undercoat, and ludqi, a thin wash painted directly on to the wood. Less
common and more elaborate was miaojin, which incorporated gold-coloured highlights on a ground of black and coloured lacquer.
Another traditional decorative element, the ceramic plaque, enjoyed something of a revival towards the close of the Qing period due to the work of porcelain masters, such as Liu Xiren, who worked in Jiangxi province.
ELABORATE DECORATION
The persistent admiration for Chinese furniture was due in no small part to the quality of the exotic woods
available to craftsmen. Hardwoods, particularly rosewood, were ideally suited to the profuse pierced and carved decoration practised by so many cabinet-makers. Huali, a type of rosewood, was found to fade to an attractive golden colour after prolonged exposure to light, and furniture with this hue became known as huanghuali during the late Qing period. Hard stones, either in the form of decorative inlays or inset marble table tops, appealed to the European taste and became staples of more ornate Chinese furniture of the period.
The export market was a prime source of commissions and revenue for many cabinet-makers, particularly those in the newly opened city ports, such as Shanghai. European markets demanded that this export furniture look as Oriental as possible, with the result that decoration that might be rejected as over-exuberant by the Chinese was carried out on some furniture purely to satisfy Western buyers. Intricately inlaid figural landscapes containing pavilions and other typically Chinese features are hallmarks of this new direction Liken by Chinese craftsmen in the second half of the 19th century.

INLAID LOW TABLE
This is one of a pair of rare horseshoe armchairs made of huanghuali, the Chinese name for rosewood. It has a U-shaped, bamboo form, a carved top rail, a cane seat, and a lattice splat. The top rail and legs have been carved to simulate the apperance of bamboo. S&K
HORSESHOE ARMCHAIR
This black-lacquered wooden low table of rectangular form is inlaid with mother-of-pearl and hard stones, depicting a rural scene. The image includes a pavilion and figures within a walled garden on a black ground. The table is supported on similarly decorated cabriole legs, terminating in paw feet.
ANGLO-CHINESE CENTRE TABLE
This Anglo-Chinese centre table is made from amboyna and ebony and has three drawers one long and two short – with dummy drawers at the back. It is raised on carved ebony
trestle supports, terminating in claw feet. The supports are joined by an ebony stretcher. Although it was made in 1840, the design of the table is closer in style to examples from about 1810. c.1840.
A cane seat is fitted into the rosewood seat frame.
The turned legs simulate the appearance of bamboo.
ANGLO-CHINESE SIDEBOARD
SPOON-BACK NURSING CHAIR
This Anglo-Chinese amboyna and ebony pedestal sideboard has a frieze containing two drawers. Each pedestal contains a cupboard door enclosing shelves, as well as a deep drawer for storing wine. Made in colonial style, the shape of the sideboard is Regency. c.1840.
This Burmese, carved hardwood nursing chair features ornate, pierced, carved decoration throughout. The shaped back has a deep, carved surround with bird and foliage motifs. The padded drop-in seat has a similarly carved seat rail and is supported on cabriole legs moulded as rampant lions. c.1900.
PLANT STANDS
These intricate plant stands arc, made of rosewood and have shaped tops with polished marble insets, The tops are supported on profusely carved frames and shaped legs, which are joined by stretchers and headed by mask motifs. The stands terminate in animal-paw feet. c.1900.
NEST OF TABLES
This set of four hardwood tables graduates in size, fitting one inside the next, making the tables easy to store when not in use. Each table has a tray top and a decorative pierced apron set above shaped legs, which are joined by similarly shaped stretchers.

Beds
From the earliest times beds have been endowed with particular importance: as places of rest and privacy, or as symbols of power. The bed was
often the most important legacy, as it was regarded as a possession of consequence, representing the continuity of the family.
EARLY BEDS
The earliest European free-standing beds were basic structures comprising roofs, posts, and bases; the fabric hangings that decorated them were of greater value, and when noblemen moved around the country, they took their bedding, curtains, and valances with them, leaving behind the plain wooden construction. An early type of bed was the truckle or trundle bed on wheels, which conveniently slid under a standing bed when not being used by a servant. By the early 16th century most beds in northern Europe were made from oak; the heads were panelled and decorated with coats of arms, lozenges, chevrons, and lettering; squat, carved posts were placed at the corners, and testers (canopies) were added in the middle of the century. This form was replaced during the 17th century with a beech frame, with tester, ornate cornice, and a back covered in the same fabric as the curtains. On grand beds the posts were tall and more slender, with luxurious hangings crowned with finials, covered with the same material as the valance, from which issued ostrich feathers. More ordinary beds were hung with cloth, linen, or moreen.
18TH-CENTURY BEDS
British beds became more subdued at the beginning of the 18th century. Cornices became straight and projecting, and fringes and tassels disappeared in favour of plain trimmings. “Angel”, or half-tester, beds, without posts at the foot, imitating the French lit a la duchesse, retained the height of their four-poster counterparts.
The panelled back was reintroduced on mahogany bedsteads of the first half of the century, with cabriole legs ending in lion’s-paw feet, and slender posts with vase-shaped plinths replacing silk-covered uprights. By 1775 the cornice had become simple in outline, straight or serpentine, still complemented by vase finials at the four corners; the surface was carved and/or gilded, and cheaper wood frames, such as beech, were painted. On Neo-classical beds the posts were often very elaborately carved with such ornament as fluting, paterae, lion masks, and acanthus. Red damask and moreen were the favoured materials for ordinary beds, although in The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide (1788-94) George Hepplewhite (d.1786) recommended the use of white dimity for “an effect of elegance and neatness”. Late 18th-century beds had a much lighter feel, with decoration taking the form of narrow, fluted posts delicately carved with wheat ears or husks or painted with ribbons and garlands of flowers. These clean light lines were echoed in the Federal period beds made in North America by such makers as Samuel McIntire (1757-1811) in Salem, Massachusetts, and Duncan Phyfe (1768-1854) in New York, the posts often decorated with Classical urn-form turnings with delicate reeding. Hangings were based on the designs in The Cabinet Dictionary (1803) by Thomas Sheraton (1751-1806) and Hepplewhite’s The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide.
19TH-CENTURY BEDS
Beds in the French Empire style, particularly lits en bateau, are usually richly and exquisitely decorated in a restrained manner; the structure had large unbroken panelled surfaces veneered in both light and dark woods, which were sometimes used in combination, and decorative themes, usually represented in ormolu, included oak, laurel, and olive wreaths, shields, helmets, swans, lions, sphinxes, and vine-leaves. Beds were made in two principal types, both of which were meant to be placed in alcoves and seen from the side; therefore only one of the four faces was properly decorated. The first type was influenced by the beds of the Louis XVI era, with straight uprights in columnar or pilaster form, no roof or curtains or excess fabric, but lavishly decorated with bronze mounts. The second type was the lit en bateau, as it vaguely resembled a small boat, with two straight ends of equal height, and rolled over, linked by a steeply curved traverse. Both types were sometimes overhung with canopies in the style of earlier fashions. This is a type of bed particularly associated with the Biedermeier period.
The Empire style was the most important influence on English beds of the early 19th century, and numerous examples can be found in A Collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration (1808) by George Smith (active c.1786-1828), and in the journal Repository of Arts (1809-28) by Rudolf Ackermann (1764-1834). The desired goal was to achieve “tasteful simplicity” by having less drapery; mahogany, or rosewood posts decorated with bronzed or gilded “Grecian ornaments”; domed testers, and hangings of red, yellow, or blue silk or calico trimmed with lace or a fringe. By the 1820s the French couch form beneath a canopy was used, although this fashion was short lived.
Throughout the later 19th century revivalism dominated fashions. ln Italy the Renaissance Revival, known as “Dantesque”, was interpreted in heavily carved beds and others decorated with ally certosina, a style of ivory and bone inlay, which had been popular in the 16th century. In North America such firms as Berkey & Gay (est. 1859) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, designed suites of bedroom furniture in the Renaissance Revival style, while the firm of Prudent Mallard (1809-79) made high-post beds at his workshop (est. 1838) in New Orleans. In Britain the “Jacobethan” Revival gave rise to the production of heavily carved four-poster beds. Tubular brass was used for bedsteads from the 1820s, and as manufacturing techniques improved during the century, cast-iron beds were made. Iron campaign beds, first made in the early 19th century, were designed to be easily assembled and transported for use on the battlefield.
• ALTERATIONS four-poster beds have often been reduced in height because of changing circumstances; check that the decoration and carving continue up the piece completely; also check to see where any reductions have been made, as the frames may have been cut to make the bed narrower or have added sections of wood to make the bed wider or longer — look along the rails for tell-talc signs in the colour and wear of the timber.
• MADE-UP BEDS these can be made up of elements from other beds, and usually it is only the front posts that will be original; the most commonly found made-up beds are tester beds from the 16th and 17th centuries.