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ART NOUVEAU BELGIAN FURNITURE: LADY’S BUREAU, MAHOGANY AND MIXED-WOOD TABLE, MAHOGANY SCREEN, WALNUT TABLE, COIFFEUSE.

IN LATE 19TH-CENTURY Europe, Art
Nouveau reached its creative peak in Belgium. Its success there was largely due to the fact that people were encouraged to explore fresh, exciting ways of looking at the arts.
The same, spirited Art Nouveau message that called fora cohesive, unified interior — so successfully accomplished elsewhere in Europe —took root in Belgium in the work of a number of innovative artist-architects, such as Victor Hotta, Henry van de Velde, and Gustave Serrurier-Bovy
The Belgian version of Art Nouveau had much in common with its French counterpart. Both embraced free-flowing, sinuous, sculptural furniture, and had a rich vocabulary of decorative motifs in organic shapes — plants, Hower blossoms, trees, butterflies, and insects — all drawn from the natural world.
HENRY VAN DE VELDE
Henry van de Velde won universal acclaim for the design of his own home near Brussels — Bloemenwerf —where furniture, carpets, and wall coverings combined to create a harmonious whole. He forged strong links with France by showcasing and selling his furniture at prestigious retail shops in Paris, including Siegfried Bing’s FArt Nouveau and La Maison Modern owned by Julius Meier-Graefe. Widely celebrated
throughout Europe, van de Velde was influenced by the writings of William Morris and believed that art should always follow organic form — a theory that underlined his furniture designs. Echoing nature’s subtle curves and lines, they were rendered in light-coloured, native timbers such as walnut, beech, and oak, and had minimal decoration. Despite van de Velde’s theories, function was key to his sturdy yet elegantly simple cabinets, tables, and writing desks.
VICTOR HORTA
Another Belgian pioneer of the Art Nouveau style was the architect and designer, Victor Hotta, who designed spectacular buildings such as the
splendid Hotel Tassel in Brussels. His interiors coalesced into harmonious and integrated ensembles: from wall panelling, ceilings, and door frames to furniture and metalwork fixtures, using an exciting range of new
materials, such as iron and glass.
The cross-fertilization between French and Belgian Art Nouveau resulted in Horta’s energetic, curving style — with its signature whiplash curves — influencing Parisian designers such as Hector Guimard. His expensive furniture was skilfully crafted in luxurious timbers such as maple, mahogany, and fruitwoods, and lavishly upholstered in fabrics such as velvet and silk.

GUSTAVE SERRURIER-BOVY
Like van de Velde and Horta, Gustave Serrurier-Bovy adopted many familiar Art Nouveau decorative motifs to complement his furniture, including plants and flowers, sinuous curves, and high-wrought mounts of pewter or brass. Determined to produce well-designed furniture for everyone, Serrurier-Bovy was also inspired by the English Arts and Crafts Movement, as seen in his robust, rectilinear furniture and in his preference for oak.
The influence of these highly original Belgian designers reached beyond their national borders to set the cultural standard for Art Nouveau furniture throughout much of Europe.
The Musee Hotta This building was originally built by Victor Horta as his own studio and residence. This view shows the integrated interior, with both the staircase and glass dome featuring his
characteristic whiplash curves. 1898.

COIFFEUSE
This mahogany coiffeuse was designed by the artist-architect, Gustave Serrurier-Bovy, as a piece of bedroom furniture. The mirror is comprised of three panels, contained within a gently curving frame. The table section has
two pairs of drawers above and two drawers below. The elegant, curved lines of the top of the piece are echoed in the arched stretchers joining the legs, and the arch at the front of the table, which creates the kneehole. 1899.
BED FRAME
s bed frame has a bold, curvilinear shape is made from stained oak. It was designed Henry van de Velde. The head has bowed and arched profiles and ’s of raised and fielded, shield-shaped
panels. The piece terminates in splayed feet, which form part of the overall curved shape, and rests on brass casters. Henry van de Velde believed that art should follow an organic form and this influenced the shape and decoration of his furniture. c.1897-98.

SIDE CHAIR
This mahogany chair was designed by Victor Horta and illustrates his use of sumptuous materials and curving style, as shown in the design of the chair back, legs, and stretchers. The seat
is covered with a generously upholstered cushion.
c.1901.
WALNUT TABLE
This walnut occasional table has an overhanging circular top, arched apron, and curving, cabriole legs that terminate in stylized feet. The piece was designed by Henry
van de Velde. c.1916.
MAHOGANY SCREEN
This mahogany screen, designed by Gustave Serrurier-Bovy, has three glass panels that create strong vertical lines. In contrast, the top of the piece is sinuous in shape. While the glass in the lower half of the screen is original, the upper pieces are replacements.
1899.

MAHOGANY AND MIXED-WOOD TABLE
This side table is made of mahogany decorated with marquetry. The top is inlaid with a floral decoration above a short drawer, and the cupboard is inlaid with a daffodil design. The supports are embellished with sinuous tendrils and brass fittings.
c. 1902.
LADY’S BUREAU
Designed by Henry van de Velde and made by H. Scheidemantel in Weimar, this bureau design is typical of the work of van de Velde. The curved lines of the wood are used to create an unusual and organic shape, avoiding applied, inlaid, or any elaborate decoration. The only detailing is the unobtrusive, copper key mounts and the brass shoes. c.1903.

Coalport
Today the quiet banks of the River Severn at Coalport, Shropshire, seem an unlikely location for two important porcelain factories: Coalport and Caughley. However, Coalport is close to Ironbridge in an area that once lay at the heart of the 18th-century Industrial Revolution. At the end of the century, the iron furnaces of Coalport were replaced by china works that produced a large amount of good everyday porcelain, especially tea-sets and dinner services. The Coalport factory succeeded by keeping abreast of popular tastes and fashions, and still exists today (although relocated to Stoke-on-Trent).
WHITE COALPORT
John Rose began porcelain production in Coalport c.1796. In 1799 he bought the nearby factory of - Caughley, where he continued to make blue-printed teawares. Early Coalport mostly followed New Hall in manufacturing inexpensive enamelled copies of Chinese patterns, and such teawares sold well at a time when popular Chinese tea-sets were no longer being imported in any quantity. Instead of trying to compete with the rich porcelain of Worcester or Derby, Rose realized that there were many skilled British china-painters working independently, all of whom required a regular supply of
plain white porcelain to decorate. Studios such as those managed by Thomas Baxter in London and George Sparks in Worcester bought white Coalport porcelain and added their own wonderful painting and rich gilding. This accounts for the great variety of decoration found on Coalport porcelain, which causes confusion for collectors. The situation is further complicated by the very similar shapes and designs made by another china factory, located next door to Rose’s and owned partly by his brother Thomas Rose. This operated from c.1800 and was bought by Rose in 1814. Rose is also believed to have acquired some moulds and designs following the closure
following
of the Nantgarw and Swansea factories in South Wales.
CONTINENTAL INFLUENCES
Coalport’s popular Neo-classical and “Japan” patterns gave way c.1815 to the latest French fashion for pretty floral wares using the white porcelain as a ground for delicate gilding. Colourful grounds were introduced
during the 1820s, followed in the 1830s by the creation of frivolous Rococo Revival-style wares inspired by the production of the German Meissen factory near Dresden, and therefore known as “English Dresden”. This style was epitomized by Coalport’s ornamental wares including vases, jardinieres, baskets, inkstands, and pastille burners, typically encrusted with brightly coloured modelled flowers. The term “Coalbrookdale”, applied to this type of porcelain (also known as “English Dresden”), originally referred only to Coalport wares, but today is used more loosely to describe encrusted china made by English manufacturers such as Minton Co. and Samuel Alcock & Co., who based their wares on the same Meissen originals. By the mid-19th Century Coalport many many fine in-house decorators and no longer relied on sending work out to independent artists. The exremely fine work of the bird-painter John Randall (1810-1910), and of William Cook (active 1843-76) who specialized in painting flowers, is unmistakable, and their designs are especially fine when combined with a characteristic turquoise ground.
KEY FACTSBODY
• hybrid hard-paste porcelain until c.1820, when bone china was introduced
• FORMS teawares, dinner services, flower-encrusted ornamental waresDECORATION
Chinese-style enamel patterns; French-style floral designs (c. 18 15); Rococo Revival wares inspired by Meissen encrusted with floral decoration, known as “Coalbrookdale” or “English Dresden” (,-.1830); fine painting and gilding; excellent work by independent decorators including Baxter and Sparks
• COLLECTING it is important to examine the shapes of wares as other factories copied Coalport designs