Posts Tagged ‘antique oak drop leaf gate leg table’

LAVISH, HIGHLY ORIGINAL furniture created by designers working in Spain and Italy represented the most exotic form of Art Nouveau.
Italy called the style Stile Liberty, after the London shop at the forefront of the movement, or Stile Floreale, due to the nature-inspired decoration that characterized the movement. Italy had a rich tradition of decoration based on nature, from Roman mosaics to the grandiose style of Baroque (see pp.40-41). The new style – on show at the 1902 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative Arts at Turin – was taken up by artisans such as Ernesto Basile, a master of Stile Floreale; the prolific designer and cabinet-maker, Carlo Zen; and Eugenio Quarto. Quarto’s exquisitely carved pieces were praised for appealing to Italian tastes and modern living needs, rather than replicating northern European Art Nouveau designs.
CARLO BUGATTI
However, it was Carlo Bugatti who held pride of place as a designer of extraordinary originality. Bugatti established workshops in Milan in 1888, where he created an eclectic interpretation of Art Nouveau, based upon flowers, animals, and plants, Egyptian, Byzantine, and Moorish influences, Japanese art, and fantasy.
The handcrafted furniture produced in Bugatti’s workshop – desks,
cabinets, chairs. and settees – was not well constructed but had a rustic, imaginative charm. The furniture often combined useful features, such as tables with built-in cabinets. and chairs that incorporated lamps. Pieces used a wide range of sumptuous materials including silk, leather, and vellum for upholstering chairs and covering boxes and tabletops, and ebony, bone, mother-of-pearl, and metals, which were used as inlays.
The range of Bugatti’s influences can be seen in his use of soft, warm colours, textiles, and strips of beaten or pierced metal evocative of North Africa, and the distinctive shield
backs, crescent legs, and pinnacle and minaret-shapes inspired by Istamic motifs. Bugatti caused a sensation with the furniture he designed for particular settings, such as the prize-winning Moorish interior he created for the Italian Pavilion at the 1902 Turin International Exhibition of Modern Decorative Arts.
While Bugattis early furniture was robust, with lively, complex patterns, he later developed a more restrained style that depended on a palette of pale colours and serpentine curves, influenced by the Parisian Art
Nouveau designers.
SPAIN AND GAUDI
A band of Catalan architects, led by Antom Gaudi in Barcelona, brought the Art Nouveau style to Spain. A daringly original designer, Gaudi created idiosyncratic furniture that embraced nature with its sinuous shapes and lavish use of decorative flower and plant motifs. Gaudi’s furniture featured several practical elements, such as cupboards that incorporated small tables. He often worked in oak, and much of his furniture was created for his
sculptural buildings, such as Casa Milo and the Guell Palace. Other Spanish champions of Art Nouveau included cabinet-makers Gaspar Homar and Juan Busquet, who were known for their fantastic furniture.
Parlour, designed by Agostino Lauro True to the concept that the room should be designed as a unified whole, all the elements of this parlour follow the same sinuous styling. The built-in bookcases are an integral part of the wall design
and the furniture echoes the curves of the panelling.

ITALIAN CHAIR
This Italian side chair was designed by Giacomo Cometti and is made of carved oak. The sinuous carving on the back of the chair confined to the splat, and the basic shape of the chair is uncluttered by ornate decoration. The upholstery is attached to the seat with small brass studs. c.1902.
SPANISH CABINET
This corner cabinet is made of oak. It has a round top with two curved glazed doors at the front. The doors are divided into six panels of glass by sinuous wooden partitions. The interior of the cabinet has two shelves and the piece stands on three legs. 1904-05.
ITALIAN SIDEBOARD
The upper section consists of a central cupboard and drawers flanked by open storage. The lower section contains a marble-topped cupboard. Cometti was an artist-turned craftsman who originally trained as a sculptor. He was heavily influenced by the English Arts and Crafts
Movement. c.1902.

NUT WOOD ARMCHAIRS
This pair of dark stained armchairs was designed by Carlo Bugatti. Each chair is decorated with inlaid pewter and embossed copper banding. The seat and back are upholstered in natural leather and further embellished with woollen tassels. c.1900.
ITALIAN INLAID SIDEBOARD
Made by Carlo Bugatti, this sideboard shows Japanese, Moorish, and Egyptian influences. The doors are covered with vellum, and the upper door is hinged and drops down to reveal shelving and small drawers. The whole piece is contained within a four pillar construction; the frame is made of brown stained and
OCCASIONAL TABLE
This mahogany occasional table by Carlo Bugatti has a top inlaid with pewter and bone and circular marquetry, and sides with stylized florets and roundels. The legs feature embossed bronzed coverings. Early 20th century.
PRAYER BENCH
This prayer bench, designed by Antoni Gaudi, has a curved back, with flat armrests and a slightly bowed seat. The bench is supported on slender and elegant curving legs, which are linked by stretchers. Early 20th century.

Settles and sofas after 1840
The revival of interest in historical styles from the mid-19th century resulted in a multiplicity of designs for all types of furniture, including sofas, which were often made as part of the new salon or parlour suites. A major technical development during this period was use of the coil spring, patented in 1828, which resulted in sturdier, bulkier, and squatter designs that sacrificed form to comfort. These deeply upholstered seats, with their button backs, culminated in the Chesterfield, which was the first fully upholstered sofa.

Seat furniture
The period c. 1860 to (.1880 was in many ways the golden age of upholstery. Stuffing had been growing steadily thicker from the 1840s, and buttons were introduced to prevent the thread holding the stuffing
in place from pulling the covering material. Extra fabric was necessary to create the familiar diamond pattern of buttons or threads characteristic of the deep, luxurious upholstery, with its air of prosperity and comfort, so admired by the Victorian middle classes. The development of the coil spring made increased demands on buttoning. Whereas sofas had previously been stuffed with layers of wadding and horsehair, coiled metal springs were now used. The springs were supported by a layer of hessian webbing, covered with more webbing, which in turn was covered with horsehair stuffing and padding. As a result, Victorian sofas were much more comfortable than early 19th-century examples, but they were also much bulkier; many sofas had button backs to emphasize the new upholstered look. The luxurious effect was emphasized by the use of velvet and other elaborate fabrics. Sofas with their original worn upholstery arc more collectable today than those with high-quality restoration using an inappropriate fabric.
French sofas were generally lighter in design than British examples, since French craftsmen and manufacturers employed such revival styles as Rococo and Louis XVI, making use of giltwood and lighter upholstery fabrics. In the USA, parlour suites on a grand scale were produced by such leading makers as John Henry Belter (1804-63) of New York, who in the 1850s created laminated and moulded rosewood sofas with deep pierced carving. Renaissance Revival suites, with square-backed sofas, were also popular, while the fashion in Europe and the USA for “Turkish” corners gave rise to over-stuffed upholstered sofas with elaborate fringing.
Edwardian sofas of the first two decades of the 20th century borrowed heavily from Neo-classical styles –especially the designs of Thomas Sheraton (1751-1806) – and from Regency styles, but managed to avoid the excesses of Victorian interpretations. Suites of chairs with matching sofas were produced; these were generally made from mahogany, or occasionally from walnut or satinwood. Sofas and chairs often had caned backs and sides, with silk or damask upholstery.

•    CHALSES-LONGUES these are not particularly commercial as they can be large and not very comfortable to sit on; examples with good shapes are more popular, as are those that are more heavily carved
•    GILDING good-quality regilding is quite acceptable if well executed– the highlights should be burnished, and the quality of the carving evident; beware of spray gilding – this will have a flat, matt appearance, with a very even coverage
•    RE-UPHOLSTERY the condition of the upholstery should be carefully examined, as seating can be very expensive to re-upholster; furniture with taut webbing is
preferable to that with springing, which tends to give an overstuffed look
•    COLLECTING many sofas and settees were originally part of parlour or salon suites, which are now rarely found complete; three-seater examples are generally more commercial than two-seater