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Art Nouveau Furniture: FRENCH CABINET, ENGLISH HALLROBE, SCOTTISH BOOKCASE, VIENNESE SIDEBOARD, VENEERED CUPBOARD, STAINED-GLASS CABINET, MAHOGANY CABINET, OAK BOOKCASE

ART NOUVEAU
CASE PIECES
THE CABINET CONTINUED to be one
of the most expensive and impressive pieces of useful furniture in European houses. Both decorative and functional, cabinets were used as writing chests, for locking away precious jewels, for storing important papers, and for the display of small, treasured collectables.
Art Nouveau cabinets were made in a variety of styles. The Anglo-Japanese cabinets, such as those designed by E.W Godwin, were embellished with brass mounts and painted decorations.
Charles Rennie Mackintosh, C.EA. Voysey, and E.W Gimson combined simple designs and an attention to the details of fine craftsmanship with
the use of rich timbers, such as oak, walnut, satinwood, and mahogany.
These designers influenced the design of cabinets in the Art Nouveau style in Europe, especially the austere, geometric style favoured in Germany and Austria.
In contrast, French cabinets
were more sensuous in their
design, with Rococo and Oriental elements combined to produce asymmetrically shaped pieces, decorated with curvilinear plant, flower, and vegetable motifs. Louis Majorelle created superbly crafted cabinets of extraordinary luxury, in fine-quality woods. These pieces were often embellished with finely wrought gilt-bronze or wrought-iron mounts, or included decorative inlays of mother-of-pearl or metal.
This elegant cabinet is made of walnut. It is decorated with a marquetry design depicting a clematis and a bird, executed in exotic hardwoods. The top section provides open storage, which is accessed via a rounded
opening, surrounded by relief carving. The piece was made by Louis Majorelle. His sinuous and fluid style, evident here, was inspired by 18th-century Rococo furniture. c.1900.
Carved circular supports
are decorated with
a twisting tendril and root-like design.
The cabinet body is made from walnut
with marquetry in exotic hardwoods.
The marquetry incorporates floral motifs.
FRENCH CABINET

ENGLISH HALLROBE
top of this hallrobe supports Classical carved panels. The panelled front is adorned
stylized copper hinges and handles and
interior is fitted. This piece was made by
the prominent commercial furniture manufacturer, Shapland and Pettey.
SCOTTISH BOOKCASE
This oak bookcase by leading furniture-maker, Wylie and Lochhead of Glasgow, is in the style of the Scottish school. The intricate floral panels are in stained glass and flanked by angular, stylized, copper, repousse panels, all above a long drawer and a bottom cabinet. c.1900.
VIENNESE SIDEBOARD
This impressive walnut veneer sideboard is by the school of Josef Hoffmann. The piece is decorated with intarsia. The symmetrical, clean design is typical of Hoffman and the linear style reveals the influence of Charles Rennie
Mackintosh. The upper section is enclosed behind glazed doors that form a geometric pattern. The mirrored central section is supported by rounded columns. The base has a marble top and contains cupboards and a drawer. The plinth and the handles are made of brass. c.1902.

The straight lines and gentle curves of this cabinet are typical of the Glasgow School, as is the stained-glass window depicting a pastel-coloured flower design. The piece has a broad, projecting cornice, which was a feature of many Glasgow School cabinets.
This walnut veneer and brass dining room cabinet is part of a set by Otto Wytrlik. The matching table, stool, pair of commodes, four armchairs, and two further chairs are solid, dark pieces with strongly geometric lines, and would have given the room a masculine look. c. 1901.
This small, mahogany-veneered cupboard from Austria is raised on four slender legs. The two cupboards, two drawers, and shelves all have nickel fittings. The distinctive top cupboard has three sides of panelled glass with ornamental silver decoration. c.1900.
Anglo-Japanese influences are evident in this mahogany music cabinet decorated with stylized, floral, stained-glass panels. The fine, string ebony and boxwood inlay is enriched with delicate floral carvings. The arched apron is reflected in the curved pediment. c.1895.
STAINED-GLASS CABINET
DINING ROOM
VENEERED CUPBOARD
MUSIC CABINET

INLAID CABINET
This ornate mahogany display cabinet is elaborately inlaid in copper, pewter, and specimen woods with decoration of stylized flower-heads and leafy tendrils. The central panel is mirrored and flanked by two glass doors opening onto glass shelves.
MAHOGANY CABINET
The shaped, raised back, and moulded finials of this highly decorative display cabinet have whiplash-style foliate and floral marquetry inlays. The leaded and stained-glass panel doors are decorated with a floral design, and are enclosed by marquetry panels.
FLORAL CABINET
This mahogany display cabinet, attributed to the Scottish designer Ernest Archibald Taylor, has silver plated repousse decoration on the glass. The architectural form is decorated with a butterfly centrepiece and floral designs in sycamore and tulipwood inlay. c.1903.
OAK BOOKCASE
This bookcase cabinet has a projecting dentil cornice above three open compartments, flanked by pierced decorative brackets. The twin doors, enclosing adjustable shelves, have leaded clear glass panels with stained-glass decoration on the top.

Antiques: Baroco and Empire Furniture, Porcelain, Silver, Candlesticks and candelabra, Clocks and Watches Recently Featured at Antcollectors (4)

Windsor Chairs
THE WINDSOR CHAIR is often associated with country timbers and provincial manufacture (particularly around High Wycombe in England). However, its origins were far from provincial. The Duke of Chandos had japanned Windsor chairs in his library at his Middlesex home, Canons, and there were mahogany examples in the library of St. James’ Palace in the early 18th century. However, by the early 19th century, they were restricted to humbler homes or taverns.
Windsor chairs were only ever produced in Britain and North America, but British and American Windsor chairs often display different characteristics. While the seat (generally a saddle type) is central to the construction of both, with the
elements of the back, legs, and arms all mortised into it, they were made in different timbers. In Britain, ash, yew, and fruitwoods were used, with elm for the seat and, occasionally, beech for the turnings. In North America, hickory, chestnut, oak, ash, and
sometimes maple were favoured, with tulip, poplar, and pine for the seats.
There are also some stylistic differences between the two types. For instance, the use of a splat was more typically British, while the low-back Windsor chair was entirely American until the 1840s. Similarly, the Neoclassical Windsor chair, sometimes called an “arrow-back” on account of the spear or arrow shape that constitutes the back sticks, was never produced in Britain.

The top rail is shaped and scroll-carved.
The spindle rails are turned.
Scroll-carved arms continue from a carved tub-shaped back rail.
The legs are
slightly crooked.
The splat is solid and vase-shaped.
CROOKED LEG WINDSOR
This is an early English Windsor chair made of fruitwood, ash, and elm. It has a ram’s horn- and shell-carved top rail that terminates in scrolled ears. The central back rail curves forward to provide the scroll-carved arms, while
the solid, vase-shaped, central splat is flanked by elegant, turned spindle rails. There are three main spindles that continue from the top rail to the seat, and extra spindles in the lower section. The shaped seat is supported on four crooked legs. c.1750.

AMERICAN WRITING-ARM CHAIR
This high-back Windsor chair from Connecticut has an arched top rail, a mid rail with an arm and a writing paddle with drawer, a saddle seat with a drawer beneath, reel-turned legs, and an H-stretcher. 1797.
AMERICAN COMB-BACK CHAIR
This chair, from Philadelphia, has a serpentine top rail with scrolled ear terminals, a yoked mid rail with scrolled knuckle-arm terminals, a saddle seat, outsplayed legs, and an H-
stretcher.
GEORGIAN WINDSORS
Each of these yew armchairs has a hoop back and arms with a Gothic pierced splat and spars. The elm saddle seats are supported on cabriole legs terminating in pad feet and joined by hoop stretchers. 1750-70.
FAN-BACK WINDSORS
Each of this pair of English elm, walnut, and fruitwood fan-back Windsor armchairs has a shaped seat supported on turned legs joined by an H-stretcher. The chairs bear traces of their original paint finish. c.1770.

WINDSOR SETTEES
DESIGNED VIRTUALLY AS AN ELONGATED CHAIR, THIS TYPE OF SETTEE
WAS ONLY PRODUCED IN BRITAIN AND NORTH AMERICA.
There is little agreement on the differences between a settee and a sofa and indeed the preferred term seems to be largely dictated by current fashion. However, “settee” generally designates a particular type of furniture made in the late 18th and early 19th century that was much more closely related to chair, rather than sofa, design.
Often conceived as a chair extended to seat two or more people, its origins lie in the chair-back settee of the mid 18th century and the settle. Consequently, it might have a caned seat and back, or a
pierced back with splats, just like a chair, rather than the complete upholstery of a sofa. The Cape rusbank was a simplified variation of this type of furniture.
Windsor settees are peculiar to Britain and North America. They are constructed in the same way as Windsor chairs, with a wooden seat into which the back, arms, and legs are mortised. The backs are either of a continuous form, running into the arms with vertical splats, or take the form of a series of chair backs.
An English Regency settee This beech piece was overpainted in verdigris and gilt. The back of the settee has four lattice backs with musical trophy panels below an outscrolled top rail and down-scrolled arms. The caned seat is supported on turned front legs with brass caps and casters. Early 19th century.
A Philadelphia bow-back Windsor settee This black- and gold-painted settee has bamboo turnings. There are 29 spindles below the curved top rail and the downswept arms are on modified
S-curved supports. The seat is supported on bamboo turned legs joined by swelling H-stretchers.
An American arrowback, painted Windsor settee This has a flat top rail and scrolling arms set above a planked seat. It has turned legs and turned panel stretchers. Early 19th century.

PHILADELPHIA WINDSOR
This Windsor armchair has a top rail with a butterfly and seven spindles with bamboo turnings above a shaped seat.
AMERICAN BOW-BACK WINDSOR
This mahogany and painted armchair has an arched, moulded top rail, nine flaring spindles, down-curved arms over raked bamboo supports, a squared, shield-form seat, and raked bamboo
AMERICAN WINDSOR SIDE CHAIR
This side chair has a bow-shaped back with nine spindles above a saddle seat. The seat is supported on splayed legs with bamboo turnings and is joined by an H-stretcher.
GOTHIC WINDSOR CHAIR
Made from ash and elm, this chair has a lancet-shaped back with pierced splats. The chair seat is shaped and supported on cabriole legs with a hooped stretcher. One of a set of four.

The period of Eclecticism,
The Biedermeier style is regarded as the last creative style of the nineteenth century. Furniture makers had started casting their eyes back to examples in classical antiquity during the period of
It became fashionable to decorate and furnish in oriental style at the end of the nineteenth century. Furnishings such as carpets and rugs, vases, mother-of-pearl decorated furniture, and divans were widely found at this time.
The heroic style of the first Napoleon was overwhelmed beneath a welter of large upholstered pieces and drapes in the France of Napoleon III.
This excess and ostentation covered up a lack of creativity on the part of the citoyens who now held the leading positions in industry and commerce. This also brought about an increase in mass production. The flood of cheap and indiscriminate furniture led to a marked reduction in fine hand-made furniture by craftsmen. This process was also hastened by the attitude of the schools for the applies arts.
Eclecticism manifested itself in virtually every branch of the arts. Only Michael Thonnet contributed new creativity at this time. He discovered in about 1830 that it was possible to make thin lightweight sheets of oak veneer which could be bent and laminated in order to make furniture. He bent laminated sheets of oak veneer with the help of steam.
Another raw material which was also popular in the past for making lightweight chairs is rattan.
Jugendstil, Art Nouveau, and Art Deco
Opposition to Eclecticism arose in the late nineteenth century. The imitations of old styles and tasteless mass produced items were detested. Artists formed themselves into groups in many countries and strove for pure craftmanship and simple art. Above all objects were to be functional, original, and logically constructed.
Munich became an important centre in this movement. A publication entitled Die Jugend was established there and this gave its name to style which arose: Jugendstil.
This was more of a movement and trend than a style in itself with many different approaches in different countries.
An important group formed around John Ruskin in England for which the social aspect was also important. The emphasis was placed on craft traditions that still existed and had done so since the Middle Ages. The Arts and Crafts movement, as it was known, placed its main emphasis on craftmanship in the making of pieces. Another group of artists in Scotland, led by the architect Charles Rennie Macintosh, went its own way. Another important centre was Vienna where Sezession was formed, under leadership of the artists J.M. Olbricht and Gustav Klimt.
France had been pushed into the background during the previous period of furniture making and Art Nouveau arose as an innovative movement which tied in with activities elsewhere at that time. The main centres of French Art Nouveau were Paris and Nancy.
The British Arts and Crafts movement had hardly any effect on France and certainly none on its furniture designs. Hence the French developed a style of their own. French artists produced many delightful decorations with elegant and original designs, using expensive materials. Generally these new styles started from a standpoint that the eclectic character of nineteenth century furniture was pompous. The new designs were therefore lighter, more transparent in their construction, more fluid, and more `honest’. The silhouettes used were still of classical origin. Decorative elements were drawn from nature and the extent to which these were then stylised depend on the individual movement. This can be seen in the difference between Jugendstil and French Art Nouveau. Jugendstil’s decorations are more naturalistic than the stylised forms of Art Nouveau.
Major names of furniture designers of the time are Van der Velde and Horta in Belgium, Bugatti in Italy, and Louis Majorelle and Emile GaIIe in France. The German makers included names such as tioners in Britain. In addition to Macintosh, another great name from around the turn of the century is C.F.A. Voysey.
A further detail tends more towards Art Nouveau.
The Viennese Werkstatte was led by Josef Hoffmann who found himself drawn to the work of the Scot Macintosh. In common with other centres, the artists of the Werkstdtte did not fully subscribe to the ruling ideas of either Jugendstil or Art Nouveau. They did not consider that only traditional hand-crafting was valid and they also used machinery. Reproductions of the popular main great styles continued to be made up to the outbreak of World War I.
The styles of the French Kings Louis, Sheraton, and Chippendale continued to be very popular and not everyone admired the modern art approach of Jugendstil and Art Nouveau. After World War I a new style was discerned — Art Deco. Art Deco absorbed much of Art Nouveau but rejected its adherence to hand craftmanship and expressly chose to machine make objects. It was not furniture of the mid eighteenth century that inspired Art Deco designers, rather than that of Louis XVI and the Directoire at the end of the century.
The influence of Cubism can be readily seen in the modern designs of this time.