Posts Tagged ‘Boullework’

GEORGE IV AND WILLIAM IV
WHEN GEORGE III in 1820, his
scandalous son, who had been ruling as Regent for nine years, became King George IV Known [or his extravagant tastes, the interiors created during his reign, particularly those at Windsor Castle, are some of the most sumptuous in British history. The reconstruction of the apartments on the east and south sides of the Upper Ward of the Castle between 1824 and
1830 was entrusted to the architect Sir Jeffry Wyattville. The furniture and upholstery was supplied by cabinetmaker Nicholas Morel. These heavily gilded interiors have a French flavour.
On George’s death in 1830, his brother became William IV In contrast to the worldly pursuits of his predecessor, William’s reign was dominated by the Reform Act, which brought about parliamentary reform.
However, this period also marked an important period of transition between the Regency and Victorian eras. Much of the furniture was still Neoclassical in style although it was generally
heavier than Regency pieces.
TOUS LES LOUIS
The interest in 18th-century French
styles dates from the late 1810s, when
French furniture became
available after the Revolution.
These pieces, especially those with tortoiseshell and brass boullework, were collected by, amongst others, the Duke of Wellington and the Prince Regent. Sometimes called the Rococo revival, it was known (incorrectly) at the time as the Louis XIV style. The serpentine lines of Louis XV furniture were re-interpreted on furniture typical of Louis XIV or XVI.
style was particularly appropriate to seat furniture with buttoned, upholstered backs or sides and plump, cabriole legs. Case furniture tended to have rectilinear, classical lines.
The Old French Style was promoted in a series of pattern books from 1825, including publications by John Taylor, Henry Whitaker, and Thomas King.
John Weale published reprints of mid 18th-century pattern books by Thomas Chippendale’s .
LATE REGENCY
Much of the mahogany furniture of the period was a heavier version of Regency designs, anticipating Victorian solidity. Carving was often Classically inspired and combined with gadrooning and ribbing. Bun feet were used on chests of drawers or plinth supports. Chair and table legs were often turned and ring-turned rather than outsplayed or sabre-form. Bed-posts were similarly designed, sometimes with acanthus carving.
This burr-oak and ebony-inlaid rectangular George IV library table has a crossbanded top above a frieze with two drawers. The table top is supported on quadruple baluster end columns linked by a stretcher. Stamped Holden & Co, Liverpool. Early 19th century.
LIBRARY TABLE
WILLIAM IV SOFA
The panelled top rail of this elegant mahogany sofa is flanked by scrolling terminals depicting acanthus leaves. The lower arms of the sofa are upholstered to match the back and seat cushion. Two bolster cushions provide added comfort. The piece has leaf-carved urn
terminals and is supported on turned and carved tapering feet with brass caps and casters. Early 19th century.
The arms are decorated with leaf motifs.
The back of the sofa is decorated with scrolling acanthus carving,.
WILLIAM IV TRIPOD TABLE
This painted tilt-top table has a rectangular top above a single column, which is supported on a tripod base. There is an armorial design painted on the surface of the table. The piece terminates in bun feet. c.1835.
This elegant mahogany bed has a moulded cornice decorated with a carved frieze and supported on four turned and carved bed posts. At the foot, the posts are reeded and leaf-carved, while at the head of the bed the posts
GEORGE IV LIBRARY ARMCHAIR
The upholstered tub back of this library armchair has a U-shaped front, which has been faced in mahogany and carved with reeds and roundels. The chair is supported on turned and reeded legs that terminate in brass casters.
The chair is one of a pair. Early 19th century. DN
are plain, enclosing a panelled head board (formerly the foot board). The scalloped pelmet and drapes are made of a floral fabric. Early 19th century.
This mirror has a rectangular plate within a gilt and silvered wooden frame, surmounted by a laurel wreath and carved with berried laurel. The lower section has a central scallop shell motif with a thistle below, flanked by rocaille, plants and foliage. One of a pair. c.1830.
WILLIAM IV MIRROR
LIBRARY TABLE
This tortoiseshell-veneered library table has a moulded edge above a shaped apron, and is supported on cabriole legs. All of the surfaces are decorated with tortoiseshell and embellished with gilt-metal mounts. c.1830.

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Escritoires and secretaires
The essential difference between a bureau and an escritoire or secretaire is that a bureau has a sloping or curving lid to the writing section, whereas the escritoire and secretaire are
Usually flat fronted and vertical. The terms escritoire and scriptor, scriptoire, or scrutoire (the older names for a writing desk) arc now usually attached to the fall-front writing box or cabinet made up to c. 1720, while secretaire is generally applied to later types.
EARLY ESCRITOIRES
The direct ancestor of the escritoire was the Spanish vargueno, a 16th-century cabinet with a fall front, drawers and compartments, set on a stand or chest. Often highly embellished on the inside, varguenos were usually either decorated in the Moorish tradition, with geometrical patterns in wood or ivory, or carved in low relief and painted. The vargueno was taken as a model for writing cabinets in other parts of Europe. A cabinet with elaborate intarsia decoration was the speciality of craftsmen in Augsburg and Nuremberg during the 16th and 17th centuries, while Antwerp was famous for cabinets veneered in tortoiseshell and ebony, with ivory embellishments, and sometimes painted inside. In Italy  cabinets of architectural form set with coloured marbles and hardstones, or decorated with ivory, were produced.
In Britain escritoires were decorated with oyster veneers of walnut or cocas wood and finely wrought silver mounts. The fall fronts were usually supported on
cords or chains attached halfway up the sides. Cabinets Of this type were placed on stands with spiral or baluster-turned legs. By the 1680s escritoires in two parts and of more architectural proportions were produced. The upper section had an overhanging cornice and sometimes a drawer in the frieze, while the lower part consisted of a chest-of-drawers. The best examples were decorated with floral or “seaweed” marquetry, but oyster veneers remained popular, and burr woods were also used during the early 18th century. From the second half of the 17th century
 japanning was used for both Dutch and English escritoires. In addition to these fall-front cabinets, a hybrid form of chest, with a secretaire drawer, was developed. Later 17th- and early 18th- century v chests-of-drawers from northern Italy sometimes have shallow drawers fitted for writing; the front of this type of drawer is hinged in such a way that it can be pulled out and let down to form a flat writing surface, often revealing compartments and small drawers for stationery at the back. The most handsome examples of the type are of bombe form in walnut, inlaid with floral patterns in ivory, mother-of-pearl, and pewter.
The French developed the vargueno-type desk in a characteristically sophisticated form during the later 18th century. The so-called secretaire a abattant had a fall-front writing cabinet resting on a chest-of-drawers or small cupboard, often constructed as one piece rather than two; this verticality was emphasized by the tall, narrow proportions seen in many examples. Some pieces were produced with substructures of legs with decorative stretchers, giving them a lighter appearance than the standard form. Fine-quality timber was used, sometimes incorporating panels of Oriental lacquer, and the fall front was often the vehicle for elaborate marquetry or, during the I 770s and 1780x, Sevres porcelain plaques. The lavish use of ormolu mounts added to the richness of the decoration. These models were copied in The Netherlands, where lacquer panels and the finest geometrical marquetry were sometimes combined, and the traditional Dutch floral marquetry rampaged across fall fronts and drawers alike. Similar forms were imitated, usually with more restraint, in Germany, eastern Europe, and Scandinavia. In Britain, marquetry secretaires of this type are among the finest examples of Neo-classical furniture.
During the French Empire period (1804-15) the secretaire a abattant remained popular, although the outline became more severe and broader, with the fall front above cupboard doors presenting an almost unbroken veneered surface when closed. In Russia and Austria the fall-front secretaire on a chest, characteristically veneered in such indigenous woods as birch, poplar, maple, or fruitwood, was especially successful in the early 19th century_ . These pieces were of simple Classical design, relying on the figuring of the veneers for decorative interest. They went on to become staples of the Biedermeier period, which brought a return to grander proportions, with solid but elegant and well-crafted furniture. Some Biedermeier fall-front desks closely resemble English escritoires of the early 18th century.
During the early 18th century the most fashionable item of writing furniture in Britain was the bureau, but the chest with a straight-fronted writing drawer continued to be an alternative. On some examples a secr6taire drawer was incorporated into the chest-on-chest. The secretaire drawer gradually became deeper, and the chest was often surmounted by a superstructure of bookshelves enclosed by glazed or panelled doors. Such pieces were most often made of walnut until c.1730, when this was superseded by mahogany. These cabinets were the forerunners of the fine two-part secretaires, made for parlours or libraries, with glazed upper sections and lower sections with drawers or cupboards, produced in Britain in considerable quantities from the mid-18th century. Designs for a variety of secretaires were published in The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book ( 1791-1802) by Thomas Sheraton (1751-1806). The usefulness of the secretaire bookcase or secretaire cabinet ensured that it continued to be made in the 19th century, with infinite variations of detail in the style of pediments, glazing patterns, and surface decoration.
• CONSTRUCTION continental secretaires a abbatant often have no visible means of support and are therefore prone to damage, particularly at the bottom where the flap is hinged to the carcase.
• CONVERSIONS on some British escritoires the fall front has been converted into two doors, thus making it a cabinet – these are generally more commercial – look for evidence of the old hinge plates or the top central lock.
• ”IMPROVEMENTS” as many continental examples were very plain, they have often been improved or modified to make them more commercial.
• TIMBERS on British examples different woods are often used for the interior (e.g. satinwood) and exterior (mahogany); the interiors should look “fresher” than the exterior as they have not been exposed to light.

Bureaux after 1840
The development of the bureau during the mid-19th century was more a matter of changes in decorative style than of any major technical advance. Desk forms of the 18th century, such as the French bureau de dame and bureau a cylindre, and the English fall-front bureau, were still current. As an important item of furniture in the middle-class interior, the bureau reflected the prevailing diversity of styles and techniques and was often fashioned with consummate craftsmanship.
MID-19TH-CENTURY BUREAUX
Mahogany and rosewood were still used for a considerable amount of writing furniture, but walnut was most fashionable and provided a greater diversity of figured surfaces, from the relatively plain straight-grained varieties to the variegated dappling of burr veneers. Yellow-toned woods such as satinwood, amboyna, and, especially in eastern Europe, maple, poplar, and birch, were much favoured. Locally available fruitwoods, yew, and oak were occasionally used.
The flat-topped writing-desk seems mainly to have been a feature of the male-oriented study, and was often of strikingly plain design, in keeping with the businesslike and usually private nature of this room. The bureau, on the other hand, often of small proportions and delicate decoration, appears generally to have been kept in the drawing-room, where it struck a distinctly feminine note. The influence of the French Rococo style is seen in the contoured aprons, and tapering cabriole legs with gilt-metal mounts, of bureaux made in England, The
Netherlands, Italy, and eastern Europe, as well as in France, between the 1840s and 1860x. Floral marquetry was the usual surface decoration, and was often more lavish in the 19th century than it had been in the 18th.
There was great variation in the superstructures of these bureaux, which were far from being slavish copies of 18th-century patterns. Some had arrangements of small drawers and pigeon holes around the writing areas; the very best examples might be fitted with gilt-bronze candle sconces or even clocks to match the highly elaborate cast-metal mounts and handles of
the main carcases. Others had superstructures of tiered drawers, or combinations of cupboards, drawers and pigeon holes; a central mirror in the upper part suggests a dual purpose bureau-cumdressing table. More restrained were those bureaux with shelves edged with gilt-metal or brass galleries for books or ornaments. Mechanical features such as rising or sliding sections, and concealed compartments, were sometimes included.
By the mid-19th century writing
furniture with brass-and-tortoiseshell marquetry, known as Boullework, was produced both by French cabinetmakers, who enjoyed a lively export trade, and by English firms, some of them employing French craftsmen. Boullework, used in France throughout the 18th century, was revived in England (where it was known as “Buhl” work) by George Bullock (c.1777-1818) during the Regency period. The best Boullework-revival pieces are close copies of the originals; the poorest examples have repetitive designs. Elaborate tours de force in ebony, brass, and tortoiseshell were seen in the major exhibitions of London, Paris, and other centres during the 1850s and 1860s. Writing furniture, including some monumental desks and bureaux, was among these extravagant examples of virtuoso craftsmanship. The English firms of Town & Emmanuel (1830-40), Wright & Mansfield (est. 1860), Jackson & Graham (1836-40), Hindley Wilkinson, and Holland & Sons (est. 1803) were some of the foremost manufacturers of high-quality reproduction Buhl and other French furniture, and the fashion for such pieces continued for the rest of the century. Another cabinet-making firm, Edwards & Roberts, was among the few English companies that regularly marked both the furniture it made and the items it restored. Edwards & Roberts used brass inlays with more restraint and practicality than other cabinetmakers, generally in the form of stringing lines on dark rosewood surfaces. Desks and bureaux in this style provide an elegantly muted contrast to the luxury of full-blown Rococo Revival, lending a note of gravitas to the inevitable abundance of decoration.
LATER 19TH-CENTURY BUREAUX
The Renaissance Revival stimulated ivory-inlaid furniture as well as the heavily carved oak associated with the later 19th century. While carved oak bureaux were produced, the eye-catching qualities of the more unusual ivory-inlaid pieces must have pleased the Victorians. In Italy, where walnut furniture with floral inlays of ivory and bone had a long history, the technique was revived with particular enthusiasm.
While wholly painted surfaces tend to be seen more often on folk and vernacular furniture than on typically middle-class pieces such as bureaux, painted flowers often embellished the delicate ladies’ writing furniture of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods, much of it in the Sheraton Revival style. Painted panels were a feature of the Gothic Revival furniture of the 1870s and 1880s, Lind massive bureaux and roll-top desks in this style are occasionally seen.
Another 19th-century revival was the technique of arte povera in Italy, in which Oriental lacquer was
(very loosely) imitated by using paper scraps and painted vignettes applied to bright- or light-coloured painted grounds and covering the whole surface in varnish. This colourful form of decoration was sometimes applied to bureaux and bureau cabinets of traditional 18th-century design, and even to old items thought to be in need of “improvement”.
In The Netherlands, the bureau decorated with floral marquetry remained popular throughout the 19th century. The typical Dutch bureau is based on the English model, with a chestof-drawers surmounted by a sloping-topped writing section, with or without a cabinet on top; however, its shape, with a bombe swelling low in the base, is of French inspiration. The all-over design of flowers in different woods, usually on a walnut ground, is wholly Dutch. During the 19th century old pieces were often revamped with new marquetry, while new ones were produced with well-executed but rather mechanical flower designs.
From the late 19th century the vast majority of bureaux were made using factory methods, with all the variations of quality and design that a highly competitive industry implies. Most producers followed
the prevailing historic Revival, Aesthetic, Arts and Crafts, and progressive trends, tailoring their output to the economics of a growing mass-market. They were rarely innovative. Among the later 19th-century developments was the roll-top desk, a commodious but hardly decorative office cabinet with a kneehole arrangement of drawers beneath a slat-shuttered writing surface fitted with drawers and compartments. These functional desks, in oak, walnut and mahogany, sold in their thousands on both sides of the Atlantic.
Progressive designers of the late 19th century in Britain and on the Continent produced bureaux that met the reformers’ dictum of “fitness for purpose” and at the same time reinterpreted historical models in a highly original way, combining vernacular honesty with sophistication. Much of this furniture was sold by Liberty & Co. (est. 1875) in London, while the designers of the Vicuna Secession in the early 1900s made a further impact on design philosophy. The effects of the Arts and Crafts Movement have reverberated throughout the 20th century, with individual designer-
craftsmen producing bureaux and other furniture of simple, functional design from solid, often locally available timbers.
• FORMS most 19th-century bureaux were based on 18th-century designs; roll-top desks were mass-produced in late 19th century.
• STRUCTURE URE cupboards, drawers, and pigeon holes were commonly used; many examples have galleries to hold books and ornaments; examples featuring gilt-metal mounts with matching candle sconces are sought after.
• DECORATIVE STYLES marquetry decoration and gilt-metal mounts were fashionable during the Rococo Revival; 19th-century floral marquetry tends to be more elaborate than that of the 18th century; “Buhl” work was widely employed in the mid-19th century by French and English cabinet-makers; inlays of ebony and brass were popular during the 1850s and 1860s; ivory inlays arc associated with the Renaissance Revival; painted panels are seen on Gothic Revival furniture of 1870s and 1880s.