Posts Tagged ‘brass plate warmer’

Egypt
In Ancient Egypt jewels were an important part of costume; they were worn by men and children as well as by women, and were often used to adorn statues of gods and goddesses. Images of sacred animals such as cats and crocodiles are often given necklaces, bracelets and earrings made of gold. Earrings, introduced from Asia, seem to have appeared later than other types of jewellery and the earliest important example dates from the end of the second intermediary period (circa 1600 BC). This is a pair consisting of several hoops soldered together which would have hung from large holes pierced in the earlobes. Another early type is a simple hoop of gold, glass paste, faience, jasper or other semiprecious stone worn by pulling the earlobe through the open end, something that was possibly done in infancy.
X-ray photographs of mummies in the Cairo Museum show earlobes extremely elongated and deformed by the use of very heavy ear ornaments in childhood. One mummy in the museum of Turin has two earrings worn on the same earlobe. The mummy of Tutankhamen has large holes pierced in the earlobes, proving that earrings were worn by men as well as women.
During the New Kingdom (1559-1085 BC) large earplugs came into fashion and these also caused deformation of the earlobes. They are designed as faience discs and have a groove round the edge which enabled them to fit into an enlarged hole stretched in the earlobes. Other ear ornaments of contemporary date were in the form of mushroom-shaped studs with the stem pushed through such a hole. In both cases these ornaments were worn in the plane of the ear rather than at right angles to it.
By the end of the XVIIIth Dynasty the decoration of earrings was very varied: cascades of drops, flowers and bell-shaped motifs for pendent earrings and rosettes and flowerhead motifs for the large discs.
The Greek World
Around 800 BC contacts between Greece and the East became closer and two centuries of Oriental influence in Greek art followed. Cyprus and Syria — taken in the broad sense to include Phoenicia and the Neo-Hittite North Syria — were the two countries that mainly influenced Greece, the latter acting as a channel for Egyptian and Mesopotamian influence.
The relative abundance of gold artefacts of this period is undoubtedly related to the opening up of the East to the Greek world through colonization, giving access to rich sources of precious metal in Asia Minor, especially to the Lydian gold mines. The preponderance of the ateliers of Eastern Greece throughout the period is evidence of this. Embossing, filigree and granulation grew in popularity and inlaying with stones, amber and glass made its appearance. Gold earrings of flat crescent design, often decorated with granulation and inlays, and suspended with fine chains are well represented, as well as earrings designed as spirals to be thrust through a hole in the lobe. They were either simple gold wire spirals or had a variety of finials decorated with beading and granulation, worn with the ends pointing upwards. Many variations of this type are known, some with more, some with fewer turns of thin and thick gold wire, others splayed out in the form of a letter W with a higher central point. In the late 7th century the W-shaped spiral was sometimes decorated with elaborate finials in the shape of griffins’ heads, pomegranates or rams heads of Oriental inspiration.
The crescent or boat-shaped earring of Eastern tradition, seen in Ur in the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, finally reached Greece via Syria and Cyprus about 700 BC and the type was to flourish there and in the Hellenized centres of the Eastern Mediterranean for some four centuries. Greek examples of the 7th century BC are characterized by a rather fat boat-shaped motif, sometimes decorated with granulation, on a thin gold wire going through the pierced earlobe. The hoop with beaded pendant of Cypriot tradition became popular in the 7th and 6th centuries Bc but remained confined to Eastern Greece.
Greek jewellery of the 6th and early 5th centuries is of artistic brilliance but very little has survived. It is, however, amply documented in vase painting and sculpture. Three of the few regions relatively rich in archaic gold jewellery are Sicily, Rhodes and Cyprus, where crescent earrings of the traditional form continued to be produced.
It was not until after the Persian wars that gold became more plentiful in Greece. By the accidents of history, this Greek Classical jewellery is better known from examples found in Southern Russia, Cyprus and Southern Italy than from Greece proper. The forms were extremely varied and among the abundance of diadems, necklaces, bracelets, pendants and finger-rings, earrings were very popular. They came in three main forms: the boat or crescent, the spiral or helix, and the disc with cone or inverted pyramid pendant.
As in the Archaic period, vase painting and sculpture would seem to suggest that earrings were the most popular form of ornament; statues of female figures were frequently adorned with them, sometimes sculpted in marble and sometimes made of precious metal, as can be inferred from the holes pierced in the ears. It is possible that the ornaments created to adorn statues or donated to temples to be worn by images of goddesses in religious processions were more elaborate, rich and complex than those used in ordinary life, which were buried with the dead and have now been recovered from graves. That they were part of ordinary dress is proved by representation on coins, vase paintings and terracotta figures.
As already mentioned, most of these surviving examples came from areas outside mainland Greece, such as Etruria and Southern Italy.
The boat-shaped earring, which, as we have seen, dates back at least to 13th-century Cyprus, was the most popular form of ear ornament in the Classical period. In its simplest form it consisted of a crescent terminating in a wire for insertion into the earlobe, and remained in fashion, virtually without a break, throughout antiquity. In the 5th and 4th centuries BC it was widespread throughout Southern Russia, Thracia, Macedonia and also Sicily where it was depicted on Syracusae coins of 474-450 Bc adorning the head of Artemis-Arethusa.
P 25 The earliest examples from the Classical period are very simple, consisting of a boat-shaped motif decorated with beading, filigree and granulation. Later, in the second half of the 4th century BC, they tend to be more elaborate in design, often with suspended pendants and chains of various types. Among the most complex examples of the boat-shaped earring is one from Tarentum where the boat is completely encrusted with filigree, granulation, leaf and palmetto motifs and is merely a vehicle
P. 27 for the exuberant decoration of rosettes, nikai, doves, chains and pendants. This decorative repertoire of palmettos, rosettes, flowerheads and spirals can also be found, enlarged, on contemporary vase painting and funerary monuments. The Tarentum example perfectly illustrates the general trend of the period towards increasing elaboration of decoration which is common to the whole Hellenic world. The heavy use of filigree floral motifs and stylized palmettos to enliven the flat surface of the basic boat-shape and the curved surface of the rosette petals are deliberately intended to create a complex chiaroscuro effect with light, shade and reflection and give drama and depth to the object; in later periods this effect was often achieved chromatically by the combination of various different gemstones and by the use of multicoloured enamels.
It is interesting to note that even at this stage the craftsmen of Tarentum were also catering for a less prosperous clientele, making gilt terracotta imitations of the type described above, probably cast in moulds taken from the more expensive gold examples — although it is possible that these cheaper, rather fragile ornaments were made specifically as grave goods.
Another very popular form of earring of the second half of the 5th century BC was that in the form of a disc supporting either one or three pendants, the central one invariably being a female head, an inverted pyramid, an amphora or a cone and the two flanking ones articulated chains with links of various types. By the Hellenistic period disc-and-pendant earrings were to become the most popular and widespread form of ear ornament.
Among the earliest examples is a superb pair from Tarentum, each with a disc decorated at the centre with a filigree rosette within a border of corded wire and beaded work and a female head suspended from a central pendant flanked by two chains of conical beads with bell-shaped terminals. The female head pendants are chased in great detail, with the hairstyle typical of the time as seen on terracottas, vase paintings and coins: parted at the centre, divided in two bandeaux and gathered in a large bun worn low on the nape of the neck. The hair being brushed away from the ears leaves ample space for a large pair of earrings consisting of a pyramidal cluster of beads suspended from a rosette. The great popularitiy of earrings throughout antiquity is certainly linked to the fashion for women to wear the hair gathered at the top or the back of the head, or at least brushed away from the temples.
The head-shaped pendants show an interesting feature: at the base there is a small hole into which it is likely that a piece of sponge or cloth soaked in perfumed oil was inserted. Putting perfumed sponges in necklace pendants was common in antiquity, and Etruscan earrings with perfume compartments have been found. Though not common, such earrings with female head pendants have been recovered in Southern Russia, Cyprus and Etruria.
Another highly significant detail on this example is the presence on the disc and chains of small traces of delicately coloured enamel. The introduction of polychrome enamels in jewellery was an important innovation that dramatically transformed the work of Greek goldsmiths, who had until then achieved effects of movement and contrast through the use of filigree and granulation. It is unfortunate that in this and many other examples the major part of the enamel has now worn away, since polychrome enamels defined the different elements of the decoration, and were therefore essential to the overall effect of the piece.
Rather more widely dispersed were disc earrings with an inverted pyramid pendant often between two chains. This type of pendant, already seen in the Archaic and early Classical periods, became very fashionable towards the end of the 5th century, reaching the height of its popularity in the 4th century BC, and continued to be one of the favourite forms of ear ornament of the Hellenistic period: many examples have been found in Cyprus, Southern Russia, Macedonia and Apulia. The type is also represented on coins from Elis, Locri, Metapontum and Tarentum, on the tetra-drachm of Eukleidas from Syracuse, and on 4th-century BC terracotta antefixes from Tarentum, Metapontum and Heraclea.
The earliest examples are characterized by extremely elaborate gold leaf applications, filigree and granulation on both disc and pyramidal pendant. Later examples are simpler and often completely undecorated apart from a gemstone, usually a garnet, set at the centre of the disc. Gemstones, which made their first appearance in jewellery towards the end of the 4th century BC, became more and more prominent from now until Roman times.
Contemporary with the earring types described above and just as important were
disc earrings with a vase or a cone pendant. They enjoyed a long period of popularity,
P. 26 peaking between the 2nd and i st century BC. Tarentum, Cyprus and Southern Russia
offer the best examples, often set with garnets, coloured glass beads and pearls. This
type is well documented on Syracusae and African coins of the ,3rd and 2nd century
BC.
P. 28, 29 Hellenistic art is cosmopolitan in character, the same forms being found all over the Eastern Mediterranean. Jewellery was no exception-, examples from Apulia are hardly distinguishable from those from Thessaly, Macedonia, Asia Minor, Thrace or Southern Russia.
Particularly popular in the 2nd century BC were disc earrings with bird pendants
made of glass paste. Sirens, peacocks and other winged creatures naturalistically P. 31 modelled in this way were widely popular. The dove was a special favourite because
of its assocation with Aphrodite.
Another variation on the same theme is where the pendant assumes the shape of a miniature Eros. Eros, tutelary god of death and love with his double symbolism, erotic and funerary, is a very common motif in Hellenistic jewellery from the late 4th to the late 2nd century Bc and is represented in various ways. Almost as popular was Nike or Victory, a feminine version of Eros. With time, emphasis on the human figure became so pronounced that the disc disappeared, leaving Eros or Nike simply suspended from the earlobe by means of a hook of gold wire.
Another very popular type of ear ornament from the Classical period is the helix earring, comprising a tubular piece of thin gold leaf twisted into a spiral with various decorative motifs as terminals. This had already existed in the Archaic period and was very well known to the Oriental Greek world as early as the 7th century BC. Many examples have been found in Cyprus, Rhodes, Thrace, Macedonia and Southern Russia, all related to the same prototype, probably of Cypriot origin, descended from the Mycenean spirals of Enkomi. Towards the mid-4th century BC, another form of earring appeared, consisting of an open circle with a small pointed finial on one side and a larger terminal in the shape of a human or animal head on the other. There are similar examples with human or animal heads on both terminals, one larger than the other. These remained popular throughout the Hellenized world until the beginning of the i st century BC. The favourite motif for the terminal was the lion head, but antelopes’, rams’, dogs’ and bulls’ heads are also known, their eyes set with gemstones or coloured glass pastes.
Both helix and animals’ head earrings raise the question of how they were worn. By modern standards they seem too large to be pushed through a hole in the earlobe, but no alternative fitting has ever been found. We must assume, therefore, that in the past women submitted themselves to far greater tortures than we are prepared to suffer today for the sake of fashion.
The conquests of Alexander the Great between 333 and 322 BC transformed the Greek world. Vast territories came within the Greek sphere of influence, while at the same time Greece itself was exposed to influences from Egypt and Asia. The Hellenistic age, as culturally and artistically defined, lasted from about 322 BC until the inauguration of the Roman Empire in 27 BC. Much jewellery has survived from this period. Gold became more widely available through intensive mining in Thrace and the dispersal of captured Persian treasures.
Earrings were designed as simple gold hoops either decorated at the front with a
single motif, such as a bird, a dolphin, a bunch of grapes, or a negro’s head, or hav-
ing a pendant in the form of such a motif. Much use was made of glass paste and gemstones to pick out details and create contrasts of colour, and a new technique known as `dipped enamel’ was introduced to give a multicoloured effect, especially to earring pendants in the shape of birds or other creatures.
Together with these types, which are very typical of their period, many other earrings of older design continued to be produced and amongst these the disc-andpendant model was perhaps the favourite.
Etruscan
The earliest remains of the Etruscans of central Italy are dated about 700 BC, continuing in a recognizable form until about the i st century BC. Their great wealth, attributable largely to the mineral resources of the country, is reflected in the sumptuousness of their tombs. In female graves, vessels of precious metal and silver and gold jewellery such as fibulae, pectorals, bracelets and elaborate earrings reflect not only the important role women had in that society, but also jewellery’s function of `hoard’ and ‘reserve fund’. Although in its earliest manifestations Etruscan art was remarkably free of Greek influences, it did not long remain so, and by the end of the 7th century Be Greek artistic influence was becoming increasingly significant. Etruscan art, however, never lost its identity completely.
The earliest Etruscan earrings, of about 625 BC, in the shape of crescents and hoops, are not dissimilar to those found elsewhere in the Greek world at the same time. The first truly Etruscan form of earring made its appearance just before the
p. 28, 29 mid-6th century. The type is known as a baule, Italian for a bag or a travelling case, and it is perhaps the best known form of Etruscan ornament. Its popularity lasted just over a century. It consists of a strip of gold leaf bent round to form a cylinder, the two ends connected by a gold wire also acting as a suspension hoop. The ends of the cylinder were sometimes closed by a circular gold plate. The decoration, consisting of gold leaf application in the form of stylized flowers and rosettes, embossed leaves or geometrical motifs, filigree and granulation occasionally embellished with polychrome enamels, shows a certain ‘horror vacui’, pressing as many decorative details as possible onto the small gold surface.
Another type of earring of typical Etruscan design, which first appeared in the second half of the 6th century, is the disc richly decorated with concentric bands of
P. 3 I floral and geometrical motifs embossed or made of filigree and granulation, often inlayed with gemstones, amber or glass paste. Earstuds would perhaps be a more appropriate name for this type of ornament, with a hollow tube at the back ending in a loop to be pushed through the earlobe and a safety chain attached to the side of the disc for fixing the loop. The origin of these large ear-ornaments, which in some cases measure as much as 7cms in diameter, is probably Lydia.
In the 5th century BC the most fashionable and widespread form of ornament in the
P 30 Etruscan world was a type of earring consisting of a tubular hoop decorated at one end with the head of a woman, a river-god, a ram or a lion. With slight variations, it remained popular throughout the 4th and 3rd centuries BC.
Among the most characteristic earrings of the 4th and 3rd centuries is the
P 29, 31 horseshoe-shaped plaque type, mounted with a cluster of embossed globules, hollow inside in order to act as containers for perfumed oil. An entirely Etruscan creation, these earrings were very popular throughout the country as can be seen from the many surviving examples and their frequent reproduction on terracotta and vase paintings. Particularly interesting in this respect is a group of votive statues found in Lavinium, depicting female figures bejewelled with necklaces and earrings of this type apparently moulded directly from the gold originals. These cluster earrings remain very frequent in tombs of the 4th century Be and tend to disappear in favour of new models coming from abroad only towards the end of the Classical age.
What we can describe as a ‘Greek Taste’ did not appear in Etruscan jewellery until the last thirty years of the 4th century and must be seen in the context of the general process of Hellenization which followed the conquests of Alexander the Great. The typical Etruscan forms gradually disappeared to be replaced by the more international disc-and-pendants, the pendants supporting shapes such as inverted pyramids, birds, bells and amphorae, or by hoops decorated at the front with amber heads of negroes. In some examples local tradition and external influence blend together; e.g., a gold hoop, decorated at the front with a horseshoe-shaped motif typical of the Etruscan taste, supporting a female head pendant of pure Tarentine inspiration.
Rome and Byzantium
Examples of silver and gold jewellery from pre-Republican and Republican Rome are very scarce. From those that survive we can conclude that between 70o and 250 Be Roman jewellery was for all practical purposes Etruscan. Material is even scarcer for the period between 25o and 27 BC, but we may assume that Roman jewellery, as well as Etruscan, was basically the same as Hellenistic.
For many centuries jewellery was a luxury looked upon with official disapproval in the Roman world. The amounts of gold which might be buried with the dead and which a Roman lady might wear were fixed by law. Certain items of personal adornment, moreover, such as finger rings, were strictly reserved to certain social classes and for specific occasions.
By 27 BC, when the Roman empire was established, Rome had finally swallowed up the remnants of the Hellenistic world with the annexation of Egypt in 30 BC. The political changes, however, had very little effect on minor arts, and during the first years of the empire jewellery continued to be produced in Hellenistic forms. The major centres of jewellery manufacture were the old Hellenistic centres of Antioch and Alexandria, followed by Rome itself. Progressively wealth, luxury and ostentation replaced Republican sobriety and jewellery became important in display.
In the eastern part of the empire and in Egypt earrings designed as plain hoops or hoops decorated with human and animal heads of Hellenistic tradition continued to be produced with only minor variations until the 2nd century AD. Other types consisted of long S-shaped hooks with variously designed pendants. A new type appeared suddenly in the i st century AD and lasted for about a hundred years. It consisted of a gold hemisphere with an S-shaped hook fitted at the back, sometimes surmounted by a similar but smaller boss. This was very popular: many examples have been found as far apart as Rome, Cyprus, Siphnos and Palestine, and it is also frequently depicted on mummy portraits. Closely related is a type consisting of a spherical cluster of pearls or beads.
In the course of the 2nd century AD a whole new class of earrings appeared, quite unrelated to Hellenistic shapes. In its simplest form it consisted of a gemstone set in a large bezel holding a drop pendant, secured to the earlobe by means of an S-shaped hook. During the same period earrings were produced in the form of circular gem-set elements supporting horizontal bars with two or three pendants. Gemstones including sapphires, emeralds, aquamarines and topazes were by now freely employed in jewellery.
Literary sources such as Pliny, Seneca and Petronius have much to say on the subject of inaures andpendentes. Earrings were the favourite manner of displaying wealth for the patrician lady who often turned for advice to the auricolae ornatrices, women whose job was to attend to the problems caused by prolonged wearing of large and heavy earrings. The new extravagance has been referred to by Pliny who tells us that Caligula’s wife Lollia Paulina wore emeralds and pearls on her hair, head, arms and fingers as well as on her ears at everyday functions. Women, he says, liked to wear earrings set with two or three pearl drops that rattled at the slightest movement of the head; hence their name of crotalia.
During the 3rd century AD the Roman empire began to crumble; during the 4th it was divided into an eastern and a western empire; and during the 5th the western half collapsed leaving only the eastern empire, governed from Constantinople (formerly Byzantium). One effect of these changes was that Oriental influences were again powerful in Western art, but as far as jewellery is concerned, Roman techniques and
P. 32, 33 forms continued to be used and earrings with two or three gemset pendent drops remained normal.
Earrings appeared to have fallen from favour during the Byzantine period, with fashionable ladies preferring to wear large and elaborate ornaments on the temple or sides of the face, similar to those worn by the empress Theodora in the mosaic of San Vitale in Ravenna, but they did not completely disappear. The only truly Byzantine form of earring which was popular in the late 6th and 7th centuries consists of a large but light pierced gold crescent decorated with openwork stylized flower and scroll motifs.
In western Europe, jewellery production declined drastically, and only one form of earring stands out as original. This consists of a wire hoop, simple or twisted, decorated with a polyhedral motif, usually inset with garnets. The popularity of this type is confirmed by finds from Ostrogothic, Merovingian and Southern Russian sites dating from the 5th to the 9th century.
The Middle Ages
Although the Middle Ages and the Renaissance are particularly rich periods for jewellery in general, the role of earrings is so minor that one can say that they virtually disappear for the six hundred years between the i i th and i 6th centuries. The reason for this is to be found in hair and dress fashion: elaborate hairstyles, headdresses and high collared costumes left very little scope for earrings.
In the Middle Ages it was customary for a woman, especially married women, to conceal their hair with a coiffe hubet and from the middle of the 12th century with a barbette, which consisted of a stiffened head-band worn with a chin strap concealing the ears. Respectable married women had to keep their heads covered when seen in public, a rule which went back to St Paul: ‘For if the woman be not covered, let her be shorn or shaven: if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven let her be covered.’ The concealment of a woman’s hair was a way of demonstrating dependency on her husband who was the only man with the privilege of seeing it (a woman loosening her barbette in public would be regarded as unladylike and morally lax) and explains why unmarried girls were allowed to wear long and flowing hair. In both cases, however, the scope for earrings was non-existent; with the barbette the chin band covered the ears and the cheeks, not only preventing the use of earrings but also hindering eating and even speaking; on the other hand unmarried girls with their hair flowing over their ears also did not have the opportunity to display earrings. During the 13th century written evidence for earrings occurs only in books like the Roman de la Rose where unusual jewels such as earrings are listed: ‘Et met a ses deux oreilletes. Deus verges d’or pendans greletes’.
Around the middle of the 14th century hair fashions underwent a considerable change, becoming much more elaborate and frequently embellished with precious
head ornaments. One of the typical coiffures, which developed at the end of the 14th P. 37 century and retained its popularity for more than a hundred years, consisted of two thick braids of hair looped over the ears; another consisted of hair puffed out and padded over the ears and kept in shape by a gold net. The changes, however, did not improve the scope for earrings.

Early 19th Century Tables: REGENCY SOFA TABLE, AMERICAN NEOCLASSICAL CARD TABLE, CHINESE EXPORT CENTRE TABLE, BRITISH CONSOLE TABLE, SCOTTISH REGENCY CONSOLE TABLE, FRENCH WORKTABLE, REGENCY LIBRARY TABLE.

THE EARLY PART OF THE 19TH century is
characterized by the development of many different types of furniture that were designed for specific tasks. The Sofa table, which was developed around 1800, is one example. Intended to stand directly in front of a sofa, it provided a support for reading, writing, sketching, and similar tasks. Although the sofa table was an English invention, it was widely copied on the Continent.
Sofa tables were usually veneered in mahogany or rosewood and were often banded in exotic timbers or outlined in brass stringing. Closely related to the Pembroke table, the sofa table has a flap at either end — unlike the centre, writing, or library table — although they all share the same basic function.
The sofa table also usually has two frieze drawers, which are sometimes set opposite dummy drawers. It is supported on end standards linked by a stretcher. Alternatively it may be supported on a central pedestal, often with splayed legs on later examples,
with brass tappings and casters.
Console tables traditionally stand against a window pier beneath a high mirror that reflects light around the room. Consequently, the back of the table is usually unfinished as no one ever sees it. Consoles are often screwed directly onto the wall so they do not have back legs. If they do, the legs are purely functional and do not match the more elaborate, decorative forms of the front legs.
Serving tables and hall tables are often similar in shape to console tables, but they are usually longer and were often intended to stand against a windowless wall.
Although smaller, card and tea tables (the former does not have a baize lining) are often similar in style to sofa tables, and have identical decoration, veneers, and construction timbers. Their fold-over tops are usually supported on a swing leg, or they are supported on a central pedestal so that they can pivot.
REGENCY LIBRARY TABLE
This fine rosewood writing or library table has a rectangular top with gently rounded corners, the whole of which is surrounded by a pierced gallery. There are two short drawers set into the frieze, both of which have round brass handles.
The table top is raised on elegant twin lyre-shaped supports with brass “strings” in the centre. The supports terminate in brass-capped paw feet, and are joined by a central, turned stretcher. This typical form of Regency table was also produced with two flaps, to be used as a sofa table. c. 1820.
The sofa table is decorated throughout with brass inlay
The lyre-shaped supports area recurrent motif of late Neoclassical design.
The “strings” of the lyre are made from brass.

AMERICAN LIBRARY TABLE
AMERICAN PIER TABLE
-his rosewood worktable has a crossbanded ectangular top above two drawers and opposing dummy drawers. It has lyre-shaped trestle supports joined by a turned stretcher and sabre egs.
This table has a rectangular top with canted corners above a conforming frieze. It is supported on fluted cylindrical columns on an incurved rectangular plinth joined to shaped, downswept legs.
EMPIRE CONSOLE TABLE
his table has a rectangular marble top above a ieze drawer. There are front consoles with paw set and two rear pilasters on a plinth base. arty 19th century.
FEDERAL TABLE
This mahogany table has a rectangular top above two graduated frieze drawers, and turned legs, joined by a stretcher and terminating in outswept feet. c.1810.
AMERICAN CLASSICAL TABLE
FRENCH WORKTABLE
This Neoclassical mahogany table has a hinged ,ectangular top with drop leaves, a drawer and 3n opposing dummy drawer, a pedestal base, end outsplayed legs on casters. Early 19th
century.
The rectangular marble top of this American Empire-style table rests above a moulded frieze with carved scrolls supported on turned columns. Below the tabletop is a framed mirror. c.1815.

SCOTTISH REGENCY CONSOLE TABLE
The rectangular top of this mahogany console table sits above an ogee frieze. The table top is supported on palmette-carved, scrolling front console legs, which terminate in bun feet. The square-section back legs are panelled and have square, block feet. c. 1820.
GERMAN CARD TABLE
This mahogany table has a rectangular top with moulded sides and rests above a frieze flanked by carved scrolls. It is supported on a column with a carved base, four splayed legs carved with stylized swans, and scroll feet. c.1820.
BRITISH CONSOLE TABLE
This William IV mahogany console table has a rectangular slate top raised on a base with a frieze. The table top is supported on a pair of elaborately scrolled and leaf-carved console legs with paw feet at the front. The back legs take the form of rectangular-section, panelled pilasters. c.1830.

DANISH EMPIRE SOFA TABLE
This fruitwood-inlaid, ebonized, and parcel-gilt mahogany sofa table has a rectangular top and D-shaped drop leaves above a frieze with a fruitwood drawer. The end supports are flanked by giltwood and ebonized bird-head supports. 1810-20.
AUSTRIAN TABLE
Veneered in cherry wood, this table has a rectangular top above a frieze with a single drawer. The table top is supported on two elaborately-carved lyre supports with upturned ends, joined to each other by a turned stretcher. c.1830.
CHINESE EXPORT CENTRE TABLE
This highly decorative, Regency-style, black lacquer table has a rectangular top with rounded corners. The frieze has two front drawers and two dummies at the back. The splayed end- supports rest on a plinth with bun feet. c. 1830.

GEORGE IV CARD TABLE
The rectangular top of this pedestal card table has a narrow brass inlay and rounded corners. It is supported on a sturdy octagonal, tapering column with a nulled collar, a round platform, and four outswept legs which end in brass terminals and casters.
Early 19th century.
AMERICAN NEOCLASSICAL CARD TABLE
The rectangular, hinged top of this mahogany table has a bowed centre section above a conforming apron with a brass outlined panel and central applied brass foliage. It sits on a lyre-form pedestal with brass strings, on outsplayed legs with brass paw toes and casters. Early 19th century.
REGENCY SOFA TABLE
This rosewood sofa table has satinwood crossbanding. Below the rectangular top there is a frieze with two drawers and rounded drop leaves. The table sits on rectangular-section supports on inlaid sabre legs terminating in anthemion-cast brass caps and casters. Early 19th century.

In the 18th century, as the fashion for porcelain reached its peak, many porcelain factories were established outside Germany and France, the main centres of production. Many new factories were founded by arcanists, modellers, and decorators who exploited their knowledge of porcelain manufacture, moving from factory to factory throughout Europe. Unsurprisingly, most of the smaller European operations imitated the styles of Meissen and Sevres, although their wares sometimes display an interesting mixture of influences.
THE LOW COUNTRIES
In 1750 Francois-Joseph Peterinck (1719-99) established a factory in Tournai and, with the help of the arcanist Robert Dubois, produced soft-paste porcelain. The influence of Meissen in the tablewares can be seen in the moulded basket-weave borders and the spiral patterns around the rims of plates, while the decoration is more English-inspired. The specialities of Tournai were exotic birds and scenes taken from Aesop’s fables in underglaze blue, both of which were used at Chelsea and Worcester. Typical of Tournai, too, are landscape vignettes in puce or purple monochrome, surrounded by small sprays of flowers. The factory also made a limited range of galanterie – small decorative objects such as snuff-boxes.
Tournai produced a large range of figures and groups following contemporary French taste in their subject-matter, in particular pastoral scenes of shepherds and children by artists who had worked at Mennecy. The thickly glazed groups are painted in a pale palette or left in the white, but lack crisp modelling. Also typical of Tournai are figures and groups in biscuit porcelain, especially those on high rockwork bases around a central tree; groups like these were made at Derby.
Peterinck retired in 1796, and ownership of Tournai passed to his daughter Amelie de Bettignics (1757–after 1805). The factory continued making simple household wares, but no more figures, until the mid-19th century. Many 18th-century wares were sold undecorated, and were later painted at a porcelain factory in The Hague set up in 1776 by a German porcelain dealer, Anton Lyncker (1718-81). The Hague factory also made its own hard-paste porcelain wares, decorated in a manner similar to Tournai’s. Confusingly, both The Hague factory’s own products and the Tournai pieces that it decorated have the same mark; any soft-paste ware bearing an overglaze mark of a stork is likely to be (but by no means definitely is) of Tournai origin.
The first successful Dutch porcelain factor was established in Weesp, near Amsterdam, in 1757 by the Irish arcanist D. MacCarthy, who had been involved in attempts to manufacture porcelain in Copenhagen. This factory has a complex history of ownership. In 1771 it changed hands and moved to Oude Loosdrecht, and in 1782 moved to Amstel, near Amsterdam, where it remained until its closure in 1820. All the Dutch factories used a good-quality white hard paste with a clear glaze. Some small figures of putti holding salts were made at Weesp. At Oude Loosdrecht and Amstel, production was focused entirely on wares – mainly tea, coffee and dinner services. In both form and decoration
the wares are similar to Meissen and
other German porcelain.
SWITZERLAND
Most porcelain factories in Europe were established by aristocratic patrons who could afford luxury products; in Switzerland, where there was no monarchy, a group of prominent citizens established the first porcelain factory in Zurich in 1763. The factory initially made a soft-paste porcelain but switched to the production of hard paste c.1765.
Reflecting the demands of Switzerland’s dominant middle-class market, the bulk of Zurich
production was tea, coffee and dinner services. These generally followed German Rococo and Neo-classical styles, but the complex scrolled handles on coffee- and teapots were unique to Zurich. In terms of ecoration, the Zurich factory is associated with small pastoral landscapes in a palette dominated by blues and greens. Sortie exquisitely painted landscapes in warmer colours arc by Salomon Gessner (1739-79), 1739-79), one of the founders; unfortunately the enamels arc often flaky because the paint was applied too thickly. The colourful, naturalistic sprays of flowers familiar on 18th-century Meissen also featured at Zurich, although the flower sprays tend to be looser. Other kinds of decoration included a version of the Oriental banded hedge pattern, Usually in purple, and vignettes of birds on branches.
Almost 400 different types of figure igure and group were made, mostly in the late Rococo style. The famous Meissen series of the street vendors of London and Paris may have inspired the set of 42 street-
sellers called the “Cries of Zurich”. The finest figures were probably modelled by Valentin Sonnenschein (1749-1828), from Ludwigsburg, and, perhaps because of his influence, many Zurich figures resemble those made there. The factory closed in 1791, owing
to financial problems caused by competition from other factories and imports of inexpensive creamware from England.
SCANDINAVIA
In the 1730s several French
and German arcanists, including Christoph Conrad Hunger of Meissen
and Vienna, produced soft-paste porcelain
on a limited scale in Copenhagen. In 1774 the first hard-paste porcelain factory was founded there. Queen Caroline Matilda was the main shareholder of this factory; after her exile it was bought in 1779 by King Christian VII and styled the Royal Danish Porcelain Factory. A fine, white hard paste with a clear glaze was used to make wares mainly in a severe Neo-classical style, much influenced by Berlin, Vienna, and Sevres.
Cylindrical teapots and coffee-cups with angular handles, and trays with angled sides, are typically embellished with oval and cylindrical medallions enclosing landscapes, topographical views, or portraits in sepia, puce, or pink monochrome, surrounded with swags and coloured borders heightened with gilding. Botanical subjects were also popular, the most famous
example being the 1,800-piece “Flora Danica” service ( 1789-1802) that was probably made for Catherine the Great of Russia.
The factory declined in the early 19th century, but under the direction (1828-57) of Gustav Friedrich Hetsch it produced biscuit figures, notably those based on the work of the Neoclassical sculptor Berthel Thorvaldsen. The factory enjoyed a renaissance when in 1885 the architect and painter Arnold Krug (1856-1931) was appointed artistic director. With new glaze technology, he introduced a revolutionary form of underglaze painting, using simple washes of blues and greys to produce an effect very similar to Japanese pottery. Johann Ludwig Eberhard Ehrenreich (1722-1803)
produced porcelain between 1766 and 178 at Marieberg, near Stockholm.
It initially used a soft paste for Rococo wares, especially spiral-fluted custard cups similar
to those made at Mennecy.
A hard-paste porcelain was
introduced from 1777.

Storage furniture.
Chests-of-drawers after 1840
The practical nature of the chest-of-drawers ensured its continued popularity after 1840. It was considered an essential part of any household and produced in vast numbers throughout Europe. Chests-of-drawers, called commodes if made in France or in the French manner, with serpentine curves and Rococo characteristics, range from the utilitarian to the virtuoso.
WOOD AND CONSTRUCTION
Despite the internationalism of styles, each country in Europe tended to use its native woods especially for the carcases; for example, France and The Netherlands used oak and Scandinavian countries used pine. Typically, Dutch drawer-linings are of oak, nailed together or dovetailed. Satinwood for veneers was imported from the East and West Indies. The satinwood used for furniture of the Edwardian period usually has strong lines, and is more likely to come from the East than the West Indies. Although birch was native to Europe and had been used for a long time on Scandinavian furniture, in Britain it had been confined to cooking utensils and provincial furniture. With the growth of furniture production in the 19th century, satin-birch was used as an alternative to the expensive satinwood; when cut carefully the wood could produce a decorative figure. Birch has subsequently come to be used for plywood and in furniture of modern design. Dovetails throughout central Europe at this time were 10 to 15mm (X–yin) at their widest point. In southern Europe they were broader and coarser, but all were in marked contrast to those made in Britain. There, the dovetails were consistently much smaller, often finer than a pencilpoint. This is an instantly recognizable feature of British and North American furniture construction.
PLAIN CHESTS-OF-DRAWERS
Many chests-of-drawers made in the 19th century were designed as parts of bedroom suites; the other components would be a bed, a wardrobe, and a pair of night tables. As a result of increased mechanization and the revival of styles, the choice for the Victorian purchaser was huge and designed to suit every pocket. The standard Victorian chest-of-drawers is of the very simplest form with two short and three graduated drawers constructed using traditional methods, with neat dovetailed joints. The proportions were generally rather heavy, and this was accentuated by a heavy plinth base. This type of chest-of-drawers was large and widely manufactured by firms such as Maddox of London (est. 1838) and William Smee & Sons (est. 1817). Pieces found today are likely to be originals and are modestly priced. Their plain, utilitarian design makes these chests long lasting.
The Wellington chest is also a relatively plain form of the chest-of-drawer. Named after the Duke of Wellington, whose succesful campaigns against Napoleon had made him a national hero, it was first introduced in the 1820s and originally intended to contain a collection of coins or other precious artefacts. It is characterized by its tall, narrow form and by the stiles (uprights) fixed to either side of the drawers. One of the stiles is hinged to cover the drawer ends at one side, which allows the chest to be locked. Wellington chests can have up to 12 drawers and occasionally a secretaire drawer in the middle. They were normally made of mahogany or rosewood, but there are also examples in pollard oak, burr-walnut, burr-elm, and yew.
Another type of plain chest was the two-part campaign chest. These were first made for use in the field during the military campaigns in the Peninsular War (1809-14), although they continued to be made throughout the 19th century. These chests are recognizable by their sunken handles and carrying handles at the sides, and feet that may be unscrewed and stored safely in the drawers while being moved. Of small, neat proportions they arc often made in teak.
TYPES OF DECORATION
As with other types of furniture, chests-of-drawers made after 1840 were decorated with a wide variety of ornamentation, reviving styles from previous centuries and employing mechanization to speed up production. The fine marquetry decoration that had graced Dutch cabinets-on-stands and other case furniture from the end of the 17th century, by such outstanding craftsmen as Jan van Mekeren (1658-1733), continued to be made throughout the 18th century and was still a popular form of decoration in The Netherlands during the I 9th century. The style normally associated with Dutch marquetry is that of flowers with birds and foliate scrolls. However, particularly from the second quarter of the 19th century, more Neo-classical motifs, including ribbon-tied swags, urns, and stiff leaves, were common, usually inlaid on mahogany grounds.
The fascination with Oriental art, dating from the 17th century, had a widespread appeal during the 19th.
One of the strongest expressions of this taste can be seen in the style and furnishings of Brighton Pavilion, designed for the Prince of Wales (later George IV) during the early 19th century. The style of the buildings and its furnishings continued the fashion for chinoiseries already set in the 18th century, using such materials as bamboo, japanning (a European version of lacquering), and caning. White real bamboo was generally used for Regency bamboo furniture, by the 1860s it had largely been replaced by imitation bamboo using such woods such as walnut and beech, and in the USA maple. The wood was turned, carved, and painted to simulate bamboo, in the manner already practiced by the Chinese in the 17th century. The Oriental influence was also strongly felt in the USA, where the production of imitation bamboo furniture was at its height during the 1880s. The forms made were distinctly Western, and the furniture was considered especially suitable for light, summery interiors in country houses, where the hot summer months would be passed, or for use in conservatories and as garden furniture. In Britain the craze for whimsical “bamboo” furniture was given a further boost when Japanese art was shown at the International Exhibition of 1862 in London, which gave rise to the Aesthetic Movement. Between 1869 and 1935 there were over 150 firms registered in Britain manufacturing “bamboo” furniture, including those with such exotic names as the Aizdu Bamboo Co. (est. 1884) in London and the Mikado Co. (est. 1893) in Birmingham. In the USA, where imitation bamboo was more popular than real bamboo, such firms as C.A. Aimone, the Kilian Bros, and George Hunzinger in New York were notable producers.
Another form of “Oriental” decoration was japanning. During the mid-18th century the Martin family in Paris were well known for their version of japanning, where the carcase was prepared and painted with Oriental designs or fetes galantes (open-air scenes) inspired by the paintings of Antoine Watteau and Francois Boucher. Numerous coats of amber varnish were then added until a hard coating was achieved. This technique was revived in the 19th century, although the quality achieved was never the same.
Inexpensive timbers could be grained or stained to resemble luxury woods. Thomas Sheraton (1751-1806) had given instructions in The Cabinet Dictionary (1803), and Nathaniel Whittock had suggested several ways of imitating timbers such as rosewood in The Decorative Painters’ and Glaziers’ Guide ( 1827). Whittock also advised on the creation of marbling effects.
Pieces decorated in this way remained popular as occasional and bedroom furniture well into the third quarter of the 19th century, and were revived again in the early years of the 20th.
Painted pieces were produced in large quantities, but are now scarce in original condition as the paintwork has rubbed off, or worse, has been stripped off completely. The practice of stripping antiques has now largely stopped, and pieces with original decoration are keenly sought after.
THE REVIVAL STYLES
Throughout the 19th century the revival of styles affected all forms of furniture, and the chest-of-drawers was no exception. Of all styles, the most influential and pervasive throughout Europe were those of the Louis
XV and XVI periods. While every country revived furniture styles from periods that had national connotations (Britain “Gothic” and Elizabethan, Italy “Renaissance”), most manufactured furniture in these 18th-century styles. By the end of the 19th century furniture made in different countries was often so similar that it can be difficult to tell where it was actually made. The increasing ease of communication, mechanization, and manufacture continued to dilute national characteristics.
At the International Exhibition of 1867 in Paris, the British firm of Wright & Mansfield (est. 1860) in London, won the supreme award for furniture. It showed a Neo-classical satinwood cabinet in the style of the architect Robert Adam (1728-92), decorated with plaques provided by the firm of Wedgwood. This gave rise in the 1880s to a revival of furniture based on the designs of Thomas Sheraton (1751-1806) and George Hepplewhite (d.1786). Sheraton Revival chests-of-drawers were usually made in light mahogany, satinwood or satin-birch, and decorated with inlaid stringing lines and shells or fan shapes, or painted with flowers and foliate scrolls. A series of books on interior design published in the late 1870s was directed at the middle classes and confirmed the fashion for Adam, Hepplewhite. and Sheraton, and in 1891 Sheraton’s
The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book (1791-1802) and Flepplewhite’s The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide (1788-94) were reprinted. Out of these revivals came the Edwardian style, which contained features of all three designers, adapted in shape and proportion, often using mahogany or satin-birch, and with bone inlay or painted ornamentation for decoration. Revivals were subject to misinterpretation, and copies were not always successful. For example, the slenderness of Sheraton forms was often slimmed down even more, and could look too attenuated and rather spindly.
After the eclecticism of the earlier 19th century, when various styles from different periods were thrown together, towards the end of the 19th century, there was a move by some firms to reproduce excellent, close copies of the original works. Some of these arc indistinguishable from the originals. Firms such as Gillow (est. c.1730) of Lancaster, and Edwards & Roberts (est. 1845) of London, developed reputations for these high-quality reproductions. Edwards & Roberts clearly stamped or labelled its chests-of-drawers. However, as it dealt in antiques and modern furniture as well as reproductions, and stamped or labelled everything that that came through its doors, it is often difficult to tell one of its copies from a genuine 18th-century piece. As well as precise copies by imitations by top firms, inexpensive were produced elsewhere.

• VENEERING check that veneers have not been used to cover poor construction.
• DATING Most Chests look distinctly 19th century, but there were fine copies of 18th-contury examples made, which can now be very difficult to distinguish; a 19th-Century mark or signature tends to be on mounts or locks rather than on the carcase, as in the 18th century.
• size as a general rule of thumb, smaller chests-ofdrawers tend to be more commercial – however, beware of fakes and items made from associated pieces.
• MARKS some firms marked their furniture with stamps or labels; marks can often be found on hinges.