Posts Tagged ‘decorative style’

The eighteenth century
The somewhat oppressive style of Louis XIV died with him. After his death life at court was characterised by elegance and a lighter touch. The effect was also felt in art with the salons of Paris being at the heart of the cultural life. The luxury of city life worked through to the country homes of the aristocracy which set an example to all Europe. The houses were extended with libraries, boudoirs, dining rooms, ballrooms, dressing rooms, bedrooms, workrooms and quarters for the servants being added. To give each room
its distinctive function, the range of furniture also became extended.
France — Regency and Rococo
During the Duke of Orleans’ regency rooms were still furnished with robust furniture but in the second half of the eighteenth century this altered radically. The fashion switched to lighter, more elegant designs that were also somewhat decadent in their decorative style. This made itself apparent in furniture with flowing lines, S-forms, and scrolls. Rococo was a fairly radical style period that endured for a shorter period in France than in other European countries. Customers made ever increasing demands on the furniture makers and furniture was required that was larger in size.
This caused a demarcation among the furniture makers with them specialising for instance in a particular type of expensive wood which they then made into furniture of the very highest standards. This was equally true of the bronze founders who engraved their adornments as if it were jewellery.
Increased demand brought about a certain amount of standardisation. The ebenistes started to buy in timber, drawers, mouldings, marquetry, and handles and catches. All the ebenistes were required to sign their work from 1743, except for those working in the service of the King and yet it can be extremely difficult to identify a maker. This is because all the ebenistes also sold furniture made by others and it was their custom to sign all the furniture that they sold.
Daily life for the upper echelons of French society was extremely lively. Lots of callers were received and many visits also made, and in the evening they either attended or gave dinner parties. Lots of different types of seating were therefore needed which had to be comfortable.
Only curved forms would do for these. Among the new types of seating there was a short upholstered sofa of which one type was known as a berg&e.
This had a closed back.
There was also the bergere a joue, which somewhat resembled a modern wing chair, and a number of versions of the chaise longue for lounging on. A chaise longue that was open at the front was known as a turquoise, while the variety with upholstered armrests was known as a vieilleuse.
A canape has open armrests at the side, while a sofa has S-form closed side arms. The dressing table was accompanied by a fauteuil de toilette and a desk or bureau by a fauteuil de bureau. Rococo furniture was decorated with brocade, damask, velvet, or satin. Damask came from Genoa, Lyon, or Peking. Gobelin tapestry and cloth with petit-point embroidery from the state factory at Aubusson were used to upholster furniture. Woven reed was also used to make seats and chairs backs.
The gilt carved cartouches and shells of Italy disappeared from decorations to be replaced with unrestricted compositions with ribbons and flower stems.
The rocaille from which some say Rococo got its name came into vogue around 1750. There was a movement, up to the middle of the century, away from structure-led form towards ornamental design and was expressed also in the bronze embellishments. These were applied to table legs for example where stringers and legs met. A piece of furniture with a purely decorative function is the Rococo console which eventually replaced the console table.
Cabinets disappeared from interiors during the Rococo period except for in country homes and those of the citizenry, although there were half-height cabinets with two doors serving as wash-stand chiffoniers known as meuble d’entre deux and small bookcases with two doors. There would be a games table in
the salon, sometimes with a chessboard inlaid into its top and the round gueridon or pedestal table was made for all manner of small items. There would be a large table in the dining room together with a whole series of smaller tables and for when they wished to talk without being overheard by the servants, there would be a ‘dumb waiter’ on which the staff would leave the food before retiring. In a ladies’ room there would certainly be a dressing table or table de toilette which later became known as a poudreuse. The lady would also have a writing table or bonheur du jour in one of her rooms. Men’s desks were much heavier in appearance, usually made from palisander but other words were also used for bureaux. Flat-fronted bureaux were popular until 1750 after which the cylindrical bureaux became more fashionable.
There would be several night tables in the sleeping quarters: the tables de nuit and tables de lit. During the Rococo period beds became more elegant and graceful but often with whimsical valances from which their names were derived of lit a la Chinoise, l’Anglaise, l’Allemagne, or l`Italienne. No chests or coffers were to be seen anywhere in the salons, these had been replaced by a commode with two attendant corner cabinets.
The form of the commode had also changed. The curves of the front had now disappeared and the bronze handles and catches were geometrically arranged. The bottom of the commode was bowed. As the years passed, Rococo became increasingly more complex. Bronze ornamentation and intarsia inlays now covered the entire fronts of pieces, without regard for the drawers.
Subsequently the decoration moved more to the sides of pieces. Bronze ornamentation became more simple with cleaner lines after 1740. Whatever their specialisation, virtually every furniture maker produced commodes during the Rococo era. Some of the famous names are J.P.
Latz, J.F. Leleu, Nicolas Pineau, F. Oeben, J.H. Riesener, Bernard van Risen-burgh, and Abraham Roentgen.
There was strongly exotic side to Rococo so that lacquered furniture was extremely popular at this time. Rococo flourished most during the first half of the eighteenth century and at this time French lacquer-work production overtook even that of the Dutch who had been the biggest producers of reproduction chi-
noiserie and the largest importers of Chinese and Japanese lacquer items. The Dutch Martin brothers were the major producers of reproduction chinoiserie.
Germany and Austria
The political situation had as great an influence on the furniture industry during the Rococo period as during the preceding era.
The artistic and cultural leanings of the individual courts depended both on their geographical position and political realities. Hence the main cities of Berlin, Dresden, Munich, and Vienna took their lead from the French court.
The German/Dutch Rhineland and the area between Liege and Achen differed markedly from the German/French Rhineland. There was a clear preference for Dutch and English style furniture in northern Germany.
The biggest variation in types of furniture and their styles resulted from the personalities of the persons commissioning them. When German makers did follow French inspiration they did not do so closely. This resulted in the Bandestil or `banded style’ which got its name from the banding motif popularly used until the mid eighteenth century on much furniture, but specially on bureaux.
A German Rococo secretaire had a style of its own, with a curved form which gave a far from restful appearance. The legs and corners were also slightly bowed and slanted. These secretaires were mainly made of ebony and fitted with drawers. Colourful marquetry was very popular for decoration. Frankfurt cabinets had a similar appearance and were therefore also extremely popular.
Northern makers who followed French ideas for commodes fitted them with three, four, or five drawers but they used no veneer. Further south, in contrast, a commode was deemed to be a tall cabinet finished in walnut veneer. This was finished unpretentiously with iron handles and fittings and had straight sides. The only decorated examples were those for aristocratic houses of the princes. The commode was a piece of furniture for the common folk. These were finished with refined carving in unvarnished oak and walnut in both Achen and Liege. These cities also made corner cabinets for tableware, wardrobes,
small and tall dressers, and display cabinets.
The bureau was adopted from France too but German versions were both lower and less deep.The glazed fronted Dutch cabinet was further developed in north-west Germany and there was also clearly a Dutch influence in their lacquered furniture. Some chairs were both lacquered and decorated with inlays. The most common furniture though is made of stained walnut and oak.
The most precious pieces were gilded. Furniture made of beech or lime was usually painted yellow or white. Luxury items of furniture were also made in some places in Austria and Switzerland, often with the help of important artists. There are also delightful country pieces from this era. Rocaille motifs continued to be used in painted decoration until the middle of the nineteenth century.
France - Louis XVI
A desire for the classical world returned in the middle of the eighteenth century resulted in a number of artists making journeys to Greece and Italy. Classicism became more widely known through their books, lectures, and works of art. Excavation of Herculaneum and Pompeii produced a great array of artistic treasures which inspired many contemporary artists.
This also coincided with a movement in art towards simplicity and naturalism. This trend manifested itself first in furniture, before the other arts. Furniture makers once more used motifs such as plaited garlands, egg and tongue mouldings, Hermes, nymphs, lion’s heads, vines, rosettes, bull’s heads, and Doric friezes. Rococo had shown a preference for gilding, white paint, and light colours. The mouldings and bronze ornamentation now faded into the background. Muted coloured veneers
Louis XVI dining chair.
From the 1880’s, at the end of Rococo, inlays of Sevres porcelain had been used together with glass painting and lacquer from Asia. Floral motifs were popular for upholstery fabrics. Chairs were not just required to look fine but also to be comfortable. The backs of chairs became rounded or oval in the 1870’s. These were crested with carved decoration. Legs resembling fluted columns were popular. The types of seating did not change though.
A newcomer was the three-seat sofa known as a confidente. The sides of both sofas and bergeres were now generally straight. Console tables stood on a fluted column. Beds were no longer placed in an alcove and the side not against the wall was decorated.The common folk’s furniture remained conservative. Items made for the citizenry
included two-door cabinets, ladies’ and medium height two-door dressers. Commodes were rectangular, smooth, and mainly set on conical legs.
A newcomer to less exalted homes was the cylinder bureau.One of the best furniture makers of the time was undoubtedly J.H. Riesener.
His pieces are decorated with marquetry flowers, urns, and fruits. Furniture was decorated with many allegorical figures and bronze embellishments. Riesener partially changed his approach towards the end of the eighteenth century with the introduction of straight legs and more geometrical marquetry. He undoubtedly gave his closest attention to his rectangular secretaires and commodes with rounded corners Most of the ebenistes working for the French court were actually German.
Great names among suppliers to the court include J.F. Schwerdtfeger and Adam Weisweller. The greatest of all were Abraham and David Roentgen, who also sold to the courts of other European rulers.
A provincial Louis XVI cabinet with basin for rinsing glasses.
David Roentgen’s speciality was furniture with secret mechanisms. His marquetry decorations were based on designs by the fresco artist Januarius Zick.
David Roentgen lived in Paris between 1775 and 1780 and it was at this time that his finest pieces were made. Most of them were light in colour with bronze decoration.
The first to incorporate English ideas in furniture in France was G. Jacob, a woodcarver, who made armchairs of mahogany. The backs of his chairs were in the form of an oval medallion and they had console legs.
The fan-like fretwork form of his chair backs was very fine. The German maker J.G. Bennemann specialised after 1779 in large horizontally arranged dressers that were decorated with bronze adornments specially made by P.P. Thomire.

Tin-glazed earthenware has been produced in The Netherlands since the end of the 15th century. Introduced by immigrant Italian craftsmen who settled in Antwerp (c.1500), the techniques and the decorative style gradually spread north during the troubled years of the 1560s and 1570s. While many potteries were established at Haarlem, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam, it was the town of Delft that rose to prominence in the mid-17th century and from which the term “Delftware” is derived.
THE INFLUENCE OF ITALY
During the early to mid-16th century, potters produced what is known as the “Italian-Antwerp” style of wares, which were decorated with pine-cone motifs, scrolling stylized foliage, geometric patterns, and, later in the century, strapwork and half-shaded petal borders (sometimes termed “false gadroons”). Designs are often painted in high-fired colours copper green, yellow, and ochre) and usually boldly Outlined in blackish cobalt blue. Early wares include dishes, plates, albarelli (drug jars), and syrup-jugs. Although small household objects such as jugs or double-eared pots were probably made in large numbers, few are extant. Albarelli have survived in some quantity and can be recognized by their pronounced flanged bases and crisp mouth-rims. From around the middle of the 16th century the tortuous strapwork and adapted grotesque ornament of the Fontainebleau School in France are seen on more accomplished wares. Northern designers such as Vredeman de Vries of Leeuwarden and Cornelis Bos of Antwerp were also used as sources for this type of decoration.
Time and distance, however, gradually diluted both these influences (although they did not entirely disappear for another century). By the end of the 16th century new, more humble patterns had appeared, employing simple repeated motifs such as dashes, chevrons, or zigzags, and concentric circles enclosing stylized leaves, fruit, or flowers. Tiles were also made in large quantities, first for floors and later for walls.
Decoration was usually in blue but also in polychrome, and comprised mainly stylized leaves, flowers, and such fruit as pomegranates, and, later, figures with small corner motifs. The most important centres of production for tiles were Rotterdam, Haarlem, Delft, Gouda, Utrecht, and, later, Harlingen and Makkum.
During the period from 1600 to 1650, the influence of Italian maiolica was still felt. Decorative subjects were extensive and included shadowed foliage, whole and sliced fruit in the manner of Venice or Faenza, scrolling bryony-type flowers, zigzag patterns, and concentric bands of simplified foliage encircling formal flower-heads that resembled “targets”. Faenza-style putti and fern-type borders, leaping hounds, equestrian subjects, isolated standing figures, and blue-dash borders were also popular. However, a more local type of decoration that included religious subjects, shipping scenes, and milkmaids was gradually introduced.
THE BLUE-AND-WHITE PERIOD
From the beginning of the 17th century, the Dutch East India Company (V.O.C.) imported blue-and-white Chinese porcelain, known as kraak porcelain, into The Netherlands. The name derives from the Portuguese carracks, or merchant ships, that carried large cargoes
of Chinese export porcelain, two of which were captured by the Dutch in 1602 and 1604. During the early years of the 17th century, the type of Chinese ornament featured on this porcelain was introduced on Delftware. Within a few decades the high-fired Italian maiolica colours were largely displaced by a palette of blue and white, a switch that demonstrates the growing passion for blue-and-white Chinese porcelain.
As the Dutch brewing industry declined, many of the disused breweries in Delft were turned over to the potters, and from c.1650 Delft became the most important centre of production for tin-glazed earthenware. Factories at
this time included the Porceleynen Schotel and the Porceleynen Lampetkan.
Probably the single most important impetus for the vast increase in production of tin-glazed earthenwares was the cessation of imports of Chinese porcelain between 1645 and 1650, when the kilns in Jingdezhen were devastated by the invading Manchus. Between c.1650 and c.1680 the number of potteries in Delft rose from eight to nearly thirty. Production of blue-and-white “porcelain”, as the Dutch termed their tin-glazed earthenware, focused on reproducing Chinese wares made during the reign of Emperor Wanli ( 1,573-1619) and Transitional porcelain (1620-44), or kraak porcelain. Decoration also included Dutch landscapes and biblical subjects. Frederik van Frytom (1632-1702) was the best-known painter of plaques, plates, and dishes decorated with detailed landscapes, with dark-toned foregrounds, lighter-hued middle grounds, and hazy backgrounds. Tiles, drug jars, ewers and other hollow-wares, dishes, and flower-holders, some of great complexity (such as tall tulip vases), were produced. The most important factories included The Metal Pot, whose owner Adriacnus Kocks (d. 1701) supplied wares to the court of William and Mary, and The Rose, The Axe, The Three Bells, The White Star, The Greek A, and The Peacock. The still-life paintings of luscious flower displays by Dutch artists such as Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer and Jan van Huysum were very influential on the design of Delftware at this time.
POLYCHROME WARES
From c.1683 imports of Chinese porcelain were resumed, affecting the production of Delftware, which was aimed at the same market. From the end of the century, potters in Delft began to experiment with a polychrome palette. Wares follow the colourful famille-verte (green, red, yellow, purple, and red) and famille-rose (an opaque pink, white, and yellow) export porcelains made in China, which sometimes employed gilding. Another important influence were the Japanese Imari and Kakiemon porcelains, which were imported into The Netherlands in the middle of the 17th century while the Chinese imports were suspended. Dutch polychome wares tended to be restricted to a palette of yellow, blue, purple, green, red, and black. An important producer of polychrome wares in Delft was The Greek A factory (est. 1658), run by the Van Eenhoorn family.
Most of the wares produced during the 18th century are somewhat mundane, decorated with small repeating
patterns. Biblical subjects, plates painted with images of the months, and whaling and seal-hunting scenes were all popular forms of decoration. Production during the 18th century was extremely diverse and included wall plaques, flower-holders, coffee and tea services, butter-tubs, drug jars, candlesticks, garnitures or vases, punch-bowls, dishes, and small models of shoes. There were more than 30 potteries in Delft in the late-17th and 18th centuries, some specializing in tile production, although it seems that only two of these continued production in the 19th century. The increased popularity of English creamware (cream-coloured earthenware) caused the demise of the tin-glazed industry in The Netherlands from the early 19th century.
• BODY extremely fine, soft, and generally thinly potted
• GLAZE thick, white, and with a “peppered” effect due to air bubbles exploding during firing, seen most clearly on the backs of dishes
• STYLE until c.1600: Italianate/Fontainebleau; c.1610-20: Chinese kraak designs; c.1620-50: local styles; from c.1650: Chinese-style blue and white; from the early 18th century: an increase in polychrome in the style of Chinese and Japanese wares
• CENTRES OF PRODUCTION Delft, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Haarlem, Middelburg, and Rotterdam
• COLLECTING the choice for the collector is wide since so much was made; the condition wit] vary, but expect to find chipping on the rims of wares

Beds
From the earliest times beds have been endowed with particular importance: as places of rest and privacy, or as symbols of power. The bed was
often the most important legacy, as it was regarded as a possession of consequence, representing the continuity of the family.
EARLY BEDS
The earliest European free-standing beds were basic structures comprising roofs, posts, and bases; the fabric hangings that decorated them were of greater value, and when noblemen moved around the country, they took their bedding, curtains, and valances with them, leaving behind the plain wooden construction. An early type of bed was the truckle or trundle bed on wheels, which conveniently slid under a standing bed when not being used by a servant. By the early 16th century most beds in northern Europe were made from oak; the heads were panelled and decorated with coats of arms, lozenges, chevrons, and lettering; squat, carved posts were placed at the corners, and testers (canopies) were added in the middle of the century. This form was replaced during the 17th century with a beech frame, with tester, ornate cornice, and a back covered in the same fabric as the curtains. On grand beds the posts were tall and more slender, with luxurious hangings crowned with finials, covered with the same material as the valance, from which issued ostrich feathers. More ordinary beds were hung with cloth, linen, or moreen.
18TH-CENTURY BEDS
British beds became more subdued at the beginning of the 18th century. Cornices became straight and projecting, and fringes and tassels disappeared in favour of plain trimmings. “Angel”, or half-tester, beds, without posts at the foot, imitating the French lit a la duchesse, retained the height of their four-poster counterparts.
The panelled back was reintroduced on mahogany bedsteads of the first half of the century, with cabriole legs ending in lion’s-paw feet, and slender posts with vase-shaped plinths replacing silk-covered uprights. By 1775 the cornice had become simple in outline, straight or serpentine, still complemented by vase finials at the four corners; the surface was carved and/or gilded, and cheaper wood frames, such as beech, were painted. On Neo-classical beds the posts were often very elaborately carved with such ornament as fluting, paterae, lion masks, and acanthus. Red damask and moreen were the favoured materials for ordinary beds, although in The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide (1788-94) George Hepplewhite (d.1786) recommended the use of white dimity for “an effect of elegance and neatness”. Late 18th-century beds had a much lighter feel, with decoration taking the form of narrow, fluted posts delicately carved with wheat ears or husks or painted with ribbons and garlands of flowers. These clean light lines were echoed in the Federal period beds made in North America by such makers as Samuel McIntire (1757-1811) in Salem, Massachusetts, and Duncan Phyfe (1768-1854) in New York, the posts often decorated with Classical urn-form turnings with delicate reeding. Hangings were based on the designs in The Cabinet Dictionary (1803) by Thomas Sheraton (1751-1806) and Hepplewhite’s The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide.
19TH-CENTURY BEDS
Beds in the French Empire style, particularly lits en bateau, are usually richly and exquisitely decorated in a restrained manner; the structure had large unbroken panelled surfaces veneered in both light and dark woods, which were sometimes used in combination, and decorative themes, usually represented in ormolu, included oak, laurel, and olive wreaths, shields, helmets, swans, lions, sphinxes, and vine-leaves. Beds were made in two principal types, both of which were meant to be placed in alcoves and seen from the side; therefore only one of the four faces was properly decorated. The first type was influenced by the beds of the Louis XVI era, with straight uprights in columnar or pilaster form, no roof or curtains or excess fabric, but lavishly decorated with bronze mounts. The second type was the lit en bateau, as it vaguely resembled a small boat, with two straight ends of equal height, and rolled over, linked by a steeply curved traverse. Both types were sometimes overhung with canopies in the style of earlier fashions. This is a type of bed particularly associated with the Biedermeier period.
The Empire style was the most important influence on English beds of the early 19th century, and numerous examples can be found in A Collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration (1808) by George Smith (active c.1786-1828), and in the journal Repository of Arts (1809-28) by Rudolf Ackermann (1764-1834). The desired goal was to achieve “tasteful simplicity” by having less drapery; mahogany, or rosewood posts decorated with bronzed or gilded “Grecian ornaments”; domed testers, and hangings of red, yellow, or blue silk or calico trimmed with lace or a fringe. By the 1820s the French couch form beneath a canopy was used, although this fashion was short lived.
Throughout the later 19th century revivalism dominated fashions. ln Italy the Renaissance Revival, known as “Dantesque”, was interpreted in heavily carved beds and others decorated with ally certosina, a style of ivory and bone inlay, which had been popular in the 16th century. In North America such firms as Berkey & Gay (est. 1859) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, designed suites of bedroom furniture in the Renaissance Revival style, while the firm of Prudent Mallard (1809-79) made high-post beds at his workshop (est. 1838) in New Orleans. In Britain the “Jacobethan” Revival gave rise to the production of heavily carved four-poster beds. Tubular brass was used for bedsteads from the 1820s, and as manufacturing techniques improved during the century, cast-iron beds were made. Iron campaign beds, first made in the early 19th century, were designed to be easily assembled and transported for use on the battlefield.
• ALTERATIONS four-poster beds have often been reduced in height because of changing circumstances; check that the decoration and carving continue up the piece completely; also check to see where any reductions have been made, as the frames may have been cut to make the bed narrower or have added sections of wood to make the bed wider or longer — look along the rails for tell-talc signs in the colour and wear of the timber.
• MADE-UP BEDS these can be made up of elements from other beds, and usually it is only the front posts that will be original; the most commonly found made-up beds are tester beds from the 16th and 17th centuries.

Library and writing tables.
The earliest-known tables specifically designed for writing date from 16th-century Italy, when cabinetmakers produced elaborately carved walnut tables with sloping desks fitted into the tops and small drawers below for the storage of writing materials. Similar tables, or bureaux, probably originated in France during the third quarter of the 16th century.
THE 18TH CENTURY
Tables designed specifically for writing were introduced in England after the Restoration (1660). French tables influenced English designs during this period, and both French and English examples were usually made of oak or walnut with a rectangular folding top. The flap was supported by baluster or tapered pillar legs they are often decorated with “seaweed” or floral marquetry and closely parallel the Dutch models. During the early 18th century the Louis XIV concept of a free-standing bureau plat (a flat-topped writing table) invented by Andre-Charles Boulle (1642-1732) was taken up and adapted by English cabinet-makers. Intended to occupy a central position in the library, and to act as a statement of the wealth and power of its owner, such desks reached the zenith of their popularity in England during the mid-18th century, and by the third edition of The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director (1762) by Thomas Chippendale (1718-79), no less than 11 types of carved open pedestal desk were illustrated.
As postal systems developed, and as paper became cheaper and standards of education improved, so the need arose for less stately versions of the writing table, particularly for use by women. Some of these tables appeared in Chippendale’s Director; while others featured in The Universal System of Household Furniture (1762) by John Mayhew (1736-1811) and William Ince (c.1738-1804). A great range of new forms came into use at this time, which were notably lighter than their predecessors. Neo-classical tables were made in exotic hardwoods such as satinwood, an expensive and very fashionable wood that was particularly suited to this lighter style of table, and many examples were adorned with fine marquetry.
THE 19TH CENTURY
Several new types of writing table developed during the Regency period (c.1790-1830), including the Carlton House desk, named after the London home of the Prince of Wales (later George IV). Another fashionable form featured curved X-shaped supports at either end, with drawers in the frieze, and the flat top enclosed by a three-quarter brass gallery. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, furniture designers were given the opportunity to create a wide range of new forms, when the technology required to marry wood
to metal – developed for military purposes – was applied to furniture. The furniture of the Regency period was therefore characterized by elegant design combined with ambitious construction techniques. New features included galleries at the top of the table, used either for decorative effect or to hold books safely; numerous small drawers, hinged flaps, and curved ramps, which could be pulled out as required, extending the available surface and facilitating activities such as drawing and painting; and screens that extended beyond the main structure in order to shield the writer’s face from the heat of the fire. In addition, revolving circular or polygonal “drum”tables were invented for the library, where they were used for storing and displaying books and paper.
• “BUHL” WORK examples tend to be inferior to those of the 17th and early 18th centuries: the gilding is generally brassier and the tops are inlaid, in contrast to the leather-lined tops of the 17th-century prototypes; the drawer-linings of original examples were usually in oak, while on the copies they are in walnut.
• ALTERATIONS leather tops can get ripped and have often been replaced – this should not affect value; heavy legs have often been replaced with lighter legs of an earlier style to make the table more commercial.

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.