Posts Tagged ‘early 19th century solid silver candlesticks’

Many major British designers used elements of the Art Deco style in their furniture, while remaining true to their Arts and Crafts roots and making little use of lavish ornament or exotic woods. Art Deco furniture was more typically produced by minor makers, whose work included copies of popular pieces shown at the 1928 Exhibition of Modern Art in Decoration and Furnishing. Held in London, the exhibition introduced decorative, continental Art Deco furniture into Britain. The Modernist influence of the 1930s is seen in the mass-produced furniture by Isokon (1932-9).
TRADITIONALISTS
The designers of the Cotswold School concentrated on the Arts and Crafts tenets of truth to materials, form derived from function, and traditional construction techniques. Native woods such as oak and walnut were favoured, and decoration was minimal. Luxury furniture was made by, among others, Sidney Barnsley (1865-1926), Peter Waals, and Robert Thompson (d.1955), the Houseman”, who used a carved mouse as his signature. Gordon Russell (1892-1980) made the most successful transition to both traditionalist and Modernist styles of Art Deco. While using traditional construction techniques, he incorporated such exotic materials as Macassar ebony and ivory into some pieces, together with Art Deco motifs like sunbursts and chevrons. His belief in the need for good-quality, mass-produced furniture led him to develop a range of furniture that used tubular steel and other synthetic materials, with machine-made parts.
Heal & Son (est. 1800), in London, maintained its role as a major manufacturer and retailer. Oak, especially limed oak, was most commonly used for a range of traditional Arts and Crafts designs with some Art Deco features. Again, decoration was minimal, and although contemporary construction techniques such as screw-fixing were used, pieces were hand-finished.

MODERNISTS
In 1934-5 Finmar Ltd was
set up in Britain to distribute Alvar
Aalto’s moulded plywood furniture. The plain, simple pieces had clean contours, decorated with blocks of colour; solid wood was often combined with laminates. The firm of Isokon (Isometric Unit Construction), founded in London by the architect Jack Pritchard (b.1899), produced a range of simple furniture, generally more adventurous than that distributed by Finmar. Designers associated with the company include Marcel Breuer (1902-81). Typical of the period are its lightweight stacking “cutout” tables and chairs made from a single sheet of cut and moulded plywood.
More exclusive Modernist Art Deco furniture was designed by Betty Joel (1896-1984), who used curving shapes, minimal decoration – wood grain or contrasting veneers – and native woods such as sycamore; from the 1930s she also used chromed steel and plywood laminates. One of the few truly innovative British Art Deco designers was Gerald Summers (1899-1967). In the 1930s he designed side-chairs and open armchairs, cut and shaped with curved backs and seats, in laminated birchwood. The Birmingham firm of PEL (Practical Equipment Ltd, est. 1931) commissioned collectable steel-frame furniture from such designers as Oliver Bernard (1881-1939) and Wells Coates (1895-1958).

•    MATERIALS light woods were popular – sycamore, limed oak, walnut, and burr-walnut
•    CONDITION plywood furniture must be in good condition: check laminated pieces for chips or flaking
•    COLLECTING one-off, commissioned pieces by well-known makers are very expensive; minor furniture is collectable if well designed and in good condition; pieces by members of Cotswold School most desirable; forms associated with Jazz Age most sought after
Marks
Heal & Son: work is stamped with this mark, inset in a circular ivory plaque on the insides of doors or inside drawers

Majolica
Although the English word “majolica” derives from “maiolica”, the term for Italian tin-glazed pottery, the inspiration for this purely Victorian phenomenon in fact came from several quarters: not only Italian Renaissance pottery but also the pottery of the Frenchman Bernard Palissy (c.1510-90), who was famous for dishes with realistically applied reptiles, crustacea, and vegetation. Closer to home, the pottery of the Staffordshire makers Thomas Whieldon (1719-95) and Ralph Wood (1715-72) was also influential. Elements of each of these were combined in the late 1840s into a decorative ceramics material that enjoyed great popularity in mid-Victorian Britain. Majolica was also made in France, Germany, and the USA, where it is popular with collectors.
IMPORTANT PRODUCERS
Majolica was produced by many small manufacturers, but three Staffordshire factories - Minton & Co. (est. 1798), Wedgwood (est. 1759), and George Jones & Sons (est. 1861) - dominated the market and between them account for most of today’s collectable pieces. Minton and Wedgwood, the
largest makers of ornamental pottery in Staffordshire, made excellent majolica ware, and indeed both claimed to have invented it. Monumental pieces by Minton astounded visitors at such important international exhibitions as the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London. Huge fountains with life-sized human and animal figures formed centrepieces at the major trade shows, surrounded by other furnishings and sometimes by whole tiled rooms that glowed with the coloured glazes. Such pieces were too expensive for profitable production and were intended primarily to enhance the companies’ prestige at such events. The third important maker is less well known outside this specialist field. George Jones & Sons in Stoke-on-Trent produced some of the finest majolica, but made little else of note and consequently had nothing to fall back on when the fashion for majolica declined at the end of the 19th century. Other British factories that produced majolica, but as a sideline to their mainstream production, include Spode (under the name of Copeland, from the 1840s to the 20th century) in Stoke-on-Trent, and the Worcester Royal Porcelain Co. (est. 1862).
Staffordshire figures
The popularity of porcelain figures in Britain during the 19th century led to a demand for less expensive imitations for the mass market, and the Staffordshire potteries obliged by making exact reproductions of the fine-quality figures made by porcelain factories such as Derby. The rustic charm of Staffordshire figures proved popular at the time, and successive generations have continued to enjoy collecting these generally inexpensive mantelpiece ornaments.
BOCAGE AND SQUARE-BASED FIGURES
The products of John Walton’s factory in Burslem (active 1810-30s) were typical of early 19th-century Staffordshire figures. Copying the tradition set by Chelsea and Derby, the factory included flowering trees, a feature known as “bocage”, behind its figures. Classical deities and allegorical figures (such as the popular set of three female figures representing “Faith”, “Hope”, and “Charity”), aimed at more educated customers, were usually mounted on the same style of square base edged with a brown line. Rustic groups of children playing and shepherdesses were mounted on similar bases or on raised green mounds with streams. Biblical characters proved immensely popular, especially “Elijah and the Widow”. One distinctive type of group, mounted on “table bases” (scroll-footed platforms), is conventionally referred to as being by Obadiah Sherratt (d.1841) after a potter who worked in Burslem from c.1815; however, it is now considered unlikely that Sherratt was responsible for the unmarked table-based models usually ascribed to him.
CHARACTERS AND FAMOUS PEOPLE
Victorian Staffordshire figures were intended to be viewed on a mantelpiece from the front only, and consequently the backs were neither modelled nor painted: hence the name “flatbacks” for such pieces. Many figures were simple but highly decorative images of children or lovers. However, from the 1840s there was a demand for portraits of famous people, whose features were copied from journals or the covers of popular printed music. In an age when the public rarely knew what famous people truly looked like, potters sometimes reused discontinued moulds to represent more topical individuals. Some figures were even wrongly named, such as a portrait of Benjamin Franklin labelled as George Washington.
Some popular figures were produced for many years and often require a close examination to determine whether they are earlier or later examples; this can greatly affect the value. There are many fake Staffordshire figures on the market, and it is important to learn the correct “feel” of genuine pieces, and to buy only from reputable dealers or auctioneers.
A Boy and “zebra”
This “flatback” figure portrays a schoolboy with a horse that has curiously been painted to resemble a zebra. Flatback
figures have little or no modelling on the back, a feature that made them easy to mass-produce. It was assumed that flatback pieces would stand on a mantelpiece above a fireplace, and this piece incorporates a spill vase at the back to hold the rolled-paper spills that were used in the 19th century for lighting the fire.
ORIGINAL AND FAKE STAFFORDSHIRE
• FORMS pairs of animals (very popular from the 1840s), portraits of royalty, politicians, military and naval heroes, sportsmen, theatrical celebrities, religious figures, notorious villains
• CENTRES OF PRODUCTION most figures were made
in the towns centred around Stoke-on-Trent, although a number were made in north-eastern England and Scotland
• COLLECTING a pair of figures will always be worth more than twice the price of a single piece; later examples are less sharply moulded than the originals, with particularly crude painting
• REPRODUCTIONS AND FAKES fake Staffordshire figures
are frequently made of pure white porcelain, stained to look old; “crazing” – a network of tiny cracks or veins in the surface glaze – affects most old figures, and fakers sometimes go to such lengths to reproduce it that they over-emphasize; the resulting effect is too regular and pronounced
Marks
Only a few Victorian Staffordshire figures are marked in any way, but research can identify some factories; earlier figures by John Walton and Ralph Salt (both active early 19th century) have their names impressed into a strap of clay at the back of the base COLOUR, GLAZE, AND TYPES
Majolica colours are not enamelled but are contained within the substance of the glaze. They are applied either as separate coloured glazes or as stains painted onto the body that are picked up by the viscous lead glazes. A sign of good-quality manufacture is that the glazes are well controlled, without blurring or dribbling. The usual majolica palette is blue (including a vivid turquoise), green, yellow, orange, black, and brown.
Majolica wares include jardinieres of every size and proportion, conservatory seats, vases, dishes, teapots, and tureens. To suit the high Victorian taste, factories vied with each other to cram ornament onto their wares, leading to the creation of extraordinary objects that are both beautiful
and bizarre. Such pieces are not to everyone’s
taste, but after years of neglect majolica
is now keenly collected and can be
surprisingly highly priced. Nothing
exemplifies the frivolity of majolica
better than the range of eccentric teapots
made by Minton and George Jones in the shape of Chinese people, monkeys, boats, fish, and cats. However, most were too costly for everyday use and survive because they were kept largely for display; some of these pieces fetch very high prices at auction.
• GLAZES semi-transparent lead
• PALETTE blue, green, yellow, brown, black, orange
• FORMS domestic wares: teapots, dishes, jugs, vases, dessert baskets, tazzas, centrepieces; umbrella stands; garden ornaments
• DECORATION highly ornamented with an eclectic range
• COLLECTING an exhibition in 1982 organized by the dealers Jeremy Cooper Ltd in London ignited interest in majolica and caused the international collector’s market to take off
• FAKES collectors should beware of unmarked pieces by minor makers that have been doctored by the addition of the Minton name etched or engraved through the glaze, in an attempt to pass them off as originals
Marks
Most of the larger producers marked their pieces; marks were usually impressed into the clay under the glaze and can therefore be difficult to see; George Jones & Sons did not always employ a company mark, but did use a distinctive design number, painted in black, usually positioned in the middle of the underside of the pieces; Wedgwood and Minton also impressed date marks into their pieces
George Jones & Sons (est. 1861)
A Vase and cover by Minton & Co.
This large ornamental vase is decorated in typical high Victorian taste, inspired by the designs of the Renaissance. Well modelled and superbly glazed in a typical, strong, majolica palette, the piece incorporates three seated Bacchic figures (one unseen here), rams’ heads, and thick leafy swags, with a cherub on the finial, and such Classical motifs as the Greek key pattern.

Pembroke and sofa tables
The elegant dropleaf table known as the Pembroke table, so called, according to Thomas Sheraton (1751-1806) in his pattern-book The Cabinet Dictionary (1803), “from the name of the lady who first gave orders for one of them”, was part of the evolution of the breakfast table. The Pembroke table was eventually replaced in the fashionable drawing-room by the sofa table, an extended version of the type, v developed in the last years of the 18th and the first decade of the 19th century.
Pembroke table
This English mahogany serpentine Pembroke table is an elegant example of its type. It has square-tapered legs, brass feet, and casters, which are all typical features of Pembroke tables of this period.
PEMBROKE TABLES
Recorded in accounts from the 1750s, Pembroke tables were placed in the drawing-room and the boudoir where they were used for taking meals, playing cards, writing, and needlework. By the 1770s this elegant, useful form was well established, and was often a vehicle for the finest cabinet-making of the Neo-classical period. The basic structure, with its two side flaps supported on hinged brackets, lent itself to almost limitless variations. The opened table may form a rectangle or a square, an oval or an octagon; it can be straight or bow-fronted, with rounded, serpentine, or D-shaped flaps; the wood can be plain or crossbanded, with marquetry, painting, or carved decoration; and the legs may be of cabriole or straight-tapered shape, of round or square section.
A drawer in the frieze is usual, but some examples have sliding sections concealing compartments, while the rare “harlequin” type includes a mechanism to raise and lower compartments of drawers and pigeon holes within the centre. Most 18th-century Pembroke tables are Supported on their four legs without understretchers, while others have decorated base supports or small platforms. Appropriately for a highly mobile piece of furniture, nearly every example is fitted with casters.
While examples are known in the Gothic and Chinese tastes of the 1760s, those produced between 1770 and 1800 reflect the Neo-classical taste at its most refined.
Veneers are of mahogany, satinwood,
or other luxurious woods; lines
are simple, proportions carefully
considered, and ornament is of the greatest delicacy. The examples illustrated by George Hepplewhite (4.1786) in The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide (1788-94) are typical of those available to the gentry during the last quarter of the 18th century. Pembroke tables with tapering legs of attenuated cabriole form, ending in the thinnest of scroll feet, were the result of French influence toward the end of the 18th century. Some had finely chiselled gilt-brass mounts.
Decoration took the form of plain stringing or crossbanding, or marquetry borders of anthemion, husks, guilloche, or scrolling acanthus, with such
embellishments as shells, medallions, or florets. These could also he painted, although garlands, beribboned swags, or tapering trails were the most usual.
The proportions of late 18th-century Pembroke tables are crucial; the side flaps are usually (but not always) equal to half the width of the central section, and should be one-third of the table height in their fall postion. There should be a frieze drawer at one end with a dummy drawer oil the opposite end. An oval table usually also displays bow-fronted end friezes to match the curve of the top. Each flap should have one or two fly-bracket Supports, opening sideways on wooden hinges. The legs should be tapered and the tops of the legs should continue upward to form the side frame of the drawer.
Pembroke tables continued to be made in the 19th century, the most advanced design having a central column with splayed legs (called a pillar and claw), which Sheraton illustrated in The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book (1791-1802). A slightly later variant was the platform base. Pembroke tables of the 1820s and 1830s are of characteristically squat proportions, with turned tapered legs, and often have two frieze drawers, one above the other.
A Pembroke table
The top of this British oval Pembroke table is set with segmented satinwood veneers and decorated with marquetry The large oval paten medallion in the centre of the top is surrounded by a band of sycamore set with scrolling plants and flowerheads, with similar decoration on the outer moulded border. Its delicate construction and graceful appearance give it especially feminine associations. As with many tables of this type, this sofa table has a real and an opposing dummy drawer; the legs are decorated with pendent husks typical of late 13th-century Neo-classical ornament.
SOFA TABLES
The sofa table was as varied as the Pembroke table in the details of its design and decoration and, like its predecessor, it followed a defining form. According to Sheraton in The Cabinet Dictionary (1803), the sofa table was specifically for use “before a sofa” where “the Ladies chiefly occupy them to draw, write or read upon
Sofa tables are usually between 1.52m (5ft) and 1.83m (6ft) long, when fully extended, and 61cm (24m) wide. The flaps, supported on fly brackets, are each about one-quarter of the width of the central section. Some examples have sliding-topped compartments in the middle for games, or rising desks for writing and drawing, but the majority have one long or two short drawers on one side of the frieze, with corresponding dummy drawers on the opposite side.
The edges of sofa-table tops are always straight, and the corners of the flaps rounded, or chamfered to form “octagon corners”, but the bases are hugely varied and closely reflect the evolving design styles of the Regency period. The top may be set on end supports, with or
without stretchers across the middle, or central supports rising from a platform base. The legs are so designed that the feet can fit a little way under a sofa, allowing the table to be pulled close to the sitter. They arc nearly always on casters.
The plainest sofa tables have plank-shaped supports dividing into splayed tapered or sabre legs with brass cappings and casters. Alternatively after c.1810, rectangular plinths were set at right angles to the uprights, often with scrolls in the angles and with scrolled feet. For more luxurious sofa tables lyre-shaped end supports or patterns of decorative spindles were favoured, and while the lion monopodia that were advocated by George Smith (active c.1786-1828) in A Collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration (1808) were rarely executed, the lion mask often appears on the decorative brass drawer handles. “Hipped” sabre or cabriole legs were also popular; they appear often on sofa tables with central supports. All of these shapes could be embellished with reeding, lines of inlaid wood or brass, or strategically placed carved paterae or leaves. Cross-stretchers provided many, opportunities for decorative turnings. Inlaid brass decoration on the table top and frieze was sometimes matched on the legs, and/or on the fronts of the fly brackets.
The timbers used for sofa tables range from plain mahogany or more fashionable timbers such as rosewood to exotic woods including calamander; lightly coloured woods such as satinwood for veneering were now no longer in vogue in the 19th century, except for crossbandings as a foil to the dark woods now in favour; common timbers such as beech could be stained or ebonized to simulate these. By c.1815 brass inlays in the manner advocated by George Bullock (c.1777-1818) were generally used to create decorative contrasts; the most lavish examples have ormolu mounts as well as inlaid brass. A rare but significant form of surface decoration on sofa tables was black and white penwork, painted by ladies to imitate inlaid ivory decoration.
Because they have been highly desirable for a long time many sofa tables have been “improved” or even fabricated beyond acceptable levels of repair and restoration. As well as “marriages” between tops and associated bases, decoration such as crossbandings or brass inlays may have been added to tops to enhance the commercial value. Bases may have been legitimately repaired, but many sofa tables have been “made up” with the trestle supports from old (and much less expensive) cheval mirrors. These arc liable to look somewhat flimsy in proportion to the table tops. Wood grain running the length of a sofa-table top, rather than across it, may indicate a top made up from another larger piece of old furniture.
• PEMBROKE TABLES beside the genuine repairs that may be necessary in the course of time, collectors should beware of later restorations and alterations to Pembroke tables: these include substituting an oval top for a (less valuable) square or rectangular one; inserting decorative veneers or crossbandings into a plain surface to increase the value, or later painting, on a previously undecorated table – usually identifiable by the quality
• SOFA TABLES those tables that have low stretchers are generally less popular than those with higher stretchers, which allow more leg room; sometimes lower stretchers have been moved, and the scars that are left should be visible, although often these areas have been re-veneered to hide them; satinwood or rosewood tables are more desirable than mahogany, and end-support tables more sought after than those with central pedestals; the best sofa tables have cedar-lined drawers
В