Posts Tagged ‘England’

Dishes
Pair of George III oval meat dishes by Frederick Kandler, London, 1765, 73 oz 2 dwt Pair of Victorian octagonal entree dishes and covers with
vegetable dividers for each and ball finials, Sheffield, 1880,
120 oz 14 dwt 450 0
George III circular vegetable dish with ivory grips, pierced sides and four scroll and foliate feet, by W.S., London, 1809, 80 oz 2 dwt 360 0
William IV shaped oblong entree dish and cover with engraved armorials and foliate ring handle, by J. C. Eddington, London, 1835, 61 oz 5 dwt 260 0
George III muffin dish and cover, the domed cover with urn
shaped finial, by Henry Chawner, London, 1791, 15 oz 1 dwt        210 0
Jugs—Cream and Milk
George III helmet-shaped cream jug with ‘bright-cut’ engraving, loop handle and square pedestal foot, by George Smith, London, 1790, 3 oz 7 dwt 80 0
George II cream jug of conch shell type with serpent handle and
three coral-like supports. Circa 1755, 3 oz 5 dwt 80 0
George III oblong milk jug engraved with crests and with gadroon lip and scroll handle, by R. and S. Hennell, London, 1808, 6 oz 2 dwt 70 0
Victorian baluster milk jug chased with flowers and scrolls and on three feet. Possibly by William Brawn, London, 1845, 5 oz 7 dwt 52 0
Jugs—Water
George III pear-shaped hot-water jug, stand and lamp, the jug with rams’ masks and laurel festoons, the stand on three claw feet with female bust terminals, by Andrew Fogelberg. The jug 1776, the stand 1775, 40 oz

780 0
George III vase-shaped hot-water jug, plain with wood handle and on circular foot, by William Fountain, London, 1801, 25 oz 11 dwt 460 0
George II baluster hot-water jug chased with scrolls, leaves and flowers, raffia-covered handle and rim foot, by Gurney and Cook, London, 1755, 19 oz 15 dwt 270 0
Jugs—Wine and Ale
Queen Anne ale jug, die ground embossed with foliage and flowers and a satyr spout, by John Wisdom, London, 1712, 35 oz 280 0
Victorian wine ewer with baluster body and engraved with Grecian figures and leaves, entwined snake handle and butterfly finial, by E. and J. Barnard, London, 1862, 27 oz 11 dwt        170 0
Marrow Scoops
Queen Anne scoop of typical form by Charles Jackson, 1713,
1 oz 10 dwt 68 0
Early George III scoop, the larger bowl engraved with initials,
probably by William Tuite, London, 1767, 1 oz 12 dwt 20 0
Mustard Pots
George III drum mustard with moulded borders, flat hinged lid and simple scroll handle, with spoon of earlier date. Pot by Ernes and Barnard, London, 1813, 5 oz 10 dwt 165 0
some auction room prices : 1968-69
William IV mustard with ribbed baluster body and hinged domed lid with floral finial, scroll handle and shell thumbpiece and spoon of same date but different maker. Pot by C.G., London, 1830, 6 oz 17 dwt
George III oblong mustard with domed cover, urn finial and angular handle on four bun feet, London, 1813, 3 oz 11 dwt
Salts
Four George I plain oval trencher salts with incurved sides, by
Mary Rood, 1723, 6 oz 15 dwt Pair of George III boat-shaped salts, reeded at the lips and
pedestal feet, gilt interiors, by Peter and Ann Bateman, 1792,
4 oz 6 dwt
Pair of George II compressed circular salts, with plain engraved bodies below gadroon lips each on three shell-headed hoof supports, possibly by Isaac Cookson, Newcastle, 1747, 8 oz 1 dwt
Salvers
George II large circular salver on four lions’ mask and shell bracket feet, the shaped border pierced and chased, by George Wickes, 1744, 137 oz
George I plain circular salver on central foot with moulded border, by W.P., 1720, 13 oz 12 dwt
George III circular salver, engraved with initials, chased wave border and gadroon rim, on three claw and ball feet, by Robert Rcw or Rugg, 1766, 24 oz 3 dwt
Victorian salver engraved in the centre with an initial and also with scrolls and foliage, moulded border, by J. and J. Angell, London, 1845, 25 oz 14 dwt
Sauceboats
Pair of George II plain sauceboats each on three shell and scroll feet with gadrooned rims and double scroll handles, by Peter Archambo and Peter Meure, 1754, 29 oz
George II two-handled plain double-lipped sauceboat on collet foot, with double scroll handles and waved rim, with a moulded drop beneath the spout, by Peter Archambo, 1732, 17 oz 5 dwt
Pair of George III sauceboats, each on fluted shaped lozenge foot, with gadrooned borders and double scroll handles, by William Sampcl, 1766, 25 oz
Snuff Boxes—See Small Decorative Antiques Sugar Basins—See Baskets—Sugar Tapersticks—See Candlesticks Tankards
William and Mary tankard on three lion couchant feet, scroll handle, cylindrical body and moulded base, by Robert Cooper, 1692, 31 oz
George II baluster tankard with domed cover, openwork thumb-piece and double-scroll handle, on moulded spreading foot, by William Grundy, 1755, 34 oz 5 dwt 650 0
George III baluster tankard, with domed moulded cover and heart-shaped lower terminal to the scrolling handle, by William Caldecott or Gripps, 1765, 27 oz 15 dwt 570 0
Tea Caddies
George III oval caddy, the body with two bands of bright-cut engraving in beaded borders and the plain hinged lid with urn finial, by Hester Bateman, 1781, 14 oz 10 dwt 900 0
George III shaped oval caddy, the body fluted at intervals, decorated with bright-cut engraving, hinged domed cover with wood finial, by Robert Hennell, 1787, 14 oz 17 dwt 480 0
Teapots and Stands
George II bullet teapot with engraved shoulder decoration of satyr masks, leaves and flowers, straight spout, loose lid, ivory handle and finial, by Isaac Liger, 1729, 15 oz 1 dwt 2,100 0
George III teapot stand on four fluted panel supports, by Hester
Bateman, 1789, 4 oz 15 dwt 280 0
George III oval teapot with moulded girdles and a matching stand, supported on four feet, by Crespin Fuller, London, 1800, 16 oz 15 dwt 270 0
George III oval, semi-lobed teapot, with swan-neck spout, ivory handle and finial, by P. A. and W. Bateman, 1799, 17 oz 3 dwt 170 0
George IV teapot, compressed circular body, ivory handle and
finial, curved spout, by Eley and Fearn, 1823, 25 oz 16 dwt        150 0
William IV compressed circular teapot with moulded girdle, wood finial and similar wood handle, by E. E. J. and W. Barnard, 1830, 14 oz 2 dwt 135 0
Early Victorian bullet-shaped teapot with engraved body, Edinburgh, 1840, 24 oz 82 0
George III oval teapot stand, gadroon border on four panel
supports, but George Fenwick, Edinburgh, 1806, 5 oz 14 dwt 80 0
William IV small melon-shaped teapot, with slightly domed cover and ivory finial, scroll handle and curved spout, London, 1833, 13 oz 18 dwt 60 0
Tea and Coffee Services
Victorian tea and coffee service of compressed circular form, decorated with embossed flowers and foliate handles and on scrolled feet with shell motifs, by Rawlins and Sumner, London, 1838, 72 oz 600 0
George IV three-piece melon-shaped tea service with scroll handles and shell decorated panel supports, by E. E. J. and W. Barnard, London, 1829, 44 oz 7 dwt 500 0
George III circular three-piece tea service with curved lobes, gadroon rims and leaf decorated handles, on paw supports, the pot with rose finial, by John Angell, 1819, 41 oz 6 dwt 380 0
Victorian three-piece tea service of compressed circular form,
the plain ground richly chased, by I. J. Keith, London, 1840, 48 oz
Vinaigrettes—See Small Decorative Antiques Waiters
Pair of George III plain oval waiters each on four shell and beaded bracket feet, beaded rims, by John Scofield, London, 1777, 27 oz
George II plain shaped square waiter on four hoof feet, moulded border, by Thomas Farren, London, 1734, 6 oz 17 dwt
Early George II square waiter with raised border incurved at the angles, 1727, 3 oz 18 dwt
SHEFFIELD PLATE Candelabra and Candlesticks
Pair of candelabra, each for three lights, with reeded scrolling arms, gadroon bordered knops, detachable nozzles and circular bases, 17i in high to centres
Pair of three-light candelabra, the tapering vase stems, circular bases and campana-shaped sconces decorated with chased borders, each fitted with two detachable scrolling branches, one converting to form a

five-light and bearing flame finial, 20 in high
Pair of table candlesticks with V-shaped stems, gadroon shoulders, circular bases and detachable nozzles, llj in high
Pair of table candlesticks with circular bases, vase-shaped stems and gadroon borders, detachable nozzles, 11 in high
Coffee Pots
Vase-shaped coffee pot on pedestal foot with reeded borders, ball finial and wood handle, 13 in high
An oval coffee pot on pedestal base, with reeded shoulder, gadroon borders and angular wood handle, 9] in high
Urn-shaped coffee pot, body semi-lobed between ribbed panels, on pedestal base, ball finial and wood handle, 27 in high
Coasters—Wine
Four circular wine coasters with lobed sides below gadroon lips, the wood bases centred by crested bosses, 5J in diameter
Pair of circular coasters with beaded and ovolo rims, wood bases, 6 in diameter
Caddies—Tea
Two caddies of bombd form embossed with shell motifs Serpentined caddy with hinged lid and beaded borders
Dishes
Set of four entree dishes and covers on heater bases, oblong with scrolling foliate borders, 14 in wide over handles
Pair of entree dishes and covers with gadroon borders and
detachable foliate handles, 11 in wide 22 0
A rectangular entree dish and cover complete with liner, gadroon and leaf borders, wood end handles, on four supports, 141 in wide 20 0
Teapots
An oblong teapot, body semi-Iobed between gadrooned borders, short spout, ivory finial and angular wooden handles, 5J in high 25 0
A compressed circular teapot engraved with swirling leafage,
fruit finial and scroll handle, 5J in high 18 0
Tea and Coffee Services
Oval three-piece coffee service with vase-shaped pot, oval jug and basin decorated with bands of sprays and foliage, 10 in high the pot 160 0
Three-piece tea set with compressed circular bodies, fluted,
foliate collars, scroll handles and foliate panel supports 38 0
Tea Trays
Oblong two-handled tray, engraved with armorials within a chased surround of scrolls and floral sprays, gadroon border, 30 in wide 220 0
An oblong tray, gadroon bordered and reeded end handles
springing from chased foliage, 28 in wide 95 0
Tea Urns
An inverted compressed pear-shaped urn, the body engraved
with a crest, foliate handles and flower finial, 16 in high 75 0
An oviform urn with an applied plain shield, the cover with vase finial, reeded loop handles, on square base with ball feet, 221 in high 45 0
Tureens
Large shaped oval sauce tureen on four feet below heavily
chased floral motifs, detachable liner, 16J in wide 230 0
Pair of oval sauce tureens and domed covers with gadrooned rims, decorated with acorns and oak leaves at the handles, 8Ј in wide (end handles missing from one tureen) 120 0
Wine Coolers
Set of four coolers, the campana-shaped bodies engraved with contemporary armorials above lobing reeded handles and gadroon borders, on pedestal bases, 9i in high 520 0
Pair of coolers with campana-shaped bodies, reeded handles and
on pedestal bases, 9J in high 200 0
NON-PRECIOUS METALS
Brass
Pair of eighteenth-century andirons, with spherical finials, and
masks, 29 in high 100 0
SOME AUCTION ROOM PRICES ! 1968-69
A club fender
A Corinthian column floor standard
An embossed fire kerb
A two-handled log tub on paw feet
An alms dish with lobed centre and inscription border, the rim
with punched rosettes, 15} in diameter Pair of spirally-turned candlesticks on domed feet, 20J in high A hanging oil lamp Pair of chambersticks, with snuffers A heavy log tub with lion mask handles on paw feet Brass

and steel semi-circular fender
An oval fire insurance plate with a crest of a stag, dated 1774 Pair of carriage lamps A helmet coal-scuttle
A warming-pan with turned wood handle Pair of baluster candlesticks, 9 in high
Bronze
Figure of a racehorse and jockey after Isadore Bonhcur, I0j in
high
The Capture of Alexander by G. Halse. Two warriors hold a
struggling youth. Signed and dated 1860, 24 in high Eighteenth-century Italian figure The Dying Gladiator signed
Canova
Figure of a dancing fawn, holding up a bunch of grapes and
balanced on his left foot, 14 in high Figure of an infant satyr playing a set of pipes, 9j in high Pair of busts of Henry IV and Sully, three-quarter length, both
wearing ruffs and decorations, on rouge marble socles, 20} in
high
Pair of Art Nouveau winged figures stamped A. Moreau, 9J in
high
Pair of five-light candelabra on bulbous stems Italian figure of Venus, 7 in high
Copper
Early nineteenth-century tea urn on a square base
A street lamp
Three large saucepans (one with lid) Two coal scuttles A large kettle
Coal helmet with swing handle
Large two-handled urn and cover
A copper and brass tea urn with tap
A long turned wooden-handled warming-pan
Iron and Steel
Steel and brass basket grate with pierced frieze and baluster
uprights, 20 in wide Seventeenth-century Sussex wrought-iron fireback, 2 ft 10 in
by 1 ft 8 in and a log fork Wrought-iron shaped fire-back Regency iron and brass stick stand on paw feet
Victorian cast-iron corner stick stand 5 10
Victorian cast-iron oil heater 3 10
Pewter
A charger with secondary touch of Thomas Lanyon, circa 1730,
20 in diameter 36 0
Five quart tankards 35 0
A four-branch candelabrum, 24 in high 22 0
Eighteenth-century circular charger, 20 in diameter 22 0 Pair of altar candlesticks, baluster-shaped stems on triangular
bases, 20 in high 16 0
Pair of baluster and cup candlesticks, 18 in high 15 0
A hot-water meat dish with two handles and a grill, 22 in wide 15 0
A travelling chamber-pot, stamped Jas. Dixon 14 0
Two tankards and a mug 6 0

CLOCKS, WATCHES AND BAROMETERS Bracket Clocks
Repeater clock by Edwardus East with signed and engraved
backplatc in cboniscd case 600 0
A three-train musical clock by Moore of Ipswich with eight tunes in ebony case with gilt metal mounts in mid-eightccnth-century style, 2 ft 2 in high 440 0
George III fruitwood clock by Recordon, late Emery, London, with painted dial and frets at side and front of case, 1 ft 2 in high 290 0
George III walnut clock, the dial signed Joseph Smith, Chester,
and of pronounced Continental character, 1 ft 6 in high 210 0
George III ebonised clock, the 7-in dial signed William Smith, with calendar and strike/silent dial. The movement is contained in an inverted bell-topped case, 1 ft 4 in high 190 0
Louis XV contra-boullc clock with enamel dial signed Darmezin, Paris, and movement signed Crepaux, Paris, in cartouche-shaped case, 3 ft 1 in high 190 0
Louis XV Boulle clock by Pcrrache, Paris, with an enamelled dial, the case surmounted by a youthful figure of Jove, richly mounted in ormolu, 2 ft 6 in high 170 0
George III mahogany clock by Massey, Bridge Road, Lambeth, the circular white-painted dial with a central calendar hand, 1 ft 4 in high 140 0
George III mahogany clock, the 7-in circular dial signed Lamb and Webb, London, with calendar and engraved backplate in bell-top case, 1 ft 4 in high 120 0
Mid-eighteenth-century veneered ebony clock signed John Small-wood, Lichfield, with pull quarter repeat, 1 ft 4 in high (later dial) 85 0
George III mahogany clock, the 8-in arched silvered dial signed Gravell and Tolkien, London, with engraved backplate and tic-tac escapement in broken arch-topped case, 1 ft 6 in high 60 0
Regency rosewood clock signed on dial John P. Smith, 1 ft 3 in
high 20 0
Carriage Clocks
Clock in gilt case by James McCabe, London 675 0
Repeating French brass clock with white dial signed Gibson
and Co Ltd, Belfast, 6J in high 68 0
French brass clock with white dial signed Rowel, Oxford, 4Ј in high
Repeating brass clock with white dial and glazed brass case, 5 in high
Gilt metal timepiece, the glazed case with pierced floral frets at the sides and front, 5 in high and with travelling case
Miniature silver-cased repeating clock with white dial. The case stamped J. Keller, 3J in high
Lantern Clocks
Brass clock with engraved copper dial and an alarm disk, 1 ft 1 in high
Late seventeenth-century brass clock, the dial engraved with flowers and with pierced dolphin cresting, 1 ft 3 in high
Longcase Clocks
Late seventeenth-century marquetry clock, the 11-in dial signed Robt. Williamson, London, with calendar aperture in a walnut case inlaid with shaped panels of birds and flowers, with a bullseye in the waist door and with spirally turned columns at the corners, 6 ft 7 in high (frieze of a later date)
Tall mahogany cased clock with chimes. The elaborately foliated brass dial with a silvered chaptered ring. The case inlaid with classic urns in coloured woods, the arched hood has brass spires and the waist has a bevelled glass door
A carved mahogany cased clock with a grotesque satyr mask to the hood over a brass floral scrolled dial. Westminster, Whittington and St Michael chimes, 7 ft 7 in
Mahogany clock made by Manley of Chatham
Eighteenth-century walnut clock with domed canopy and brass face, the movement by William Stapleton, London, 7 ft 4 in high
Walnut clock, the early eighteenth-century movement signed
Andr. Dunlop, London, the 12-in dial with chestnut and
flower spandrels, 7 ft 4 in high Georgian lacquer clock with brass face and striking movement.
The case, with ‘bullseye’ door, decorated with gilt chinoiseries
on a simulated tortoiseshell ground Eighteenth-century small clock by John Lee, Gookham; with
brass dial and foliated spandrels, in a black lacquer case
decorated with chinoiseries in red and gill
Mantel Clocks
An ormolu clock, the painted dial signed F. Linke, Paris, the movement in a glazed case in well chiselled ormolu with drapery, acanthus leaves and groups of fruit and ending in double cloven-hoof feet, 2 ft 11 in high
Bronze and ormolu mounted clock, the movement contained in a drum upon which is seated a Chinaman holding a parasol, the whole on the back of an elephant, 1 ft 4 in high
A French clock, inscribed Bonniere a Clermont, in a rococo porcelain case. The blue and gilt ground painted with musicians, lovers and flowers. On a similar stand
Louis XVI marble and ormolu clock, the striking movement with enamel dial signed Hessen. The arched architectural case with drapery festoon, pineapple finials, an urn and fluted columns, 1 ft 5 in high 110 0
Regency rosewood clock, the movement by Dwerrihouse &
Carter, Davies Street, 2 ft high 70 0
Philippe clock with glass panels in gilt metal case with corinthian columns and surmounted by an urn. Decorated with coloured enamels, 18 in 68 0
An Empire marble clock mounted in ormolu, the movement with outside count-wheel, the dial surmounted by a white marble urn and suspended between fluted columns capped by ormolu pineapples, 1 ft 4 in high 55 0
Watches
Gentleman’s 18-carat gold half-hunter watch 20 0
Early nineteenth-century verge watch by D. Nevern, in a tor-
toiseshell case, the dial enamelled with a wharf-side scene 13 0
Gentlemen’s 18-carat gold pocket watch by George Harvey,
Wellington 13 0
George III verge watch by William Fowler, London, in a silver
case, London 1783 9 0
Nineteenth-century verge watch by Nicoll, Great Portland
Street, in a tortoiscshcll case 7 10
Barometers
Early   Victorian   mahogany  stick   barometer  by  E. Davis,
Shrewsbury, 3 ft 3 in high 70 0
Regency rosewood inlaid with mother-o’-pearl banjo barometer
and thermometer 46 0
George III mahogany banjo barometer and thermometer with engraved scales by A. M. Ortelli, Godalming, the case outlined with fruitwood lines, 3 ft 2 in high 38 0
Georgian mahogany stick barometer and thermometer by Rout-ledge, Carlisle 38 0
Mahogany stick barometer and thermometer by Salmon, Bath 38 0
A Regency rosewood banjo barometer and thermometer by
Aprile Sudbury 34 0
Early nineteenth-century mahogany banjo barometer by Lione and Tarone, London, with a thermometer and the case inlaid with Prince of Wales plumes and a whorl pattern, 3 ft 2 in high 30 0
Early nineteenth-century mahogany banjo barometer by A.
Celti, Reading, the case inlaid with shells, 3 ft 2 in high 22 0
SILVER
(Troy weight: 20 pennyweights [dwt] = 1 ounce [oz])
Baskets for Bread, Cakes, Fruit, Sugar or Sweetmeats George II oval-shaped cake basket on four cherub mask and scroll feet. The sides pierced and engraved with flowers and
scrolls and the base engraved with a coat-of-arms, by Paul
Crespin, 1753, 62 oz 3,600 0
George III oval pedestal cake basket by John Ernes, London,
1804, 24 oz 10 dwt 400 0
George III boat-shaped pedestal sugar basket with engraved border, reeded edge and swivel handle by Peter, Ann and William Bateman, London, 1793, 5 oz 10 dwt 320 0
Victorian oval basket, the pierced panels embossed with beading
and garlands, London, 1895, 19 oz 62 0
Candelabra and Candlesticks
Pair of George I dwarf table candlesticks, the baluster shafts upon square terraced bases by William Darkeratt, 4J in high, London, 1726, 20 oz 1,500 0
Victorian tabic candelabra with two tiers of six scrolled branches issuing from a bold Corinthian column supported on a square terraced foot, with neo-classic rams’ mask and husk swags by R.H. over R.H., London, 1877, 30 in high 355 0
Pair of George III table candlesticks, the tapering baluster shafts upon half-fluted circular bases by John Green & Co, Sheffield, 1800 195 0
George III chamber candlestick and snuffer, the gadrooned edge
witli shell motif by William Cafe, London, 1761, 12 oz 130 0
Casters
Garniture of three George II vase-shaped sugar casters of plain
design by John Delmester, London, 1758, 15 oz 10 dwt 930 0
William IV Scottish baluster caster engraved with a crest above floral decoration on a granulated ground, by Elder & Co, Edinburgh, 1832, 4 oz 7 dwt 90 0
George III baluster caster with pierced cover and wrythen
finial, by Thomas Satchwell, 1780, 2 oz 4 dwt 85 0
George III vase-shaped caster the otherwise plain body engraved with contemporary crest. The mark of George Giles struck over another, 1783, 2 oz 8 dwt 65 0
Coasters—Wine
Set of four partly fluted circular coasters with gadrooned rims and engraved with crests by John & Thomas Settle, Sheffield, 1818 410 0
Pair of George III coasters with pierced waved galleries, London, 1794 270 0
Pair of William IV circular-shaped wine coasters with foliate borders and crested silver bosses to the wood base, by Henry Wilkinson & Co, Sheffield, 1831 150 0
Pair of George III coasters with beaded rims, the pierced sides stamped with arcading, urns and laurel festoons, maker’s mark missing, 1794 100 0
Coffee Pots
George I small plain cylindrical coffee pot with octagonal spout and low domed cover with baluster finial, by Paul De Lamcrie, London, 1725, 11 oz 3 dwt 1,900 0
George II baluster coffee pot, plain with foliate decorated spout, wood handle and hinged domed lid, probable maker Fuller White, London, 1759, 21 oz 1,350 0
Late George III tapering cylindrical coffee pot, the plain body engraved with contemporary armorials and a crest, by Peter, Ann and William Bateman, London, 1802, 35 ox 2 dwt 1,200 0
George IV coffee pot, vase-shaped, with moulded bands at the neck and waist, leaf-capped scroll handle and foliate finial on lid, by Pearce & Burrowes, London, 1826, 22 oz 5 dwt 210 0
Victorian vase-shaped coffee pot engraved with key pattern
decoration, London, 1872, 24 oz 135 0
Cruets
George II five-bottle cruet frame on four shell feet with detachable baluster handle. Five cut-glass silver-mounted bottles. By Jabez Daniel, 1750, 28 oz 7 dwt 105 0
George III cruet frame for six bottles with reeded loop end handles, ring holders, on four feet. Five glass bottles all chipped, one broken. By Henry Chawner, London, 1792 16 0
Cups and Goblets
Elizabeth I secular wine goblet, the bowl decorated with tulips and strapwork motifs, on a slender baluster stem and circular fluted foot, London, 1593, 5 oz 10 dwt 2,000 0
Pair of George III goblets of plain design, probably by William
Sumner, London, 1800, 20 oz 520 0
Pair of George III two-handled pedestal challenge cups and covers with reeded decoration and urn knops, by Samuel Hcnnell, London, 1806, 32 oz 5 dwt 400 0
George III tumbler cup engraved with armorials, gilt interior and the base with contemporary initials. Possibly by John Garter, London, 1766, 2 oz 1 dwt 150 0
Victorian wine cup, the beaker-shaped bowl and pedestal base cast and chased in low relief with grape-laden vine tendrils, by Hunt and Roskell, London, 1875, 10 oz 1 dwt 52 0
Cutlery—Canteens
George III fiddle thread pattern table silver: 24 tablespoons, 36 table forks, 12 dessert spoons, 12 dessert forks, 12 teaspoons, 6 sauce ladles, 2 soup ladles, 1 marrow scoop, majority by Richard Crossley, 1798/1800/1804, 146 oz 9 dwt 750 0
Victorian fiddle pattern table silver: 12 tablespoons, 12 table forks, 12 dessert spoons, 12 dessert forks, 6 teaspoons, 2 salt spoons, by George Angell, London, 1863, 116 oz 14 dwt 260 0
Cutlery—Forks Dessert
Twelve George I  three-pronged  forks with crest, different
makers, 1718, 14 oz 1 dwt 1,500 0
Twelve George IV fiddle pattern forks by James Scott, Dublin,
1822, 15 oz 75 0
Six George III fiddle pattern forks by G.D., London, 1794,
8 oz 14 dwt 65 0
SOME AUCTION ROOM PRICES ! 1968-69
Cutlery—Forks Table
Twelve Queen Anne three-pronged forks engraved with a crest,
by David King, Dublin, 1708/10, 28 oz Four George II three-pronged forks engraved with two crests,
1755, 7 oz 18 dwt Eleven Victorian fiddle shell pattern forks by George Angell,
1857/61, 36 oz 16 dwt
Cutlery—Forks Toasting
George III fork with knopped shaft and scrolled handle, probably by R. Preston, London, circa 1767, 7 oz 10 dwt. 17f in long
George III fork with knopped shaft and scrolled handle by John Deacon, London, circa 1775, 8 oz. 19i in long
Cutlery—Knives
Forty-eight Victorian table knives and twenty-four dessert knives, kings pattern, steel blades by J.A. or T.S., 1884
Twelve eighteenth-century dessert knives, the multi-faceted bloodstone handles with knopped urn finials and mounts engraved, the scimitar blades of steel. Circa 1700, (Some handles cracked)
Cutlery—Ladles
Four George III sauce ladles, crested Old English pattern by
Hester Bateman, 1783, 5 oz 19 dwt Pair of George III sauce ladles with ribbed and punched beaded
bowls, by Michael Keating, Dublin, circa 1780, 2 oz 16 dwt
Cutlery—Spoons Dessert
Nine engraved spoons, seven by William Soame, 1741, two 1748, 12 oz
Ten Hanoverian spoons engraved with crest, 1760, 11 oz 5 dwt Cutlery—Spoons Serving
Pair of George III Old English pattern spoons by Steven Adams,
London, 1772, 5 oz 15 dwt Pair of Victorian spoons by George Angell, 1854, 10 oz 14 dwt
Cutlery—Spoons Table
Six George I Hanoverian pattern spoons with rat-tail bowls
by Charles Jackson, 1723, 11 oz 2 dwt Six George III Old English pattern spoons with contemporary
initials J.G. by Hester Bateman, 1780, 11 oz 17 dwt
Cutlery—Spoons Tea and Coffee
Six William IV ‘bright-cut’ spoons, 1836, 3 oz 7 dwt Eight George IV fiddle shell pattern spoons by J. McKay, Edinburgh, 1827, 4 oz 8 dwt

The Regency style of cutting can be
regarded as the classical standard of
British cut glass. It was not long to survive,
however, for in the new designs of 1825-30
there was a change from mitre-cutting to
flat-cutting or surface slicing in a vertical
pattern, as opposed to the horizontal
patterns of previous years. Horizontal
bands of diamonds were replaced as
decoration by a vertical arrangement of
broad hollow flutes, ‘pillared’ flutes, or flat
vertical facets. The essentials of this new
style can be seen in the pattern drawings
of about 1830 of Samuel Miller, foreman
cutter at the Watcrford glass-works in
Ireland. The style may have started in the
cutting shops of Birmingham. Apsley
Pellatt at the Falcon Glasshouse in South-
wark, London, was producing vessels with
vertical arrangements of fine diamond
panels about 1820. The decanter illus-
trated shows pillar-cutting of about the
toco’s.
The broad-fluted style of cutting was
international, with overtones of the early
18th century, and was especially associated
with the Budermeter glass of Central
Europe. About the same time as this style
of cutting appeared in England, the shape
of glass became more angular and straight-
sided, which was suitable for the new form
of decoration. Decanters, particularly,
changed from the barrel shape to a
cylindrical shape with vertical sides. This
remained the characteristic style of the
1830’s and the early 1840’s. Some elabora-
tion on the style took place on the better
pieces so that flutes would have multiple
profiles and would alternate with panels of
mitre-cutting. Arched patterns became
fashionable around 1840; often complex
in detail, they still retained the strongly
vertical tendency of style. The decanter
illustrated is a good example of the arched
decoration of the 1840’s, with mitre-
cutting enclosed by the arches.
CUT-GLASS DECANTER
By Apsley Pellatl, England, 1851
Ht. 311 mm (12-25 11,1
During the 1830’sand 1840’s glass-makers
in England began to appreciate once more
the curves and rounded shapes one could
attain with glass. Water carafes and
decanters began to have spherical bodies,
and champagne glasses with the new-
hemispherical bowl were introduced.
Wine-glasses now had ogee-shaped and
bill-shaped bowls, and cutting consisted
of plain facets running through from the
bowl to the stem. The spherical carafes and
decanters were often cut with ‘printies’ or
rows of large shallow facets. The decanter
illustrated, made by Apsley Pellatt in
London in 1851, has these rounded
hollows on the body of the vessel. Occas-
ionally heavy mitrc-cutting was used, but
the tendency was to decorate these boldly
curving shapes with engraving as opposed
to cutting. The period of common use for
these shapes in England coincided with the
eclipse of the technique of cutting in the
1860’s and 1870’s.
CUT-GLASS DECANTER
England, about 1850. lit. 381 mm (15 in.)
The Glass Excise in England was removed,
after much agitation, in 1845. Glass could
now be made to any thickness without fear
of taxation. One result was a revival in
interest in deep mitre-cutting, where the
glass was thicker and the cutting deeper
than ever before. The decanter illustrated
is a good example of this. Large-scale
mitre-cutting was to be a feature of this
mid-ioth century work. Intricate curvi-
linear designs became more common, and
the actual shapes of the vessels were freer
and had more variety. Contemporary
engravings illustrated much of the intri-
cately cut glass on display at the Great
Exhibition of 1851. Objects that have
survived to the present day show that the
glasses were not quite the ‘prickly mon-
strosities’ they appeared to be in 19th-
century engravings. Mention should be
made of the firm of F. & C. Osier of
Birmingham, who produced enormous
cut-glass centrepieces for this and other
exhibitions, and for eastern potentates
CUT-GLASS BOWL.
Decorated by E. Hammond, Stevens & Williams,
England, about 1895. Diam. 419 mm (16-5 in.)
After the 1851 Exhibition, cut glass was
largely disregarded for many years in
England. During the later 1850’s, 1860’s
and 1870’s, spherical vessels with en-
graved decoration were the fashion. Some
cut glass was always made in this period,
but without any great originality of
thought so far as the design was concerned.
Pressed glass imitations of cut glass also
spurred the reaction against real cut glass.
The intellectual set were against it on
aesthetic grounds from the middle of the
century. In John Ruskin’s words ‘all cut
glass is barbaric’ (Stones of Venice Vol. II
(1853)). Glass fashions at this period were
more or less international, so the eclipse of
cut glass also took place in Central Europe,
France and the U.S.A. at the same time.
However, it came internationally to the
fore again in the 1880’s and 1890’s. In the
pattern books of British manufacturers for
that period the new designs show cutting
as elaborate as was technically possible.
CUT-GLASS BASKET
Stevens & Williams, England, about 1880
Ht. 175 mm (688 in.)
Glass-cutters in England in the 1880’s and
1890’s aimed at a mathematical precision
in their work. Technical improvements
helped them to achieve this, so that even
shapes that were difficult to decorate with
cutting, such as the cut-glass basket
illustrated, became a commercial proposi-
tion. Cut-glass objects that aspired to lesser
heights were square-section toilet bottles
and whisky decanters with ball stoppers,
which were decorated all over with dia-
mond mitre-cutting. Cut glass was looked
upon as the ‘old legitimate trade’ by glass-
makers, and tended to a conservatism in
design, yet the variety of new shapes in
these years was in line with the freedom
of the fancy-coloured glassware that was
being produced, This decoration became
once more the symbol of social and
material success, and was much patronised
by the middle and upper classes. Pressed
glass imitations were no longer the threat
they had been.
DECANTER IN CLEAR COLOURLESS GLASS WITH CUT
DECORATION
Bakewell, Page & Bakewell, Piltsburgh, U.S.A., 1825
The earliest known specimens of American
cut glass date from 1824, although evi-
dence does exist to indicate that cutting
may have been practised even earlier than
this date. Motifs that were used exten-
sively were flutes, panels, stars and plain
geometric bands. The cut decoration was
hand-polished on wooden wheels, which
gave it a softer lustre than that given by the
later high-speed wheel polishing or acid
bath. North American glass factories that
produced cut glass in the early 19th
century were the Bakewell (Company of
Pittsburgh, the New England Glass Com-
pany, and the Boston and Sandwich Glass
Company. By 1830, the American glass
factories were producing enough glass to
encourage the government to stop foreign
imports, and in that year a high Federal
tariff was levied against imports from
Europe. The Baldwin Bill severely limited
imports, resulting in a boom in the
American glass industry.
COVERED VASE IN CLEAR COLOURLESS GLASS WITH RED
FLASHING AND CUT DECORATION
Probably the New England Glass Company, U.S.A.,
about 1845. Ht. 756 mm (2975 in.)
The new tariff laws of 1830 made the
manufacture of fine tableware in America
especially profitable, and by 1840 at least
81 glass-houses were in operation. In West
Virginia, in 1864, a new glass metal was
developed. Instead of the expensive and
brilliant lead glass, a less costly soda-lime
glass was developed, which although it did
not have the ring or rich appearance of lead
glass, was admirably suited to the great
variety demanded by the American public.
With the introduction of this new metal,
American cut glass was even more threat-
ened by cheaper pressed glass imitations.
Cut glass manufacturers were driven to
using the pressed techniques, or else to
producing cut-glass items that could not
be duplicated on the pressing machine. In
this middle period of American glass-
making (1830-80) cutting continued the
use of the flute, cross-hatching, fan, and
diamond motifs, though with a greater
profusion than in the earlier period. All the
glass, however, subordinated decoration
to the shape of the glass.
SEGMENT OE PI-ATE IN CLEAR COLOURLESS GLASS
WITH CUT DECORATION
T. G. Hawkes& Co., U.S.A.
The ‘brilliant’ period of American glass-
making (c. 1880-1915) was so called be-
cause of the fashion for brilliant cut glass,
which became a symbol of social prestige,
its opulence admirably suited to the
formality of the age. The deep-cut patterns
favoured motifs such as the mitre, the fan,
the notched prism, the single star and the
‘hob-star’. A very brilliant lead glass was
used which, in conjunction with the deep
cutting, produced an effect of extreme
richness and crackling brightness which
has to be seen to be fully appreciated. From
the beginning the glass-cutters tended to
cover most of the’surface of the piece with
their decoration. After the turn of the
century the embellishment became even
more elaborate, and the many firms vied
with each other in creating complicated
patterns, completely subjugating form to
ornament. Social and economic factors led
to the manufacturers pricing themselves
out of existence after World War I.
VASE WITH CUT DECORATION IN BLUE-GREEN GLASS
CASED WITH COLOURLESS GLASS
Use Schargc-Ncbel, Germany, 1064
Ht. 208 mm (82 in.)
The heavy, clear colourless glass that was
created in the Bohemian-Silesian area in
the late 17th century provided the stimulus
for a spectacular development in the art of
cutting as well as engraving. Glass so
decorated was soon being produced in all
the German-speaking countries, and by
the 18th century was being exported all
over the world. In the 19th century the
Bohemian factories adopted the English
style of heavy cutting with great success,
and even today cut wares form a large part
of their export wares. Bohemia has pro-
vided the finest cutters and engravers for
countries which have a less firm tradition
in glass-making. Modern German glass
shows the same quest for simplicity which
is noticeable in Finland, Sweden and
Denmark, and the glass-makers have
returned to the basic qualities of glass and
glass-blowing. This is reflected in the
simple lines and sensitive cutting of the
vase illustrated. It is in bluish-green glass
with a clear, colourless casing, the cut
decoration forming a window-like pattern.
VASE WITH  DECORATION
By Pavel lllava, Czechoslovakia, 1959
A fresh stylistic impulse reached the glass
factories of Bohemia in the first decade of
the twentieth century, which was to change
their traditional attitudes to decoration.
The impulse came from Vienna, where the
architect and designer Josef Hoffmann
(born 1870) had become a powerful influ-
ence. He was an early pioneer of a Func-
tionalist style in decoration and advocated
the use of basic geometric figures like the
square and circle for designs. Through his
work at the Wiener Kunstgewerbeschule
(Viennese School for Applied Arts) where
he taught, he popularised heavy, angular
forms. His style of purely geometric
ornament was transmitted to the Bohemian
glass industry by way of the schools for
glass-making and decoration in Haida and
Steinschonau. After the political revolu-
tion in 1948 the tradition for Bohemian cut
crystal continued, though softer patterns
were favoured over the old rigid cut-glass
designs. Pavel Hlava (born 1924) is best
known for his cut and engraved glass.
The Techniques of Taking Away
DISH WITH FACET-CUTTING AND ‘DIAMOND-POINT-
ENGRAVING
Germany (exported from Egypt ?), 2nd century A.D.
Ht. 6t mm (25 in.)
Dxamnnd-Potnl Engraving: Kngraving
glass with a diamond point was a technique
practised in Italy from before the middle
of the 16th century. Centuries earlier than
this, during the period of the Roman
Empire, engraving in the same style was
being produced. Some sharp instrument
not unlike a diamond point must have been
used; the results arc rather rougher, but
the similarities in technique cannot be
denied. ‘The first instance of this type of
engraved bowl was found in a grave of the
late 1st century A.D. on Siphnos in the
Aegean. However, it is not until the later
2nd century A.D. that a school of such
work can be recognised. The pieces are
colourless, clear glass bowls bearing myth-
ological and genre scenes in facet-cutting
with ‘diamond-point’ engraving for the
details. Many of the bowls have Greek
inscriptions giving the names of the
persons depicted, and all have a curvilinear
engraved band, usually just below the rim.
SEGMENT OE PLATE ENGRAVED IN DIAMOND-POINT
Willi GILDED AND FILIGREE DECORATION
Venice, mid-ihthcentury, Diam. 275 mm(10s in.)
Venetian cristallo glass, with its brittle
soda-lime constitution, was particularly
suited to the technique of diamond-point
engraving. When the diamond point was
pressed against the glass, this took the
impress with precision, yet still allowed
much treedom of movement to the en-
graver. However, although the technique
was practised in Italy, it was never as
popular there as on the glass of Venetian
type (Jacon de Vemse) found in other
European countries, notably in Holland
and also Hall-in-the-Tyrol. The diamond-
point engraving was usually used in con-
junction with gilded decoration. Dishes
with fantastic birds and long-tailed mon-
sters, as in the dish illustrated, were
produced, as well as those with coiled
foliage and coats of arms. The dish shown
is in clear, colourless glass with granular
gilding and a filigree network, as well as
diamond-point engraving. Dragons, birds
confronting a mask and crossed Papal
Keys form part of the engraved decoration.
GOBI II WITH DIAMOND-POINT INGKWING
Attributed to Jacopo Verzelini, Km/land, 1581
iii 210 mm (8-ag in.)
A group ol diamond-point-engraved glas-
ses has commonly been attributed to
Jacopo Verzelini (1522-1606), a Venetian
who came to England from Antwerp in
1571. In 1575 he obtained a privilege from
Queen Elizabeth I for a period of twenty-
one years which gave him the sole right to
make glasses after the Venetian style in
England, and forbade the importation of
foreign glass. In 1592, when he was
seventy, he gave up glass-making and
retired to Downe in Kent, where he died
at the age of 84. All the glasses ascribed to
him are large goblets of various proportions
with hollow moulded or gadrooned knops
on the stems. The goblet illustrated is in
clear, colourless glass with a slight greenish
tinge and diamond-point engraving on the
straight-sided bowl. The engraving on
Verzelini glasses has been attributed to
Anthony de Lysle, an engraver of pewter
and glass who is thought to have come
from France.
BOUQUET  IN DARK BLUE GLASS ENGRAVED WITH
11II DIAMOND POINT AND GILDED
Hall-in-the-Tyrol,
Ht. 202 mm (7-95 in.)
Diamond-point engraving was a charac-
teristic form of decoration at an important
glass-house at Hall-in-the-Tyrol. This
was started in 1534 and flourished in the
third quarter of the 16th century. It was
under the direction of Sebastian Hoch-
stetter, an Augsburg merchant, and event-
ually came under the patronage of the
Archduke Ferdinand. The articles pro-
duced by this works were in blue, green,
and clear and colourless glass, with dia-
mond-point engraving and (often dam-
aged) lacquer painting and lacquer gilding.
In the last third of the 16th century most
European glass-making countries were
producing glasses similarly decorated and
diamond-point engraved. Scrolled arab-
esque foliage, borders of chain or guilloche
pattern, hatched ‘ladder-borders’, and
borders of single formal leaves or of crest-
ing are usually found on all these glasses.
Obviously, these could not all be the work
of the same hand, but more probably the
work of a craftsman from Hall and his
pupils.
‘ROYAL OAK GOBLET’, ENGRAVED IN DIAMOND POINT
England, 1663. Ht. 143 mm (5-63 in.)
Few glasses survive from the period when
the Duke of Buckingham (1628-87) to°k
over from Sir Robert Mansell the making
of fine glass in the Venetian style in
England. The most important glass to
survive is this goblet, engraved in diamond
point with a portrait of Charles II
surrounded by engraved oak branches
with the inscription ‘Royal Oak’. There
are also portraits of Charles and his wife,
Catherine of Braganza and the Royal Coat
of Arms on the reverse, with the date 1663.
The metal is greenish-brown and the style
is facon de Venise. The glass was probably
made to commemorate the marriage of
Charles and Catherine in 1663. Another
famous glass of the same period is the
‘Exeter Flute’, probably made for the
coronation of Charles II. It stands 17
inches high, with a portrait of Charles II,
a sprouting oak stump and the inscription
‘God Bless King Charles the Second’ in
diamond point on the fluted bowl.
HOWL, DIAMOND-POINT-ENGRAED
Probably Savoy Glass-house, England, c. 1676
Hi. 98 mm (1-85 in.)
GOBI.r.T ENGRAVED IN DIAMOND POINT, SIGNED
‘WM. VAN HEEMSKERK’
Netherlands, 1686. Ht. 200 mm (788 in.)
(See alio colour photograph 22)
The bowl illustrated is one of a pair found
in 1037 aI Tring. They are known as the
‘Buggins’ Bowls’, since they depict the
arms of Butler Buggin of North Cray,
Kent, and his wife Winifred Burnett of
Leys, Aberdeen. They were married in
1676, the year that George Ravenscroft of
the Savoy Glass-house in London estab-
lished his glass-of-lead. However, it was
not until the following year that the Glass
Sellers’ Company allowed him to seal his
glasses with a raven’s head seal, so the
Buggins’ Bowls must have been made
prior to this. These heavy lead-glass bowls
have an almost modern look to them, due
to the absence of the intricate cutting that
was to become so characteristic of later
English lead glass. The diamond engrav-
ing on the bowls belongs to the tradition of
the past, since the technique is more
suited to the earlier thin-walled vessels of
the soda-lime type of glass.
In 17th-century Holland diamond-point
engraving was especially fashionable as a
pastime amongst amateurs, many of whom
became very skilled. Two famous names
are Anna Roemcrs Visschcr (1583-1651)
who decorated green glass Romers with
(lowers, fruit and insects, calligraphy and
inscriptions in Roman capital and Greek
letters, and Willcm Jacobsz van Hecms-
kerk (1613-92), a cloth merchant, poet and
dramatist of Leiden, who practised calli-
graphy on glass, mainly bottles, usuall\
adding his signature and the date. Exam-
ples of his work date from between 1648
and 1690. It is thought that much of the
diamond-point engraving found on Eng-
lish glasses of this period is probably
Dutch work. Up to this time Holland had
been producing Venetian-type cristallo
glass, but towards the end of the 17th
century she began to make ‘flint glass
ranglaise’. Possibly as a result, by the
1690’s wheel-engraving replaced diamond-
point engraving as the popular form of
decoration.
WINE-GLASS, ENGRAVED IN DIAMOND
POINT
England, mid-i8ih century
The group of vessels engraved in diamond
point known as ‘Amen’ glasses forms a
sub-division of the type called Jacobite
glasses. These were used to toast ‘The
Cause’ by the clubs and societies which
fostered Jacobite sentiments in England in
the 18th century. ‘Amen’ glasses arc
engraved in diamond point with a royal
crown, the cipher IR and RI entwined, and
the figure 8, together with either two or
four verses of the Jacobite anthem, ending
with the word ‘Amen’. They are essentially
private glasses, used for expressions of
loyalty to James and Prince Charles
Edward, and occasionally Prince Henry.
Some arc dated, like the Dunvegan Castle
glass, 1747, and the Mesham and the
Drummond Castle glasses, 1749. In the
1930’s some good forgeries of ‘Amen’
glasses were put on the market. Jacobite
glasses have been in such demand that all
the various types have been reproduced by
forgers.
GOBLET, STIPPLE-ENGRAVED BY FRAN.N GREENWOOD
Glass, English; engraving, Dutch, dated 1728
Ht. 210 mm (8-25 in.)
Stipple Engraving: For the technique of
stippling, grouped and graded dots were
engraved with a diamond point on the
surface of a glass object, the dots repre-
senting the highlights of the design. The
diamond point was set in a handle which
may have been gently struck with a small
hammer to produce a single dot on the
glass. In the better examples of stippling
the decoration can be compared to a deli-
cate film breathed upon the glass. Frans
Greenwood, a native of Rotterdam,
brought the art of stippling to its greatest
heights in the first half of the 18th century.
Born in 1680, he died in 1762, and was
apparently of English descent. He was
actually an amateur glass-engraver, who
from 1726 held an official post in Dor-
drecht. Nevertheless, he produced a quan-
tity of stippled glasses, often signed and
dated, and usually copying prints after
contemporary paintings. A typical example
is the light baluster glass illustrated, which
depicts a man holding a Rotner signed
‘F. Greenwood 1728′.
Glass, Knglish; engraving, Dutch, about 1790
Laurence Whistler, England, H15-;
Olhcr artists contemporary with Green-
wood also practised the art of stippling.
The best-known names are Aert Schou-
man, G. H. Hoolart and J. van den Blijk.
In the last forty years of the 18th century
stipple-engraving was done by numerous
artists, the most famous of them being
David Wolff in Holland, whose name has
become synonymous with the technique.
He was born in 1732 at ’s-Hcrtogcnbosch
and married in 1762 at The Hague, living
there until his death in 1708. The glass
illustrated shows the portraits of William
V of Orange and his wife, Fredcrica
Wilhelmina Sophia of Prussia. In the 19th
century Andries Melort of Holland (1779-
1849) copied in stipple on to Hat sheets of
glass the work of Dutch painters. D. H. de
Castro (d.1863), a chemist of Amsterdam,
revived the technique of stippling in the
Wolff manner in the mid-19th century,
and more recently E. Voet and others in
I lolland have used the technique.
Since the last World War Laurence Whist-
ler (b.1912) of England has concentrated
upon the art of stippling glass. His designs
are highly personal and imaginative. I le
started his engraving in an unusual way,
for during the 1930’s he used to amuse his
friends and himself by scratching lines of
poetry on windows in the Elizabethan
manner. Later he developed his skill to
engrave wine-glasses, each design being
specially made for a rich and aristocratic
person. At this stage he was employing
diamond-point engraving, frequently us-
ing genuine eighteenth-century wine-
glasses on which to practise his art. His
designs were of the Baroque tradition,
with emblems and allegorical allusions as
favourite themes. In his later work Whis-
tler has also designed the glasses them-
selves, which he decorates so that form and
decor become as one. Most of these glasses
are made for him at Whitefriars.

Earlobes, necks, wrists and fingers are among the chief parts of the human anatomy which lend themselves to applied decoration. As with so many innovations in the field of jewellery, the practice of piercing the fleshy protuberances of the ears for the attachment of ornaments symbolic of race, tribe and status seems to have originated in Western Asia. A sculptured slab from the palace of Ashurnasirpal II (8 83-8 59 BC) in the British Museum depicts the king in profile wearing a long earring with an acorn-shaped terminal. At various stages of history men, women and children have been subjected to the ordeal of ear-piercing, though the male fashion for earrings has been mysteriously intermittent and sometimes a national rather than a cultural phenomenon.
English courtiers adorned themselves with single pearl drop earrings in the late 16th and early 17th centuries but some hundred and fifty years later, when similar ornaments were worn by French officers, the vogue aroused astonishment and hilarity in England. Thomas Rowlandson capitalized on the reaction in 1786 with a cartoon showing French officers in various stages of donning their uniforms-, they all sport earrings. Eleven years later the diarist Mrs Lybbe-Powys was struck by the sight of a French emigre officer in Bath ‘with large gold earrings’. But for all the British distaste, the custom had become general in France and Italy, from the highest to the lowest. Napoleon himself did not wear them, but his brother-in-law Joachim Murat, whom he made King of Naples in 1808, undoubtedly did. In the mid-197os, when the fashion recurred, young Englishmen were among the most enthusiastic proponents of the emblematic use of a single earring.
There is no evidence of the methods employed to pierce ears in prehistoric times but references in more recent centuries establish that the well-to-do employed the services of professional jewellers when the girls in the family were considered old enough to wear earrings. The experience for the victims was usually made palatable by the prospect of possessing a pair of ornaments of their very own. But even that prize was sometimes insufficient. The august presence of a royal jeweller, Dutens, summoned by Mrs Delany to attend her niece Mary Dewes in 1756, failed to persuade the young girl to submit to the operation. She held out for two months before succumbing. Girls of less affluent families were subjected to amateur attention with the aid of a needle, which pierced the ear while the lobe was supported by a piece of wood or other solid material. A cork was popular in the 19th century and later.
Children were dressed as miniature adults until the late 19th century and the ornaments worn by girls reflected contemporary fashions. There are comparatively few breaks in the history of female earrings charted by the authors, the longest being the Middle Ages, when the fashion for swathed heads concealed not only the hair but the ears as well. In the late 16th century women showed a renewed interest in ear ornaments, especially in the pearl drops which predominated for the next century and a half and survived thereafter. They were far more comfortable to wear than the girandole earrings which rivalled the drop type from the late 17th century. Usually comprising a top, an intermediate device such as a bow and three (or more) drops, these articles were so heavy that a secondary loop was often attached to the hook which passed through the ear and a ribbon threaded to the hook to be secured to the hair, taking some of the weight off the ears. This device helped, but many women reduced the period of discomfort by carrying their earrings in their pockets to parties and balls and assuming the ornaments on arrival, padding the backs of the lobes with small pieces of silk.
Fashionable women inevitably suffered permanent distension of the earlobes, which were dragged down by the weight of the girandoles. This fate did not prevent their descendants from participating in another fashion for huge earrings in the late 182os and 183os and suffering the same consequences. One of the most enthusiastic young adherents of the vogue was the future Queen Victoria, who often wore her grandmother Queen Charlotte’s girandole earrings of 1761. Photographs of Queen Victoria in old age, when she sometimes took to simple single-stone or pearl earrings, show them lodged on elongated earlobes. Fortunately the huge variety of new types and fittings means that no one now has to wear one kind of earring for a prolonged period.
The earliest archaeological evidence for earrings dates from the 3rd millennium Bc, but it seems likely that men
and women will have adorned their ears with, for example, shells and polished peb-
bles for centuries before that.
The idea of piercing the earlobe to insert a metallic ornament originated in the Orient. From the start earrings can be divided into two types: the simple rigid hoop in its numerous variations, and the more elaborate articulated pendant. In Antiquity, they were amongst the most popular means of personal ornament.
Around 2500 BC Sumerian women were adorning their ears with gold earrings in the form of single or double crescents, as revealed by findings in the royal graves of Ur in what is now Iraq. The crescent form, comprising two thin sheets of gold soldered together with a hollowed centre, was a simple yet successful design which was to spread towards the West and remains to this day a favourite shape of earring. More elaborate Babylonian examples of the early 2nd millennium Bc, also from Ur, show how the simple crescent motif could be embellished with embossed decoration, the details picked out with filigree and granulation.
Minoan and Mycenean
Early examples of earrings with a tapered hoop design, in a way a thinner version of the crescent- or boat-shaped earring, have been found in graves in Anatolia and Greece. Hooped earrings of gold, silver and bronze, tapered at the ends, have also been excavated in Crete and date from the Middle Minoan period (2000— 1600 BC).
It is not until the second half of the 2nd millennium BC that we find variations and elaborations of the crescent or hoop type; during the Late Minoan and Early Mycenean period (i 600— i 100 Bc) earrings in the form of scalloped or tapered hoops were common in Mycaene, while in Crete during the same period the most widespread form of earring consisted of a tapered hoop decorated with a conical pendant representing a clear progression from the earlier simple hoop.
The tapered hoop supporting a conical pendant was also popular in Cyprus, where several examples come from 13th and 12th century BC graves in Enkomi. Judging from the number of extant examples, this type had a long life; a less elaborate version consisting of a tapered hoop supporting a smaller bead cluster is well testified both in Crete and in Cyprus; it may have been cast in one piece, as a steatite mould of this shape has been found in Crete. This type continued in Cyprus throughout the Dark Ages, reappearing amongst Greek designs of the 7th century BC.
By the end of the 2nd millennium BC, the hoop earring, tapering to a different degree at each end, was widely dispersed in the Aegean world, Western Asia, Cyprus and Syria, as revealed by many excavations.
In Cyprus, from the middle of the 2nd millennium BC, and particularly during the third quarter, earrings were very popular and may have had some supernatural significance, since contemporary painted terracotta idols in the form of stylized nude females, probably fertility symbols, have their earlobes pierced two or three times and large terracotta hoops suspended from them.
The simple, tapered hoop was worn there from about 1400 BC, where it arrived possibly from Crete but more likely from Syria; it continued in Cyprus for a long time, surviving throughout the Dark Ages, and was reintroduced from there into Greece around the 7th century BC.
A variation of this type, of either Cypriot or Syrian invention, consists of a hoop of twisted or plaited gold wire. Also to be found is the ‘leech’ earring, a sort of elongated tapered hoop, the lower part expanded into a fat crescent motif. Hoops supporting clusters of beads or elongated conical pendants decorated with granulation were, as we have already seen, as popular in Crete as they were in Cyprus. A typical Cypriot earring of the 13th century BC was a hoop supporting a bull’s head pendant stamped out of thin sheet gold. Although the shape of the pendant is a common Mycenean motif, no contemporary examples have been found on the Greek mainland.
When, in about 1 100 BC, the Mycenean world succumbed to the Achaean invasion, which was followed by the three centuries of poverty and near-barbarism known as the Dark Ages, the arts declined and jewellery in precious metal became rare. It is likely that the main sources of gold at the time were the tombs of earlier periods. Among the limited number of gold ornaments such as finger-rings, bracelets, pins and fibulae, there survived a small number of spirals, the purpose of which is still not certain, but which may have been earrings or hair-ornaments.
The brilliant civilization of Cyprus was destroyed at the same time, but traditions lived on and the Achaeans left intact the long-established Mycenean techniques. Goldsmiths worked throughout the Dark Ages preserving and perpetuating forms and designs that were to be reintroduced into Greece around the 7th century BC.

Like Romanesque furniture, Gothic furniture was decorated by means of carving and painting. The rails and stiles of the panels were often cut in the form of mouldings, and the panels themselves were usually carved. The motifs of the carving were those of the Romanesque style, except for the Gothic character of the tracery and the addition of the linen-fold motif and animal and foliage themes. The Gothic style of the first half of the fifteenth century, under Charles VII, was called ‘flamboyant’, because the carved tracery looked like flames.
RENAISSANCE (1500-1650)
Renaissance—rebirth—is a term used to cover the wide changes that occurred in medieval Europe during the fifteenth century, when the pace of life began to grow quicker. (The invention of printing about 1440 was one expression of this revival of energy.) Medieval Europe had for some time been undergoing changes—the oppressive power of the Church had
Two French Gothic panels
already been questioned, for instance. But it was in the middle of the century that the changes became obvious and manifested themselves in many sides of life.
The ideals of the Holy Roman Empire and the medieval church had become too narrow for the general enlargement of life that was gradually taking place. New ambitions were form-
Renaissance Carved Details
Figure
Palm
Acanthus leaf    Table support (griffin and Corinthian column)
ing, and there was an increased self-confidence in people. The
study of ancient Greek and Roman authors provided a more
sympathetic background of ideas than the teachings of the
churchmen. The new spirit showed itself in expanding activity,
and in a growing dissatisfaction with absolute monarchy, feudal restrictions and the impositions of the Church.
People were trying to free themselves from the influence that
Renaissance Carved Details
Cartridge
Rose of acanthus leaves
Ribbon
the Church exercised over all the activities of life, and their
Gothic furniture, looking like small pieces of church, was a
constant reminder of ecclesiastical domination. Furniture-
makers sought to create a new style. The appearance of the new
furniture was suggested by surviving fragments of Greek and Roman architecture. Furniture-makers were accustomed to modelling their work on architectural ideas, but the supply of Greek and Roman examples was limited—in France more so than in Italy. They therefore went on constructing their furniture in the conventional Gothic way, superimposing on the Gothic framework, however, Roman arches, Greek pilasters, and acanthus leaves. They combined the three Greek orders of architecture, Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian (as the Romans had done), and from the combination developed their own style. The rarity of the examples of genuine classical architecture, and the complete lack of examples of classical furniture, left the Renaissance designers free to invent for themselves—which they did energetically and profusely.
Early Renaissance furniture, of the time of Louis XII, was still made principally of oak; for the method used in its construction was the same as that used for Gothic furniture, and oak was the wood best suited to this method. But the carved motifs of the Renaissance—the acanthus leaves, the curious images called ‘grotesques’, the figures out of classical legends—required a smoother workmanship than is easily possible in oak; and so walnut became popular, being closer-grained, as the style developed.
In the first half of the sixteenth century, Francis I started a school of arts and crafts at Fontainebleau. He imported Italian artists, architects, designers, and craftsmen and installed them there, to train the Frenchmen. The school of Fontainebleau was a great commercial success; it was through its productions that Paris first acquired renown as an artistic centre. But Fontainebleau had a disastrous influence on the development of French furniture styles. It was as if the king had said: ‘Take these foreigners as your masters and try to surpass them. Found a great French school of design, that will easily triumph over all foreign competition.’ As a result, French designers grew over-fastidious in matters of style; and in all French furniture since Fontainebleau there has been more thought for stylishness of effect than for genuine beauty of design.
The masters of Fontainebleau published engravings of build-ings, and furniture designers everywhere became more accurate in their use of classical models. The later Renaissance furniture, of the second half of the sixteenth century, in the reign of Henri II, shows the influence of these engravings. Furniture was made in imitation of classical buildings. Cupboards, for instance, were usually surmounted by a classical pediment, and tables were held up by Ionic or Corinthian columns. This does not mean that there was yet any change in the method of structure. The joiners still made the furniture; and, although it was more elaborate, the joints were still of the same type, except that they were now sometimes glued.
During the second half of the sixteenth century, life in France became less disturbed than it had been during the Middle Ages. There were frequent wars and fights between lords, but a more stable domestic life was possible. The kind of furniture we use today began to be made in this period. Medieval tables, apart from a few examples in monasteries, were composed of boards laid on trestles : tables of the second half of the sixteenth century are permanent tables. At this time chairs with arms were first made, and cabinets, and cupboards composed of two parts, one placed on top of the other—called armoires a deux corps. The cabinet was a small cupboard with two doors behind which were rows of very small drawers. Cabinets were originally placed on small tables, but later they often formed the top half of an armoire d deux corps. They were used to hide away important papers and precious objects, and were highly valued.
The furniture made in the first half of the seventeenth century, in the reign of Louis XIII, was the last furniture made by joiners. During this period the Renaissance style grew stale. Independence was not encouraged by the school of Fontainebleau, and so the designers crowded more and more classical detail into their work. The furniture was overcharged with carving—not a square centimetre was allowed to remain undecorated. The mouldings became heavier and heavier and the reliefs higher and higher, till the underlying structure was almost entirely hidden.
It was at this time that ebony was reintroduced into Europe.
People were beginning to travel more: ships brought back cargoes of unfamiliar materials—from Africa, and from Madagascar, cargoes of ebony. At first ebony was very rare, and was used only for the most precious pieces of furniture—the cabinets. For the use of ebony a new technique was developed, requiring a special class of woodworker : cabinet-makers. The chief cabinet-maker to Louis XIII, Laurent Stabre, was described as a ‘joiner and carpenter in ebony’. This title was later shortened to jbiniste, the name by which cabinet-makers are still known in France today.
The technique of veneering used with ebony resulted in a completely new technique of decoration: inlay and marquetry. Marquetry designs can be fairly simple geometrical patterns, but usually the designs have been very complicated—sometimes whole pictures carried out in woods of various colours, or other materials. The marquetry cabinets of the middle of the seventeenth century were extremely elaborate. Their form was necessarily simple, for the technique of veneering a curved surface had not yet been invented; but every precious material obtainable, except precious stones, was introduced into marquetry. Some of the materials employed were ebony, ivory, bone, mother-of-pearl, copper, brass, silver, and tortoise-shell.
Another change in furniture-making in the first half of the seventeenth century was the wider use of turning. In Gothic furniture there was very little turning, apart from turned chairs, and early Renaissance furniture differed from it only in the detail of carved motifs. All this furniture was based on Gothic architecture, which, with its carved mouldings and clustered columns, did not provide models for turnery. Later Renaissance furniture embodied more of the elements of classical architecture than the earlier. The round columns of Greek buildings suggested designs in which turnery could be used; and the veneered furniture, free from carving, increased the opportunities for turning. Table legs, the legs and stretchers of chairs, and legs for cupboards, were all turned. The French turners got some of their ideas from the turners of the Low Countries, where turning was highly developed.
French furniture of the first half of the seventeenth century shows the boredom of its makers with the Renaissance style, and their interest in purely technical problems. But they were not sufficiently sure of the new techniques to use them to create a new style. This was left to the designers of a later period.
BAROQUE (1650-1750)
The French designers had acquired the habit of working to dictation from a higher authority. Louis XIV was the authori-
Louis XIV Carved Details
Acanthus leaf    Shell
tative patron of furniture-makers of this period, and he had, unfortunately, very dull tastes. He was determined to make France great, and considered that greatness and magnificent furniture went together. He therefore demanded magnificence from his designers. But Louis XIV furniture is remarkable for its magnificence alone. The personal influence of Louis XIV on the style of his time was stronger than the influence of any other important person on the style of his period. In 1662 Louis XIV founded the Manufacture Royale des Meubles de la Couronne at the Gobelins, later to be famous only as a tapestry factory. Here were made all the furniture and furnishings of the royal apartments at Versailles. These were first occupied in 1682.
When a country tries to become a leading nation, it tends to regard itself as capable of every kind of excellence. This attitude lessens the interest in the achievements of other peoples. In the period of Louis XIV, French designers did not look to the monuments of ancient Greece for inspiration, as their predecessors had done: they looked to Louis XIV. The motifs that had been imported during the previous century were regarded as national property; furniture-makers went on carving, and representing in their marquetry designs, the acanthus leaves and Cupid’s heads of Renaissance furniture, but they felt themselves thoroughly French in this. They carved the Renaissance motifs in a more elaborate way, as may be seen by compa -ing the Louis XIV acanthus leaf on page 129 with the Renaissance acanthus leaf previously illustrated. But in the larger details of their furniture they altogether abandoned Greek forms. Everything that was not veneered with precious materials or made of solid silver was covered with gilt, for grandeur.
All the accessory furnishings at Versailles were as lavish as the furniture itself. Claude de Villiers and his sons, Alexis Loir, Pierre Germain, Dutel and Ballin made stands for candlesticks, orange baskets, vases, chandeliers—all out of solid silver, decorated with bas-reliefs of the tasks of Hercules, the four seasons, and other mythological or symbolic themes. Louis sent these pieces to the mint in 1689, to help pay for the army, so they lasted only seven years.
All Louis XIV furniture is strictly symmetrical in form and in decorative detail. In early Louis XIV furniture straight lines predominated, and the effect was stiff and formal. For decoration, elaborately carved and symmetrically grouped trophies of ancient weapons were often used, in honour of Louis’s martial exploits. Chairs were upholstered in a variety of expensive fabrics—velvets, brocades, brocatelles, silks, satins, and damasks, embroidered fabrics and tapestries, and fabrics woven with metal threads. Beds were so covered up with fabrics that there was little or no woodwork to be seen, and so enormous that they were nearly all destroyed when the taste for smaller beds came in. There were thirty-three parts to the textile covering of a State bed; groups of ostrich and heron feathers surmounted the corner posts. Moliere had an Imperial bed, with an azure dome and eagle feet of green bronze.
The carved and gilded furniture—chairs, marble-topped tables with gilded supports, and day-beds (chaises-longues)—was all mixed up with the veneered furniture. This was even more splendid that the late Louis XIII veneered furniture; in it were employed many other woods besides ebony, to give more varied colour effects to the marquetry. Veneered furniture was frequently ornamented a l’or moulu: that is to say, with mounts of bronze, moulded and chiselled and then gilded. Charles Andre Boulle, who was lodged by the king in the Louvre, made much of this veneered furniture; his four sons carried on the work after him.
In the later Louis XIV furniture slightly curved lines were introduced, and fewer martial themes were used in decoration. Louis was now spending more of his time in the boudoir: the straight lines and trophies of arms did not suit the softened background. The chairs and tables had S-shaped or `cabriole’ legs, sometimes ending in doe’s feet.
Many pieces of furniture that we still use were invented during the reign of Louis XIV, such as bookcases, commodes, sideboards, card-tables, bureaux, sofas and comfortable upholstered arm-chairs. A house furnished in the style of Louis XIV would seem to us very magnificent, but we should find there types of furniture corresponding to most of those in use today.
It was during the reign of Louis XIV that the split between French Court furniture, the furniture of Parisian society, and the bourgeois furniture of the provinces first became important. From Louis XIV onwards there were two distinct sets of styles in France, the Court styles and the group of styles known as French Provincial. The French Provincial styles were generally derived from somewhat out-of-date Court styles. Their decoration, however, was much more sober. During the reign of Louis XIV the Provincial furniture was mostly of natural wood, oak or walnut; it was based on Louis XIII furniture, with a few of the innovations of the Louis XIV style. There are great differences in the styles of the various provinces, those in the south showing Italian and Spanish influence, and those in the north the influence of the Low Countries. But we shall not stop to examine these French Provincial styles, since the Court styles are more expressive of the typical French attitude towards style. Yet it should be remembered that by far the best French furniture—the most domestic and personal in character—is French Provincial furniture.

FRENCH FURNITURE
Louis XIV, 1643-1715
T is desirable for the man interested in English furniture
to have at least a working knowledge of the French styles,
if for no other reason than that of appreciating their influence on English work seventeenth century english stoneware . To understand them thoroughly is a study equally as wide and intricate as that of English furniture (if not more so) and to do justice to the subject would call for a separate volume as large as the present one antique porcelain tea pot made in france . In these few pages one can hope to do little more than point out the salient features 19th century floral paintings .
Historically speaking the subject goes back farther than our own, for the continental craftsmen were far more advanced than the English, and have left more and better examples of their work to posterity antique table 8 legs with brass feet . For the present purpose, however, the reigns of the three Louis, XIV, XV, and XVI are all that we are concerned with, for when speaking of French furniture it is the work produced during the period of these monarchs that one invariably calls to mind antique blue and white earthenware jug with zigzag pattern .
Louis XIV came to the throne in 1643, a time when the French Renaissance had lost much of its Italian origin and had developed a strong individual character lenci wall masks . Whatever his merits or demerits as a king may have been, the world of art certainly owes much to him for the encouragement he gave to all arts and crafts antique french tier table . He was a man of most extravagant tastes, and, living in a time when France was one of the strongest and wealthiest of European Powers, he was able to give full play to his fancies antique drop-leaf end tables . His court was probably the most magnificent that Europe has ever known, and the daily extravagant ceremonial called for a setting for which nothing but the costliest and richest would do napoleonic campaign chairs . Fortunately, this great impetus to fine work came at a time when men of considerable talent were seeking expression, and it required only this talent on the one hand and the wealth and encouragement on the other to produce a style which (in its own particular way) has never been excelled theodore haviland 1958 pattern .
Period of Louis XIV
Of the capable craftsmen whose names are outstanding probably the greatest was Andr6 Charles Boulle who was born in 1642 and died in 1732 dresser accessories . He had experimented with a form of marquetry which had originated in Italy, and when the great tide of building and furnishing came he took it at its flood, and developed this marquetry into a distinctive kind which for sheer exquisite workmanship, coupled with fine design, stands unique antique card table with one flap . It is often termed ” Buhl,” and was carried out in brass or copper, and tortoiseshell, ebony, and horn drop leaf table wall semi circle .
A brief explanation of how marquetry was produced was given in Chapter V chamber pot in cabinet . Two sheets of dissimilar materials were fixed together temporarily and the design cut through both with a fine saw gillows three hinge . The two sheets were then separated and the parts interchanged so that in the one there would be a design of, say, brass on a background of tortoiseshell, and in the other the exact reverse antique “la granja” glass . Thus it was possible to produce two cabinets of precisely the same outline and design, but the one the reverse of the other in the material of the design and background designer extending round dining tables in kent . The one was the (4 counter ” of the other, hence the terms ” Buhl ” and if counter black lacquer dining chairs .”
A typical Boulle cabinet is shown in Fig silver fish slice . 165, in which this rich marquetry work is an outstanding feature figural silver antique candlesticks . In addition to the scrolling design of the inlay itself the whole of the brasswork is richly engraved, producing an effect which almost approaches the work of the jeweller rather than that of the cabinet maker antique english dressing table . A point to note is that wood carving is almost entirely absent, the decorative effect, apart from the marquetry, being obtained entirely with rich brass mounts antique mirror back sideboard 1920’s . Some of the leading artist-craftsmen of the time were engaged in the production of these mounts wooden arm chair pedestal castor antique oak .
It was for the decoration and furnishing of the Palace of Versailles that the finest and richest work was produced, and the Palace, even as it stands to-day after the ravages of the Revolution, leaves one gasping at its sheer extravagant splendour origins and development of arts . One has to remember that the furniture maker then was regarded as an artist, and certainly the results seem to justify such a status edgard brandt . It is with something like a shock that one realises that the cabinet in Fig antique table round drop leaf claw foot . 165 was produced at the same time as the simple early walnut furniture in England art nouveau . It is true that a colossal amount of money was spent on the production of such pieces, but it has to be admitted that the French cabinet makers were far in advance of our own staffordshire figures of royalty . It is points like this that help one to realise why it was that a revolution of ideas took place when Charles II came to reign in England after years of exile spent in France georgian telescopic silver candlestick .
The famous Gobelins factory for the production of tapestry was purchased by Louis XIV, and cabinet-making workshops were established in it art deco upholstery . Charles Le Brun became the director, and the world of art owes a great deal to his energetic leadership perpetual calendar 18th century . :Much of the finest work at Versailles was produced at the factory carlo bugatti furniture antiques .
In general form the surfaces of cabinets were flat—at any rate early in the period west indies antique paintings . This is mentioned in particular because we shall see that in the next phase curved surfaces were introduced everywhere art nouveau origins . The general decoration took the form of Boulle marquetry of brass or copper on a background of ebony or tortoiseshell, the design consisting of elaborate scroll work richly chased, allegorical figures, fruit and floral motifs, swags of husks, and acanthus leafage, the whole in a somewhat free interpretation of the Renaissance daniel quare 1674 tortoiseshell case pocket watches . Bold ormolu mounts heavily gilded were fitted, these taking the form of lion masks, scrolled consoles, acanthus scrolls, human masks, and deep nullings royal sheffield silver . Both straight and curved legs were used, the last named becoming more popular towards the end of the period in harmony with the tendency towards shaped work generally william kent console table .
COMMODE IN KINGWOOD WITH INLAYS queen ann gate leg table .
Laois XV antique prohibition table example .
This cabinet, made for the King’s chamber at Versailles, is a design of SIodtz and was made by Antoine Robert
Gaudreau In 1738 antique fluted gateleg table legs . The gilt bronze mounts were by Jacques Caffiere booths pearlware marks .
FRENCH FURNITURE
Louis XV, 1715-1774
T0 appreciate the underlying causes of the changes in the type of furniture produced in Louis XV’s reign
it is necessary to know something of the historical events of the period 18th century forks . Louis XIV had died in 1715 when his heir «as but five years old, and it became necessary to appoint a regent antique decorative motif . The Duke of Orleans took the office, and he was virtually monarch until his death in 1723 directoire consulat empire . There was thus a break in the extravagant court grandeur which was so essentially a feature of the reign of the late king art deco antique furniture makers . The wild expenditure of the seventy odd years of le Grand i1lonarque, too, had left its mark on the finances of the court and aristocracy antique pouch table . No country, no matter how powerful and prosperous, could continue for an unlimited time to spend money on pure aggrandisement to such an extent, and as a result there were but two alternatives : to live in a quieter way, or to find fresh sources of income mid 17th century foods france . In the event a sort of compromise was effected 17th century french fashion . The aristocracy began to contract marriages with humbler but wealthy classes, bankers, merchants, and so on ; and in place of the grandeur of the great salon so beloved by Louis XIV came the rise of the smaller boudoir photos of antique chambersticks . In fact the two periods are often referred to respectively as the periods of the salon and the boudoir jupe table mechanism .
Its effect on the furniture was that it was in its way equally rich, but was on a smaller scale how much is a claw foot table worth . Then, too, the masculine grandeur gave way to an effeminate prettiness, a change quite in keeping with the general conduct of life emile galle furniture . People began to look for elegance rather than grandeur, and to use ornament purely for its own sake boulle console table with marble tops with elaborate friezes .
We have had occasion to note in earlier chapters in this book that an idea, once it takes root, frequently is carried to extremes, and it thus happened that the tendency to introduce shaped work towards the end of Louis XIV’s reign reached such a height in the succeeding reign that many cabinets were made with scarcely a straight line or a flat surface in them regency antique mahogany dining table styles . This extraordinary use of curves is the keynote of Louis XV furniture when was art deco furniture stated in france . The skill shown in overcoming the difficulties that such work presented is amazing octagonal brass & silver table . One may’ or may not admire this flamboyant phase of French furniture, but no one can but admire the excellence of the workmanship augsburg marquetry table cabinet . The fronts and sides of cabinets, bureaux, and so on were curved in both plan and elevation, and some idea of the difficulty of veneering over such a surface can be obtained by trying to lay a flat sheet of paper around a ball barrel leg oak dining table . Added to this was the fact that the whole was usually elaborately inlaid or given a decorative effect by the use of designs in which the varying, direction of the grain of the wood was made to play a part round rosewood breakfast table .
So far as furniture was concerned the preference for gilded mounts in place of wood carving continued, and the workmanship of these was of an extremely high order table octagon marquetry drawer . One may not care for the effect as a whole—it frequently appears restless and overdone, but regarded individually the work was extremely fine i.i.e. exclusive capodimonte . The love of curves developed to an extraordinary extent, resulting in its fulness in what is known as the Rococo decoration thonet rocking chair . The term comes from two French words meaning rocks and shells, to which the ornament bears a certain resemblance antique porcelain czechoslovakia wall face . It is exemplified in Fig austrian mirrored tables . 166—in which the elaborate scrolls and acanthus leafage can be seen antique collector’s cabinet . The chief exponents of the rococo were Meissonier and Slodtz palissy patterns .
The French version of the cabriole leg reached its zenith during this period side table black hand painted birds and flowers made in italy . It was essentially suited to the general and wide use of shapes antique metal tables with drop leaves . In a limited sense it bore a resemblance to the English version, but it had an entirely different spirit telescopic glass tables . The English leg at its best had a high, well-pronounced knee running abruptly into a square at the top, and terminating at the bottom with one or other varieties of the club or claw and ball foot can antique dressers pair with modern furniture . An example was given in Fig flemish refectory table . 116 at E meissen figures . The French variety was of a more flowing shape steuben stemware deco . There was no square at the top, the shape either flowing naturally into shaped rails at the sides, or continuing with a concave curve upwards antique english dressing table . At the bottom the foot was usually scrolled italian buffet decorations . The cabinet in Fig antique english rhenish ware . 166 shows the typical French shape black lacquer china cabinet .
A great many varieties of woods were used ; mahogany,amboyna, tulipwood, boxwood, rosewood, sycamore, ebony, and amaranth are amongst the commonest antique cabinets coat of arms . Satinwood too was used towards the end of the reign, though this is more usually associated with the following reign of Louis XVI antique console table carved wood . Gilding and lacquering were popular meisen hand painted plates 1920 allegorical . At first the lacquer work was imported from the East, or panels were prepared and sent to China to be lacquered, but later it was imitated in the French factories, though the detail in it was often faulty, western motifs being introduced in a somewhat incongruous manner brislington delftware . A firm of the name of Martin paid special attention to this lacquer work and produced a preparation known as Vernis-Martin towards the middle of the century 1945 mahogany desk . In its final stage this originally Oriental decoration became almost wholly westernised, the decorative artists painting allegorical subjects in natural settings on a lacquered background patent imperial dining table gillows .
Towards the end of the reign a reaction against the elaborate Rococo work set in, and there came a revival of the classical spirit which was the keynote of the work in the Following reign canterbury music stand .
FRENCH FURNITURE
Louts XVI, 1774–1793
THE financial difficulties of the reign of Louis XV have already been noted reproduction 18th century tea bowl . They still existed, in fact
were increased, when the ill-starred Louis XVI came to the throne in 1774 hand blown romer glass . The clouds were already gathering for the storm which was to break close on twenty years later antique empire and biedermeier periods 1800 to 1848 . This, combined with the reaction against the Rococo work of the middle of the 18th century, produced a type of furniture in which the shaped work was largely, if not wholly, eliminated daniel quare 1674 tortoiseshell case pocket watches . Design became altogether more refined and returned again to the classical spirit, prompted largely by the excavations of Herculaneum which had been begun seriously in the middle of the century table paw feet antique .
Then again the Queen of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, favoured simple country life ; the elaboration of the preceding reign made no appeal to her, and although the movement towards simpler lines began before she was Queen, her influence undoubtedly encouraged the new feeling mirrors antique british chevron . It should be realised, however, that the term ” simple ” is used relatively antique neoclassical . Compared with the English, French cabinet work of Louis XVI was vastly more ornate hunt roskell silver auction . French furniture always was, It was just the natural national expression, but when it is compared with the full shaped work of the preceding reign the simpler and more refined feeling is apparent small dressing table cupboard .
The chief characteristics of Louis XVI are the use of straight lines and flat surfaces with a delicate and refined treatment of the detail floral ornaments art nouveau . Mouldings are small and the carving light and delicate old cantagalli pottery . Gilded mounts are widely used (they were still largely preferred to wood carving) and the quality is of a very high order reverse serpentine sideboard . The subjects take the form of rural, natural, and conventional objects ; scythes, spades, lutes, pipes, birds, cupids, torches, ribbons, swags of husks, flowers, medallions, and acanthus scrolls ormolou decoration . The last named are altogether less flamboyant than the ornament of Louis XV
time antique card table flaps . The woods used were the same as those of the previous reign with an increasing popularity for satinwood 18th century wine cooler brass feet . Lacquer work was also still widely used, and was often bounded by gilded mouldings antique mahogany drop leaf work table .
With the disappearance of the shaped work the cabriole leg lost much of its popularity, especially for cabinets and commodes, though it still was used for small bureaux and console tables in a lighter form cantagalli pottery . The light turned and square tapered leg was used largely, the last named often being recessed on its faces and decorated with gilded mounts fixed in the recessed panels 1930s antique square table . The chief designers were Riesener, Gouthiere, and Roentgen slant front desk antique .
All design is largely a matter of personal taste, but it is usually conceded that the work of Louis XVI shows French design and workmanship at its best 17th century oak side table . The furniture of Louis XIV had a certain grandeur tending to heaviness at its worst, this developing into an overdone elaboration in the following reign antique bombe commodes for sale . In the last of the three reigns there was a reaction against the worst features, and the result shows a welcome restraint scotish chest of drawers .
Readers wishing to study French furniture at first hand should examine the fine specimens at the Wallace collection, and the Jones bequest at the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington oak art deco scandinavian furniture . Those who are able to visit France should see the magnificent collection at the Palace of Versailles cheverton machine .
UPHOLSTERED CHAIR WITH BRASS MOUNTS josef maria olbrich furniture . French Empire gustavian chairs pierced splats,fluted legs .
The chair was made in about 1810 column empire style bedside tables . The wings of the beasts are in brass
and are screwed beneath the seat rails provincial furniture number drawers . The feet too are brass, being
socketed to fit over the stub legs antique french saxon china flowers with gold .
FRENCH FURNITURE
EMPIRE
THE period of the French Revolution during which Louis XVI and large numbers of the French aristo-
cracy were executed was scarcely a time in which cabinet making could be expected to flourish antique bedside toilet . Wealthy people went into hiding or fled the country, and there was nobody left to order the fine quality and expensive furniture one usually associates with France of the second half of the eighteenth century gateleg table antique . In fact, some of the famous ebenistes themselves were prosecuted for their close connection with the royalty and aristocracy george serving table fluted . It was not until conditions had settled down under the forceful government of Napoleon that any revival of the making of fine furniture was possible makers of silver table ware in late 1800’s .
It was then that was evolved the style which has become known as Empire chair 18th queen rococo revival . If Louis XIV furniture be characterised as solid magnificent grandeur, Louis XV as flamboyant elegance, all shapes and curves, Louis XVI as delicate refinement, sometimes verging on the effeminate, then the Empire can be reckoned as stately and dignified with a strong influence of the Greek, Roman, and Egyptian dutch silver octagon trinket box . Compared with the elegant style preceding it, Empire furniture is considerably more restrained, mostly with straight lines, usually in mahogany, and invariably mounted with brass or gilt ornaments meissen/cabinet plate/19th century . These ornaments took the form of the Greek honeysuckle and vases, laurel wreaths, caryatid figures, martial helmets, torches, winged animals, and so on english furniture toilet chest .
Presumably the style was a tribute to the leadership of Napoleon, the Emperor who had marched through Europe and beyond antique tray table white . It scarcely outlasted his final downfall in 184, though its influence continued to be felt in this country during the Regency period antique enamel top table .
UPHOLSTERED CHAIR WITH BRASS MOUNTS new england antique dining tables .
‘The chair was made in about 1810 1920s draw leaf dining set turned legs . The wings of the beasts are in brass
and are screwed beneath the seat rails 3 leaf antique extending dining table . The feet too are brass, being
socketed to fit over the stub legs scandinavian octagon dining table .

THE AGE OF THE DESIGNER
HEPPLEWHITE PERIOD
HEPPLEWHITE began his career as a cabinet maker
at a time when the art of cabinet making was at its ifullest tide kakiemon porcelain . The second half of the eighteenth century is often called the golden age of cabinet making, and by I- `6o, when Hepplewhite settled in business at Cripple-gate, the standard of design and craftsmanship was at its zenit1h walnut tripod tea table . The Chippendale school was still in its prime, and they was a strong group of craftsmen who had ingrained in the — a fine trade tradition, a thing which implies something more than a mere ability to use tools antique card table collectors . It means a sense of appreciation and a certain element of originality, tempered with the convention that belongs to a workshop where everything is done by hand silver tripod table .
George Hepplewhite was one of these practical men english bristol teapots . He was scarcely a designer in the sense that Robert Adam was antique english stoneware identification . He did not sit down at his drawing board and sketch out purely original designs, but his work had characteristic features that can usually be recognised andre’ japaneese porcelain . As a cabinet maker he knew his job perfectly, and, in addition, he had a keen appreciation of fine line which enabled him to give his work a certain individuality in a way that would be beyond a man of no imagination eighteenth century women dressing in front of men in their bedchamber . In this sense he no doubt influenced the trade considerably, but beyond this he simply worked in a certain style which a group of cabinet makers was following angouleme guerhard . His name has come to be attached to that style probably because of his book, The Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide, and that was not published until 1788, two years after his death antique wooden pot cupboard .
It is apparent, then, in speaking of Hepplewhite furniture a general style popular from about 1760 until practically the end of the century is implied rather than the work of Hepplewhite himself as an individual dutch antique furniture . A great deal of furniture no doubt was made in the workshop at Cripplegate, but except in a few rare instances it is impossible definitely to identify it antique drop-leaf bread table .
Taken generally, Ilepplewhite furniture was comparatively simple antique blue glass kidney shaped end table . There were a few touches of decoration (usually applied), but even the most ornate specimens had nothing like the elaboration found in the richer Chippendale pieces english porcelain parian . Several new forms of decoration were introduced or revived, for whereas Chippendale work had little other form of decoration besides carving, Hepplewhite furniture had
FIG (chineseexportporcelaincoffeeservice) . 130 tambour commode . SHIELD BACK CHAIR french art deco porcelain jaguar .
1770-1780 spoonback armchair .
One of the finest chairs produced in the 18th century “antique collectors blog” .
For all their lightness these chairs were extremely strong art nouveau jugendstil jugs .
being made in the finest mahogany and of the best work-
manship multipurpose dressing table .
inlay, painting, and gilding in addition to carving glass table antique ceramic legs . The inlay usually took the form of bandings and strings in satinwood, rosewood, ebony, and so on, and was in fact very similar to the inlaid work usually associated with Sheraton glass boudoir lamp deco . Carving was of small classical subject, vases, festoons, draped cloth, and swags of husks, an entire departure from the elaborate scrolling acanthus leafwork of the Chippendale school duke extendable dining table .
It is perhaps in the chair that the Hepplewhite charac-
HOOP BACK
CHAIR antique empire or regency style mahogany bookcase .
1770-1780 english seventeenth century cabinets .
A favourite motif of Hepple-
whitewere the ears of wheat ball and claw tripod table antique . These appear at
the top of the pierced splat
in the back 18th century wardrobe .
11
FIG carved japanese tea table . 132 edgar brandt reproductions snake lamp . OVAL BACK
CHAIR pennsylvania house antique sideboard .
1770-1780-
The French influence is
strongly marked In this
chair world market carved brass charger plate . Except for this
French form the cabriole
leg was never used by
the late 18th century
designers antique silver sphinx .
SIDEBOARD WITH BREAK FRONT DECORATED WITH INLAY pembroke end table .
Late i8th century,
It was not until towards the end of the 18th century that the sideboard with drawer and cupboard accommodation
was made epergne antique for sale . It was evolved from the side table with separate pedestals recipe for “soft paste porcelain” . It is difficult to distinguish between
Hepplewhite and Sheraton pieces as both had a great deal in common italian deco furniture .
The Shield Back Chair
teristic is most marked de coene freres . Probably the most famous type is the shield back, of which an example is given in Fig small sutherland table . 130- A really fine example of a shield back ranks amongst the most beautiful things ever produced, but, like the cabriole leg, first-rate examples are rare antique folding “coaching table” . The truth is that it takes a first-class chair maker of considerable experience to make one properly, the difficulty being that the shaping runs in three directions 16th century english joyned table . There is the shield shape seen from the front, the backward rake, and the concave plan shape antique table turned legs . To incorporate all these to form one harmonious whole is something that calls for a great deal of skill and experience antique inlaid table birds .
As a rule the main back framing had a channelled moulding worked all round it, and the probable reason for this was that it helped to emphasise the shield shape steuben stemware deco . It will be realised that, although the lower part of the shield appears to be in one piece, it is in reality in three dresser with mirrors & teardrop pulls & ogee bracket . The side portions in fact continue down, forming the back legs, and a curved bottom rail is fitted in to complete the shape between them 18th century marquetry . By channelling the wood the shield appears to be in one unbroken piece william iv jupe extending circular . The front legs of these chairs were invariably tapered louis sue .
The chief outside influences of Hepplewhite were the Adam and the French raoul dufy, plates ceramique . Of the latter there was Louis XV, which showed itself in the cabriole leg exemplified in Fig classical work/sewing table mahogany,3 drawers,carved legs, pedestal paw feet . 132 olive green and iron red oriental porcelain . Note the French scrolled foot and the flat shaping which continues along the front seat rail in an unbroken sweep arabisque furniture in ny . Another French influence came from the Louis XVI, and one result was the use of the turned leg 18th and 19th century silversmithing . An example of this is the settee in Fig antique spoons italy silver ornate . 129 papier mache tray-c19th .
Other typical Hepplewhite chair backs are the hoop back, of which Fig antique drop leaf or gate leg tables, ,ny . 131 is an example, the oval back (Fig antique 5 leg oak drop leaf table . 132), heart shape, and that with the serpentine shaped top rail curving into the uprights mackintosh wooden chairs .
Pieces such as sideboards, writing tables, bureaux, chests of drawers, tallboys, wardrobes, and so on were, as already mentioned, extremely like Sheraton furniture, and are dealt with more fully in Chapter X curved back chair from 1940s . The bedstead in Fig french chamber pot bed tables . 129 is a four-poster, very like one appearing in Hepplewhite’s book, and shows the general restraint in treatment walnut tripod tea table .
Fig clawfoot dresser . 133 is a sideboard belonging to the last few years of the eighteenth century trestle table double column . It has characteristics of the Hepplewhite style, but there are others which belong equally to Sheraton, and, as we are dealing with what might be termed schools of design rather than the work of individuals, it is apparent that one can do little more than term it late eighteenth century antique french empire . It is probably the work of a cabinet maker whose name has not come down to posterity, and who worked in the traditional style of the period edwards & roberts furniture .
THE AGE OF THE DESIGNER
ADAM PERIOD
N one important sense Robert Adam was entirely
different from the other outstanding characters with
-whose work this book deals serpentine top breakfast table . He was an architect by profession, not a practical cabinet maker, and in turning his attention to furniture he was not in any way fettered by any convention which a tradesman might have 19century british armschairs . It is not suggested that the convention of a good trade tradition is bad ; it is one of the healthiest influences a craft can have ; but it simply is a statement of fact that Adam was able to approach the subject from a fresh angle italian inlaid tea table . He worked from his drawing board and passed on his designs to be carried out by a practical cabinet maker porcelain spanish dancers .
He had travelled a good deal in France and Italy, and on his return in 1758 he set himself up as an architect and rapidly became very successful antique furniture prohibition bar examples . As a result of his foreign studies he was influenced considerably by the classical school, but he had a strong individual turn, and as a result his work had a characteristic touch which made it different from that of other architects working in the classical style antique drop leaf table for sale . It was delicate and refined (some term it effeminate), abounding in small intricate detail, and it superseded largely the rather heavier work of such architects as Sir William Chambers “empire designer, best known for pedestal tables with curved legs .
His connection with furniture was that in designing an interior he included the furniture as an essential part of the scheme blue china tea set with silver inlay england . To the average architect the work was finished when the walls and ceiling had been decorated, but Adam required every detail, even to the ornaments on the sideboard, to harmonise with his ideas japanese portable cherry wood tea tables . Perhaps the most notable example is that of Harewood House, in which the furniture was designed by Adam and executed by Chippendale antique ball and claw desk .
Although there were marked characteristics in Adam furniture, one has to be wary in accepting a piece as genuine Adam Characteristics
Adam chinese furnture form mid 19th centuary . The fact that he had to employ practical cabinet makers, combined with his great success, soon led to a great deal of imitation simple european furniture . In fact, of all the ” Adam ” work that has survived only a very small part can be identified as owing its origin to Adam himself regency period casters .
FIG porcelaine antique motif ming . 137 louis the 14th chair . DINING TABLE WITH FLAP AND PIVOTED BACK LEG japanese laqure tea table .
Abotd 1775•
This is one of a pair of tables Intended to be placed together when used
for dining silver flatware wood handle . The front rail is in reality a drawer front brass ornaments for furniture empire style . It now stands In
the Victoria and Albert Museum South Kensington 1828 sideboard buffet .
self was an individual and original designer, ” Adam ” furniture was, for the most part, the work of a school working in his style antique wood drop leaf table .
Adam used many methods of decoration in his furniture antique oak dropleaf gateleg table . The carving had definite characteristics shearers cupboard heavy . The acanthus leafage was finer and more delicately treated than in the full scrolled form which Chippendale had favoured, and, in addition, he used chains of husks, the honeysuckle device, Greek key, vases, drapery, plaques carved with mythological subjects, rams’ heads, and grotesques antique empire furniture . Inlay and marquetry, too, were revived, and were carried out in satinwood, tulip-wood, rosewood, amboyna, harewood, and so on biedermeier antique de . The subjects were similar to those of the carving furniture designersgerman . Another form of decoration was painting in the style of Angelica Kauffman meissen porcelain antic . A popular treatment was to make these painted panels the main feature of a design of scrolling acanthus leafwork
FIG antique dishes germany pastels with scallops . 138 henry clay bed and furniture . SEMI-CIRCULAR ADAM SIDE TABLE ferniture leg in itali .
T770-1780 antique table in europe .
An extremely fine piece of cabinet work carried out In mahogany antique vase markings newcastle.. on. tyne 1762 . The
curved top rail is veneered, the grain running crosswise 17 century elm gateleg table . The centre
panel and the oval pater2e are typical features brass frame girandole images .
and husks 17th and 18th century french silver marks . In some few instances, too, Wedgwood plaques were introduced bidet square .
A typical Adam sideboard is shown in Fig lion antique mahogany dining table . 136 royal sheffield silver . Properly speaking, it is a side table with two pedestals, but the three pieces were intended to stand together and form a whole In some cases the pedestals were actually joined to the table, though the result never seems quite so successful furniture of meiji period . It gives one the impression that the three pieces were actually separate at one time and were fixed together antique silver candelabras made in england . It is true that there was a general tendency to make the sideboard a single unit, but it was only when the pedestals lost their indivi-The Adam Sideboard
duality as such that the result was really a success labels under boulle furniture . The Sheraton sideboard in Fig makers of antique tea tables . 14 wheat shaped dining table base .4 exemplifies the point furniture  finmar ltd . The origin of the pedestals can just be traced, but they are essentially a part of the design as a whole “art, nouveau”"chiparus”"deer” .
The pedestals owed their origin to the lack of accommodation in the side table andres rosewood solid wood . If one refers back to the side table of Chippendale’s time in Fig chromed trestle table leg . 11 5 it is obvious that its only use was to provide standing space on its top directoire phyfe sofa . There were no drawers or cupboards in which table furniture could be kept opalescent glass perfume france . It fell to Adam to introduce the pedestals antique walnut telescooic dining table . Sometimes they were fitted up with metal grids to enable hot irons to be placed in the cupboards, so providing ? means of warming plates The urns at the top either had metal containers in which iced water was kept, or they were fitted up to hold cutlery antique rosewood armoire with claw feet . The more ornate specimens were often carved with rams’ heads, drapery, husks, and other devices selling japanese tea tables antique .
Towards the end of the century the cabriole leg practically died right out 18th century chippendale dresser . Adam never used it upholstered wood chairs from 1930s . In most cases he preferred the square tapered leg with small square feet fashion 17th century . They were usually recessed in their tapered portion, a pendant of husks often being carved in the recess near the top old gate leg table ball feet . The leg at C, Fig second hand old oak table in staffordshire . 139, shows this detail antique ladik rug . Another common treatment was to carve a series of flutes along the length, the lower part often being filled in with reeds (see A in Fig french antique occasional tables . 139)•
A particularly fine example of an Adam dining table is given in Fig important american girandole mirror . 137 english hepplewhite dressing table . It is one of a pair napoleon antique campaign chair . In use the two would be placed together, flap to flap, so forming one large table meals in eighteenth century england . The flap is supported by a single leg made to pivot frosted glass vase with smokey streaks . Thus when not required for dining the tables could be placed flat against the wall and become useful side tables antique chinese circular revolving bookcase . The decorative treatment is well worth noting antique porclean handled sheffeld flatware . The tapered legs are fluted on all sides except one, this being carved with a crisscross design set in a recess antique table round drop leaf claw foot . At the top are paterx carved with leafwork theodore haviland 1958 pattern . The fluted top rail with the plain centre part carved with swags of husks is typically Adam english stoneware marks . He invariably introduced this centre panel french meals17th century .
An example of a small side table with turned and carved legs is given in Fig furniture cupboard design,side board,wood . 138 george hepplewhite bottle case . It exemplifies well the delicate treatment of which Adam was so fond meissen porcelain animalsfrederick augustus . Note the use of the centre panel again, this time of quite plain form see a silver sauceboat with a heated base . Other kinds of Adam legs and feet are given in Fig antique glass top tea table bird . 139•

TRANSITIONAL PERIOD
WE have already referred to the period beginning with the Restoration in 166o as being very remarkable so far as furniture was concerned. It certainly was. It was not merely that new ideas of form and decoration were evolved, but that a far more advanced technique of craftsmanship was built up, one which belonged essentially to furniture as distinct from joinery and carpentry. In other words, it was the period when the cabinet maker came into being, the man who specialised in furniture making.
The coincidence of many things brought about the change. The austere habits of people during the Commonwealth underwent something like a revolution when Charles II ascended the throne. It was the swing of the pendulum from simplicity to extravagance. Charles had lived for many years on the continent, where conditions (so far as the wealthy classes were concerned) were far more luxurious than here, and it was natural that foreign ideas should spread to this country when he came back as monarch. This influence, coming at the same time as the strong reaction already mentioned, set the stage, as it were, for a new standard of things.
Then again in a closely following reign another powerful foreign influence made itself felt. William III was a Dutchman, and, however good a king he was, he loved the surroundings to which he had been accustomed. Thus in a space of some thirty years two events occurred which laid their mark on the crafts of England.
Thirdly, there was the introduction of walnut as a furniture wood, a material of far finer grain and of a milder nature than oak. It lent itself far more readily to finer workmanship, yet was quite as reliable (though it had not the same durable nature). To make a rough analogy, it was like a mason, who had known no other medium than a coarsesandstone, being given a piece of fine marble to carve. All sorts of possibilities were opened.
Finally, and possibly most important, there was the introduction of the art of veneering. As the reader probably knows, this consists of laying a thin sheet of wood, usually finely marked, upon a groundwork of a less interesting but thoroughly reliable wood. It was something entirely new and presented all sorts of problems of which there was no previous experience. Whilst, on the one hand, it enabled all sorts of decorative effects to be obtained which could not be carried out in the solid, it necessitated methods of construction, the reliability (or otherwise) of which could only be proved by time. The craftsmen learnt much from foreign workmen who were already familiar with veneer, but they had a good deal to find out for themselves, and they undoubtedly did make many mistakes, as the large cracked or twisted panels of some of the work of the period show.
Taken all round, then, there were plenty of circumstances to encourage a new departure in style, and it is a thing that is obvious to anyone who makes a comparison between a cabinet made in the traditional oak style and one of walnut of the same period. Be it remembered that many craftsmen continued to work in oak, especially in country districts, right till the end of the seventeenth century and even later.
NEW METHODS OF CONSTRUCTION
As an example, take Figs. 61 and 62, which show two

cabinets made within forty years of each other, but of which one is in oak and the other in veneered walnut. The oak piece is made in precisely the same way that all woodwork had been made for the past century or two. The maker recognised the inevitability of shrinkage, and he accordingly framed up his parts, working grooves at the edges in which the panels were free to shrink. This is shown in both the doors and the sides, where the panels stand in from the level of the framework in line with the grooves.
The joints of the frames are pegged to hold them together (joints were invariably put together dry, without glue) and, to relieve the plainness, a channelling is worked along practically every rail and stile. The finish of the wood is uneven, many of the panels showing plane marks and the edges being anything but straight.
Now turn to the walnut cabinet and note how impossible it would be to apply these methods of construction. In the first place the doors are flat over their entire surface,
what panelled appearance there is being effected by the application of a crossbanding of veneer. The same thing applies to the sides which are flat. It is obvious that a panel fitting loosely in the grooves of a framework could not possibly be used.
Furthermore, a pegged joint put together dry would not be practical because the slightest movement would cause the veneer to split. Then in regard to the channelling, if this were worked it would necessarily cut right through the veneer and expose the groundwork beneath. As for the finish, it can be taken as essential that the groundwork must be prepared perfectly. The slightest blemish in it shows through to the surface of the veneer, and, even though the latter may be laid to look tolerably well at the time, it will eventually part company with the groundwork and cause all sorts of complications after a year or so. In any case, walnut was given a far more highly polished surface than oak, so that the effect of an uneven surface would be like that of a badly distorted mirror.
It is not possible in one short chapter to give all the reasons why a new technique in furniture construction became necessary, but these few points are sufficient to show the fundamental causes of the change. As we say, these early cabinet makers did make mistakes, the lesson of which their followers of the eighteenth century were to profit by, but when one considers the vastness of the change and the short time in which it was carried out, it was on the whole remarkably successful.
Changes in Design.—Turning to the walnut cabinet in Fig. 62 again, and comparing it with, say, the Court cupboard in Fig. 48, one is struck by the vastly different method by which the decorative appearance is obtained. The oak cupboard is carved and moulded everywhere. The wood is just a medium for the carving, so to speak, and there are no large unbroken surfaces. The doors, for instance, are subdivided into small panels, and, in fact, the whole effect is obtained by the constant change in the level of surfaces. It is probably in a large measure this that hides much of the crudity of old work.
On the other hand, the surfaces of the walnut cabinet are flat everywhere, and the grain of the wood is used to produce the decorative appearance. If the wood were plain slabs of timber the effect would be entirely gone. As it is, the cross-banded edges with the herring-bone strip inside and the centre ovals, although quite flat, produce a rich pattern quite as effective in its way as that of the oak piece. The examples of detailed parts in Fig. 63 help to make the point clearer.
As a further example of these changes the little table in Fig. 68 is given. This was probably made towards the end of the seventeenth century, and the interesting feature about it is that the maker has tried to emulate the new scheme of things but has carried on with the traditional construction. It was most likely the work of a country carpenter who had seen some furniture of the walnut kind but who had had no experience in making it, and had not the materials to use  It is in oak, and the legs, although neatly turned, have the baluster shaping reminiscent of an earlier period. The wide apron rail is shaped similarly to that of typical William and Mary walnut furniture, and has a cocked bead around the edge (another ” walnut ” feature), but the joints are all pegged, a thing never done in true walnut work. Then the top and the drawer have an inlaid banding of fruit wood around the edges in imitation of crossbanding (such as that
in Fig. 62), but the grain runs lengthwise and it is let into the solid oak.
A piece like this would never have been made by a cabinet maker of any standing in a town, and in that sense it is not typical of its period, but it is interesting not only in exemplifying the changes that were taking place, but also in showing the constant lag that maintained in the country districts compared with towns.
Figs. 64, 65, and 66 show the gradual evolution taking place in the chair. A note of special interest in that in Fig. 65 is that the back legs are splayed. This is the first example of this feature to be given, chairs up to this time having straight, upright back legs. The day bed in Fig. 67 is a development of the type mentioned by Shakespeare in Richard HI (see P. 54).

FIG. 68. SMALL SIDE TABLE WITH CURIOUSLY
MIXED FEATURES. PROBABLY OF COUNTRY
ORIGIN.
About 1700.
Although the whole thing is of oak and the legs are typically
Jacobean, there are features which belong to a later period,
for example, the shaped rail with cocked bead edging and
the Inlay around top and drawer front.

FIG. 61. CUPBOARD WITH TYPICAL JACOBEAN CONSTRUCTION.
About 165o.
Note that the whole thing is made up of a framework with recessed
panels fitting in grooves. The construction is obvious, no attempt being
made to conceal it. Compare with the veneered example in Fig. 62
opposite.

FIG. 62. WILLIAM AND MARY CABINET IN WALNUT.
Late 17th century.
Here the construction is concealed. The banding around the doors for
instance has no connection with any framing, but is simply a cross-
banding of veneer.

FIG. 64. CHARLES II CHAIR
WITH CROWN EMBLEM
CARVED IN BACK AND
STRETCHER.
About 166o-070.
There is a definite tendency
to a lighter form of construc-
tion in this chair as compared
with earlier examples in Fig.
40. Note too how much
finer is the section of the
scrolled arms than the square
form in Fig. 38.
The interesting point about these chairs is that, whereas in that above the construction dictates the general form (note the obvious arrangement of rails in the back), in the lower chair the design is considered first and the construction adapted to suit. In the back, for instance, it is difficult to tell where the rails join the uprights.
FIG. 65. WILLIAM AND MARY TALL
BACK CHAIR.
About 1690.
This is the first example in this book
of a chair with back legs splayed back-
wards.

FIG. 66. CHAIRS SHOWING EVIDENCE OF THE TRANSITION.
Late 17th century.
In the left-hand example the germ of the cabriole leg is seen. In the other
the coming of the splat back of walnut times is heralded.

FIG. 67. WALNUT DAY BED OF CHARLES II TIME.
About 167o.
The fact that day beds were in use in Elizabeth’s reign is shown by Shake-
speare’s allusionto them. Early specimens are extremely rare, however,
the majority belonging to the restoration period.

English Antique Jacobean Furniture. Jacobean Chairs.

JACOBEAN PERIOD
THIS chapter carries us from the beginning of the house of Stuart in 1603 until the end of the Common-
wealth in 1660. So far- as domestic furniture was concerned, except for certain smaller details and a few innovations, it differed little from that of Elizabeth’s reign. The same wood (oak) was used, the Renaissance was still the source from which ideas were taken, and the quality of the work was similar. It is dealt with in a separate chapter, however, because it was the last phase in a certain definite technique. Vast changes were at hand, the greatest that have ever overtaken furniture throughout its history, and it is
therefore natural that one should pause and give special
emphasis to a style which had run its course and was to become as dead as the proverbial doornail.
However, these changes are dealt with particularly in Chapter IV, and our present purpose is to see what sort of furniture men were making when James the Sixth of Scotland became the First of England, and during the troublous years that followed, culminating in the declaration of the Commonwealth. It may be objected that Charles II was also a Stuart Monarch, and that his period should be included in this chapter. The changes just mentioned, however, began during his reign, so that although all Charles II furniture is, strictly speaking, Jacobean, much of it is usually referred to as ” Early Walnut,” because of the marked differences in style. The terminology is one of style rather than one of period.
The accession of James did not make a great deal of difference in the lives of the majority of the populace. The stirring spirit of the Renaissance was still a great influence, if in rather diminished form, and the endeavour of men to make their homes more comfortable continued. The journeys of discovery and conquest during Elizabeth’s reign had opened up a new source of wealth, trading had increasedtremendously (itself a source of wealth, and, equally important, to a new class), and these coinciding with the coming of Renaissance gave encouragement to the domestic arts.
The outbreak of war in Charles I reign must have acted as a strong brake on the progress of things, yet it was not so marked as one might have imagined.
A campaign in the north might turn men’s thoughts locally from making, or having made, things for their houses, but in even an adjoining county people might know little of what was happening owing to lack of easy transit. Then, again, during the winter months little was possible in the way of military activities, so that altogether there was more time for craftsmanship than might at first be imagined.
Cromwell’s short protectorship of eleven years or so helped to restore the trade which had been largely lost. His naval victories opened the seas again to our ships, and this is always one of the finest tonics the domestic arts can have.
JACOBEAN CHAIRS
The late sixteenth century chair, as exemplified in Fig. 18, was remarkable more for its massiveness and strength than
comfort, and its direct successor in Jacobean times was little different. It had a similar formation, with panelled back sloping at an angle, semi-scrolled arms, and turned legs. The back was usually carved with various conventional designs of leaf and flower work, arcadings, or
geometrical pattern. Fig. 37 is a typical example. -Note that the scrolled cresting still lies above the uprights and that the ear pieces are retained. Chairs of this kind con-tinued to be made throughout the Jacobean period and in country districts until the close of the seventeenth century.
There were, however, changes at hand. It is obvious that for a chair of the type in Fig. 37 to have any comfort at all it would have to be provided with a cushion—certainly one for the seat and if possible one for the back. One can imagine a man seated by the fireside closely considering the point,

and calling in his carpenter to devise some means of padding the chair. Or possibly a man who had travelled abroad had seen the comfort which foreign countries had attained (they were always before us in this sort of thing), felt something of disgust at the comparatively barbaric state of things which still maintained here, and so set his craftsmen to work out a new idea.
Beginning of Upholstery.—However this may be, it was during the reign of James I that the first upholstered chair made its appearance. Possibly the reader may be surprised that the idea had not occurred to men earlier. Upholstery on a chair seems such an obvious thing. It must be remembered that people’s outlook on life dAers. at various periods. What may seem right to one generation may appear to be merely foolish to another. In early days the chair was a seat of honour ; there would probab’.-,- be only one in even a large hall, and a man using it would not

look specially to find comfort in it. In fact, anything :;n the way of comfort was regarded with a certain feeling of contempt and was felt to be effeminate. Shakespeare, in his Richard III, makes Buckingham say, ” This prince is not an Edward ! He is not lolling on a lewd day-bed.” This day-bed was the counterpart of the modern settee. Presumably, when people were really ill, they stayed in bed. If they got up at all they were expected to go about the ordinary business of the day.

There was something effeminate in the character and habits of James I, and this rapidly showed itself in the Royal court : its manners, dress, conditions, and so on. As a consequence there was a general tendency for men to have a less Spartan-like outlook, and an immediate consequence so far as furniture was concerned was the introduction of the upholstered chair.
One of the finest collections of chairs of this type, dating

from the early seventeenth century, is that at Knole House, near Sevenoaks. Many rooms in this old mansion were refurnished in preparation for a visit by James I, and vast numbers of chairs were made for the purpose. They form an interesting example of how men, once they like an idea, will fly to extremes, for practically every portion of the woodwork is covered with material—even the legs, which obviously would not in any way add to the comfort of the chair.
A popular innovation—or rather revival, for the type had been in use earlier—was the X chair, an example of which is given in Fig. 39. The reason for the name is obvious from the general formation. Note how every part of the framing is covered with material. It is, in fact, very like the collection of chairs at Knole. The provision of the footstool is typical.
It will be realised that upholstered chairs of this kind might be well enough in a great mansion or palace, but would not stand up to the everyday use of busy households in a humbler state of life. These needed something sturdier, and Fig. 38 is an example of the sort of upholstered chair that would have been found in the average well-to-do house. Not that all the chairs were of this kind ; there might not be more than one or two in a whole house, the majority being of the plain wood type, but that such upholstered chairs that did exist were mostly of this kind.
Farthingale Chairs.—We have at this period an interesting example of how costume came to influence the design of furniture. The fashion of the time dictated that ladies should wear the huge farthingale dress, and one can imagine how awkward it must have been for a lady to sit down in an armchair of the kind in, say, Fig. 37. So came into being the farthingale chair, of which an example is given in Fig. 41. The absence of arms allows the dress to spread out at each side without hindrance. The X chair in Fig. 39 would serve the purpose equally well, since there is a deep, loose cushion above the upholstered seat and the arms are low.
Two chairs probably made during the Cromwellian period are shown in Fig. 40. They are of a sound, thoroughly reliable form that would stand up to the hardest wear. That to the left has a covering of leather (so thin that it can scarcely be called upholstery), held on with large roundhead nails, and the front legs have the bobbin turning very popular at the time. The other has a wooden seat, and a point worthy of note is the open back with slats. This marks one more step in the progress of the chair from its heavy, massive formation to the light proportions it was eventually to assume. Note that in both chairs the back legs are still upright and that the stretcher rails are retained, although in that to the right the front one is raised from its former lower position level with the side rails.
The Settle.—Whilst on the subject of chairs, it may be noted that the settle was still made in country districts.

The farmhouse in particular usually had its settle, the sturdy construction and plain form making it more suitable for the rougher conditions inevitable in the country. Another similar piece was that which for some unknown reason has been given the curious title of ” monk’s bench,” though what its possible connection with monks can be is difficult to understand. We refer of course to the settle with the movable back, which was made to tilt and slide forward, so forming a table. The example in Fig. 42 shows this feature, and it will also be seen that the lower portion is in the form of a chest, the lid of which forms the seat. Lunette carving, such as that on the rails, was a favourite form of decoration.

PANELLED BACK CHAIR AND FRAMED STOOL.
First half 17th century.
The construction of the chair is practically identical with that shown on
p. 25, and the general treatment is similar. Note the scrolled cresting
and ear pieces. The stool has the baluster shaped legs popular through-
out Jacobean times.

FIG. 45. SIMPLE FORM OF GATE-LEG TABLE.
First half 17th century.
The workmanship is extremely crude, and is probably that of a country
carpenter. The urn-shaped ends are probably copied from the baluster
turnings of the period.
FIG. 46. DOUBLE GATE-LEG TABLE.
Mid. 171h century.
An altogether better specimen of a table. The use of two gates to each
side is rather unusual.

EXAMPLE
OF THE X PATTERN
CHAIR.
Early 17th century.
This is a type of chair that be ame popular during James I reign. At Knole Park, Kent, large numbers of these chairs still exist. They were made specially in honour of a visit paid by James I.

ARMCHAIR COVERED WITH TURKEY WORK.
First half 17th century.
In this we see the early beginning of the upholstered chair, though in itself it can hardly claim to be upholstered. It Is little more than a covering ,stretched over the framework.

CROMWELLIAN AND YORKSHIRE TYPE CHAIRS.
Mid. 171h century.
The example to the left is typical of the plainer sort of chair made during
the Commonwealth. It has a stout leather covering stretched over the
framework. The other chair is characteristic of the kind made in York-
shire or Derbyshire.

FARTHINGALE CHAIR OF JAMES I TIME.
‘this illustration is intended to show the way in which costume affected
the design of the chair. ‘the huge farthingale dress made impossible
the use of the armchair of the type shown in Fig. 37.

COMBINED TABLE, SETTLE, AND CHEST.
Mid. IVh century.
The rarity of domestic furniture is shown by this piece which series
three distinct purposes. These are popularly known as ” monks’
benches,” though there is not the slightest connection between them and
monks.

. THE SETTLE IN JACOBEAN TIMES.
First half 17th century.
The settle in Fig. 15, p. 23, should be compared with this. Note how the
lower portion is completely open and has turned legs.

Antiques Recently Found on Antcollectors (2)  Russian Furniture

FROM THE 18TH CENTURY, Russia had
been turning her attention to the West for cultural inspiration, and this continued in the opening decades of the 19th century. However, unlike elsewhere in Europe, the Empire style did not make inroads through the imposition of a member of Bonaparte’s family or through French control.
Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 had devastated the land, yet the period is marked by a flowering of the arts and economic recovery. Indeed, the Mikhailovsky, Winter, and Yelagin palaces were supplied with important Empire-style suites during the reign of Tsar Alexander I (1801-25).
FOREIGN INFLUENCE
Since the time of Catherine 11 (r.1762-96), furniture had been imported from Western Europe, particularly France, but also Britain and Germany. Architects, too, were brought over. By the time of Alexander I (r.1801-25), architects such as the Swiss, Thomas de Thomon, and the Italians, Carlo Rossi and Giacomo Antonio Domenico Quarenghi, were introducing the strict Neoclassical style prevalent elsewhere in Europe. They continued the work of Rastrelli, Rinaldi, and the Scot, Charles Cameron, in the urban development of St Petersburg and its outlying palaces.
They provided designs for local craftsmen, which were also taken up by local architects, such as Zacharov.
The furniture for the White Hall of the Mikhailovsky Palace was designed by Rossi and supplied by the Russian Bobkov brothers. Architectural in
detail and conception, the pieces epitomized French style and were covered in wreaths, rosettes, and other Empire motifs.
Pavlovsk Palace was rebuilt by the Russian architect, Andrei Voronikhin, after extensive damage
during the Napoleonic
wars. He was also a
consummate designer
of furniture. One particular chair –made for the Tsar’s summer residence, Tsarkoye Selo, in 1804 – is often associated with his name. It has sphinx monopodiae legs that rise, uninterrupted, into the winged arm supports. Not only does this chair demonstrate the vogue for Empire furniture and ancient Egyptian motifs, but it anticipates Biedermeier chairs, which conceal the link between the arm and the leg.

Russian furniture; England, especially the designs of Thomas Sheraton, also played an important part.
NATIVE TIMBERS
Much fine Russian furniture of this period, with its simplicity, symmetry, and love of boil clairs, is difficult to distinguish from Central European pieces. Mahogany was probably imported, but birch came from the forests near Karelia in Finland. Poplar, olive wood, and sandalwood were also fashionable, as were inlays in contrasting stones. The
marble was often Russian,
such as that from Siberia
or the famous green malachite, which could be cut into such thin veneers that it was used on curved surfaces.
METAL FURNITURE
Timber was frequently gilded and patinated to simulate metal, particularly bronze, but some furniture was also made in metal. A rich tradition of steel furniture was produced by the Arsenal at Tula, and some pieces were made entirely of gilt-bronze. Gueridons might be entirely metal, sometimes
with malachite tops and in-curved supports with eagles’ heads. One of the most lavish gilt-bronze items was the dressing table supplied to the
Mikhailovsky Palace. With a blue smalt (silica glass) table top, the piece is a riot of antique motifs, from sphinxes to cornucopiae
STYLISTICDIVERSITY
After the mid 1820s, the Neo-Gothic style became fashionable, along with a plethora of other revivalist styles,
including Rococo. Later, in the second quarter of the 19th century, furniture designers began to look back to Russia`s own traditions and folklore for
inspiration, designing pieces a la ruse. These modes were popularized by architects such as A. Staken-Schneider, and the Tour furniture shop. Typical chairs with pierced, rounded backs survive in the dining room at the Arkangelskoe, near Moscow. The design is thought to reflect traditional 17th-century Russian architecture.

GOTHIC SIDE TABLE
This Gothic-style side table is made of silver alloy and has a veined white marble top. The frieze is designed to look like a series of Gothic ogee arches: these are decorated with acanthus leaves and have a trefoil set
within each lunette. The corners of the frieze are embellished with foliate capitals set on slender quatrefoil column stems. The table stands on a rectangular base plinth decorated with an elaborate lattice of quatrefoils.
Lacquered brass decoration adds colour to an otherwise austere-looking piece. c.1820.
CENTRE TABLE
This centre table is made of birch. The circular marble top has a raised rim and reeded edge above a chamfered frieze. The table top is raised on a leaf-clasped column with three anthropomorphic legs and paw feet with sunken casters. Early 19th century.
NEOCLASSICAL CONSOLE TABLE
This Empire console table has a rectangular marble top above a richly carved frieze with a stylized rosette at each corner. Each of the four legs is a carved monopodia surmounted by a female head. Early 19th century.

MAHOGANY-FRAMED SOFA
CONSOLE DESSERT
Scroll-carved terminal
This sofa has an ornately scrolled top rail carved with anthemion motifs and downswept solid arms with scroll-carved terminals. The seat and back are upholstered and are raised on sabre front and rear legs. Early 19th century.
This gilt-bronze and brass-mounted mahogany demi-lune console dessert has an upper section with three tiers, each with pierced galleries, and a frieze with brass fluted stiles. The columnar supports are joined by a tiered platform stretcher on block feet. Early 19th rentury.
EMPIRE ARMCHAIR
This mahogany and ormolu-mounted armchair has a rectangular panelled top rail above a pierced back splat with military motifs. The chair has distinctive sphinx-head monopodia legs, and the wings of the sphinxes form the arm supports. Early
19th century. Bk
MAHOGANY ARMCHAIRS
These mahogany chairs have carved top rails and leather-upholstered seats and backs. The armrests and arm supports are formed from one sweeping curve. The tapering seat is supported on a straight seat rail. The chairs are decorated with brass inlay throughout and supported on sabre legs.