Posts Tagged ‘exotic timbers’

Art Deco Cabinets and Sideboards: BRITISH WALNUT SIDEBOARD, BURLED MAPLE CONSOLE, FRENCH COMMODE, FRENCH SIDE CABINET, BRITISH SIDEBOARD, BRITISH DISPLAY CABINET, BRITISH SIDE CABINET.

THE CLEAN LINES and geometric shapes of Art Deco cabinets gave free reign to the prevailing taste for luxurious finishes. The cocktail cabinet made its first appearance in the jazz age. Featuring mirrored interiors and door panels, it contained enough shelving to house all the accoutrements for making cocktails.
REFINED OPULENCE
French furniture designers, such as Paul Follot and Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann, created cabinets that were veneered in a wide range of exotic timbers, including amboyna, bird’s-eye maple, mahogany, zebrawood, rosewood, and sycamore, which were admired for their distinctive markings and lustrous sheen. Understated and refined decorative features adorned their cabinets. Crossbanding was used as edging along the top of a cabinet and delicate marquetry flower
bouquets appeared sparingly. Drawer pulls were defined by their contrasting shapes or finishing material. Decorative motifs were created from rare and
expensive materials, such as ivory, shagreen, tortoiseshell, and wrought iron. Oriental lacquerwork in strong colours was also used by some cabinetmakers, especially Jean Dunand and Eileen Gray.
CLEAN LINES
Furniture-makers working in the Modernist strand of Art Deco, such as Sidney Barnsley in Britain and Paul Frank] and Eliel Saarinen in the United States, created streamlined cabinets in geometric shapes. These designers still used lacquerwork and exotic veneers, but they combined them with modern materials, such as Bakelite, mirror glass, and tubular steel. Ivory, metal, and chrome were used to provide decorative details.
The stepped top of the cabinet is a distinctive Art Deco feature.
The cabinet is veneered with conornandel, an unusual variety of ebony.

The handles are painted red to look like lacquerwork.
The bracket feet are similar to those on late 17th- and 18th-century case furniture.
BRITISH SIDE CABINET
This rectangular side cabinet, flanked with a further two slim cabinets, is veneered with Coromandel, a variety of ebony sometimes known as zebrawood because of its distinctive striped markings. Below the stepped top, there
is a central drawer and the main cabinet, which has two doors. Two cabinets compose the outer sides. The bracket feet and the door and drawer handles are painted red, the only obvious form of decoration. The cabinet was designed by Whytock and Reid of Edinburgh.

BRITISH DISPLAY CABINET
This stylized display cabinet is veneered in walnut. The upper section of the cabinet is circular in form, with two glazed doors enclosing two glazed shelves. The cabinet is raised upon a panelled base and has block feet.
BRITISH DISPLAY CABINET
This unusual display cabinet, possibly veneered in walnut, is carried on two, deeply grooved triangular supports that resemble a fish’s fins. The cabinet itself is circular and has two
minimally decorated glass doors, which enclose four wooden shelves.
BELGIAN SIDEBOARD
This Belgian sideboard is crafted from mahogany, and veneered with rosewood. The shape recalls the forms of late 18th-century commodes. The minimalist design of this rectangular sideboard consists of two simple
doors with understated bronze handles, and the whole piece is raised on short, circular bronze feet. The clean-lined, geometric shape of the piece is complemented by the distinctive vertical figure of the lustrous rosewood veneer used all over the case. c.1935.
BRITISH SIDEBOARD
This sideboard, designed by M.P. Davis of London, is crafted in bleached mahogany.The central
pull-out drawers are slightly protruding, arching outwards. The strongly marked, distinctive figure of the mahogany veneer gives the geometric sideboard a rich opulence that needs no additional ornament - a characteristic common of much Art Deco furniture. c.1929.

FRENCH SIDE CABINET
This side cabinet is made from mahogany, with amboyna veneering and a stylized ebony inlay. The three drawers have circular metal handles and the whole cabinet is raised on tall, cylindrical, tapering legs. c.1935.
Designed by Sue et Mare, this rectilinear, mahogany-veneered commode is a good example of their understated yet luxurious style. The two cabinet doors have subtly stylized circular handles, and the legs and the lower edge of the cabinet are lightly embellished with carving. The cabinet is raised on four slightly tapering, moulded legs. c.1919.
This rectangular burr maple console has four centrally placed drawers with nickled brass handles. These are flanked by a pair of cupboard doors with circular wooden handles. The whole console is supported on two rectangular side panels. Beneath the cupboards and drawers there is a lower shelf that connects the two side panel supports.
FRENCH COMMODE
BURLED MAPLE CONSOLE

This sideboard, designed by Whytock and Reid of Edinburgh, has a rectangular crossbanded top, above an ornate, relief-carved cupboard door. Burr walnut doors flank the cupboard door, and the whole sideboard stands upon shaped legs with moulded feet.
This Swedish sideboard is made from birch, a popular light timber native to Scandinavia, with ebony and burr ash details. It has two cupboards with simple rectangular handles, short cabriole legs, and moulded, splayed feet. The centrally placed, geometric, dark wooden motif is influenced by Asian decorative motifs. c.1930.
This mahogany sideboard is a good example of French Art Deco, with its simple elegant forms, rectilinear design, and high standard of craftsmanship. The cabinet has four cabinet doors, decorated with narrow horizontal bands
of chrome and a central circular feature. The whole sideboard is raised on a pedestal block base. It is typical of Art Deco styling in combining fine woodwork with chrome details. c.1925.
Designed by H&L Epstein, this fine rectangular maple sideboard has rounded corners and a stepped top. The central section is made up of two drawers with circular, moulded handles above a cupboard with a decorative vertical,
slatted-wood design. Two more cupboards with moulded oblong wooden handles flank the central section of the sideboard. The whole sideboard is set on a block base. c.1935.
BRITISH WALNUT SIDEBOARD
FRENCH SIDEBOARD
BRITISH SIDEBOARD
SWEDISH SIDEBOARD

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

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

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

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

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

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

BRITISH VERNACULAR,
THE VERNACULAR FURNITURE of the
first 20 years of the 19th century has more in common with the light, elegant furniture of the late 18th century than with high-style furniture in the style of Thomas Hope. It was usually made of mahogany, either solid or used as a veneer, or the newly popular rosewood. Pieces were also constructed of inexpensive timbers, such as beech, and then painted to simulate rosewood or more exotic timbers. Penwork, often the pastime of young ladies, was also used to decorate cheaper woods. Here, once again, the Regency pictorial fascination with surface pattern and large, flat expanses of timber is evident.
It was also during the early 19th century that oak re-emerged as a wood suitable for use in public rooms, and it was popularized by the work of George Bullock. However, oak really came to prominence in the antiquarian interiors of the 1820s and 1830s.
SUBTLE MOTIFS
Although plainer than the classic Regency furniture destined for the Prince Regent’s circle, furniture made for middle-class homes or country-house bedrooms still displayed all the inventiveness and exoticism of the period. Subtle lotus-leaf carvings evoked the cultures of the Nile, while Greek-key patterned friezes on tables and bookcases echoed the ancient culture of Athens. Similarly, thin crossbandings of an exotic timber such as calamander or amboyna were often used on even the humblest furniture. These were contained within boxwood or ebonized stringing, although it was often replaced with ebony on more expensive pieces. Shiny brass was also back in fashion, utilized as inlaid line decoration, cut patterns, or pierced galleries. The cabinet-maker George Oakley is often associated with the use of cut-star motifs in brass.
NEW FORMS
One of the characteristics of the period was the increased variety of furniture types that were made for a range of everyday needs. This is evident in the wide variety of tables designed for specific functions. For example, sofa tables with side flaps, central pedestals, or side standards —
sometimes of Classical lyre form —stood in front of sofas, while library tables, often with leather-inset tops and fixed ends, were designed to be used in libraries. Kidney-shaped, occasional, and worktables (for sewing equipment) were all new types of furniture, as was the nest of tables. Sometimes called quartette tables, these were designed so that three, four, or five tables fitted into one another.
Chiffoniers — a type of side cabinet —were also invented around 1800. Games and dining tables, both Georgian inventions, remained popular and were often designed with central, turned pedestals and reeded, downswept legs.
The so-called Trafalgar chair is probably one of the archetypes of Regency vernacular design (see p.242). Its sinewy line, with sabre legs at the front and back, epitomizes the gracefulness of the era. These chairs usually had a drop-in seat, although some seats were caned.
Caning, with its overtones of the Far East, came back into fashion at this time, and was used both in seats, and the sides and backs of library bergeres.
The Davenport desk was another new form of this period. It owes its name to a Captain Davenport, who commissioned the design from the firm of Gillows.
GILLOWS STYLE
Vernacular furniture production in England in this period is dominated by Gillows, which started in Lancashire in the 1830s and later opened in London. Famous for high-quality mahogany furniture, often characterized by carefully matched figured veneers, it is also associated with particular motifs. On furniture, it would frequently gadroon the edges or add lobes to the legs. Unlike designers such as Hepplewhite, Gillows never produced a pattern book, but its Estimate Sketch Books provide a valuable index of its evolving style and are preserved in the Westminster City Archives. Unusually for this period, it frequently stamped its furniture (often on the front upper edge of a drawer) with its name. Although this would become more standard practice later in the century, Gillows
is known to have left its mark on furniture from the 1790s.
SCOTTISH CHEST OF DRAWERS
This Scottish, bow front chest of drawers is made of mahogany and decorated with boxwood stringing. The piece has a reeded, D-shaped top above a shallow frieze drawer with compartments and a writing slide.
Below the frieze are four long graduated drawers flanked on either side by pollard elm panels. The piece has a curved apron. The chest of drawers is raised on tapering, square-section legs with reeded decoration. Early 19th century.
GEORGE IV TEA TABLE
This elegant tea table is made of mahogany. The rectangular top has rounded corners and opens out to create a larger surface. The top sits above a flame-veneered frieze with a carved border. The table top is raised
on a baluster column, which is decorated with carved acanthus leaves. The table is supported on four outswept, moulded legs decorated with a carved reeded pattern. The legs
terminate in brass, leaf-cased terminals and casters. Early 19th century.
PENWORK SIDE CABINET
DAVENPORT DESK
MAHOGANY TALLBOY
This Regency side cabinet has a shaped back panel with a narrow shelf supported on miniature columns, set above the main shelf. A single drawer is raised on turned, column supports and a plinth base. All the surfaces are decorated with penwork. 1810
The hinged top of this mahogany desk has a gallery to the rear, above a small pen drawer. Below this are four graduated side drawers. The desk front is panelled, with a shaped, crossbanded border. The case stands on carved and moulded bracket feet. c.1810.
This tall chest of drawers, or tallboy, has a domed, panelled cornice above six long drawers. All of the drawers are lined with mahogany and have brass shell ring-handles. The piece stands on sabre legs to the front. Early 19th century.
DECORATED BERGUE
This armchair has a richly carved and decorated frame, arm supports, and legs. The side, back, and seat panels are caned and have loose cushions. The armrests are padded. The seat is supported on turned and reeded legs with brass casters.
The square, tapering leg is inlaid with boxwood.
The frieze drawer is fitted with small compartments for writing implements.
This mahogany and marquetry bonheur du jour has a shaped upper section, two matching veneer cupboard doors, a writing surface, frieze drawer, and tapering legs with spade feet. c.1790.

Trays, knife-boxes, cutlery-urns, wine coolers, cellarets, and buckets
TRAYS
Known as “voyders” in the Middle Ages, and conceived not only for clearing away but also for the presentation of delicacies and sweetmeats, the earliest utilitarian trays were probably made of pewter and wood. During the late 17th century lacquered trays imported by the East India companies and European japanned versions revolutionized tray designs. The fashion for tea in the early 18th century was directly reflected upon all of the component parts of the tea ceremony.
Modest trays in oak and elm also survive from the early 18th century, and from the 1750s mahogany trays first appeared in pattern-hooks. Thomas Chippendale (1718-79), in the first edition of The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director (1754), included four designs for trays in the Chinese style with carved fret borders. However, this type is very rare, and Chippendale also supplied designs for plain rectangular trays. From the 1780s trays became increasingly decorative; they were made in mahogany, and other exotic timbers, were sometimes richly inlaid with shells, fan-parquetry, and foliate arabesques of stained fruitwood, or were painted. Late 18th- and early 19th-century trays were dominated by the fashion for japanning, particularly in papier-mache. A process long practised in Persia (now Iran), it was patented in 1772 by the firm of Henry Clay, in Birmingham, and later by Jennens &, Bettridge (active 1816-64) in London. Although papier-mache trays were often of scalloped form, rectangular trays with similar decoration were also fashionable, particularly those of tole peinte or polychrome-painted metal.
KNIFE-BOXES AND CUTLERY-URNS
Supplied in pairs as ornamental containers for silver and enamel-handled cutlery and designed to stand prominently on the serving table, knife-boxes came into fashion during the reign of George II ( 1727-60). Although the basic form, with a serpentine front, remained remarkably unchanged until the 1780s, George 11 knife-boxes were often ten covered with silk-velvet or shagreen, rather than veneered. From the 1760s knife-boxes in mahogany were made and are characterized by their bow-fronted form, hinged slope with drop-handles, and shaped bracket or claw-and-ball feet; they are unembellished apart from the cockbeaded or chequerbanded edges. The interiors, with slopes pierced with holes to display the cutlery in tiers, were also often silk lined but otherwise restrained. During the 1770s their decoration became increasingly lavish, with crossbanding and featherbanding, ebony-inlaid star parquetry to the slopes, and even stylized green-stained shell inlay – a motif particularly identified with North Country workshops – while the feet were discarded altogether in favour of Classical plinths. With the age of satinwood ( 1780-1800), elaborate Neo-classical embellishments became commonplace, and these were often complemented by richly engraved Sheffield plate Mounts. During the 1780s the vase-form knife-box, published by George Hepplewhite (d.1786) in The Cabinet-Maker and upholsterer’s Guide ( 1788-94), was designed to stand either set at each end of the sideboard or on pedestals. Made of satinwood or other light woods, the most refined examples were painted or inlaid with Neo-classical marquetry, arabesques, and simulated flutes, while the spring-loaded lids opened to reveal a chequerbanded interior with concentric tiers for the display of cutlery. During the early 19th century, knife-boxes and cutlery-urns became increasingly redundant both by sideboards with fitted drawers for storage, and by cutlery-urns being affixed to pedestals.
WINE COOLERS AND CELLARETS
As wine was an expensive luxury, receptacles for cooling and storing wine – whether of open-topped cistern (wine cooler) or lidded cellaret form, fitted with a lock, with divisions for bottles –were often lavishly decorated. Although metal and marble cellarets were first recorded in Britain in the late 17th century, it was not until the mid-18th century that lead-lined mahogany examples carved in the Rococo taste were made. Perhaps the most celebrated wine cooler is the Georgian form with a hexagonal or oval body, made of vertical sections of mahogany held together with two or three brass bands.
Neo-classical wine coolers and cellarets were usually conceived en suite with sideboards and pedestals, and were still predominantly of mahogany, although exotic timbers such as satinwood, padouk, and rosewood were also used. Although wine coolers with serpentine-channelled flutes to the body, which were directly inspired by Roman sarcophagi, and those with elaborate marquetry in a lighter style, continued to be made in the 1780s and 1790s, the most common examples were plainer mahogany- hooped with brass, with the lead-lined inside divided with partitions for the bottles. It is from this date that the majority of canted rectangular, circular, dome-lidded, and octagonal examples survive. Increasingly restrained in form and decoration, cellarets were rendered somewhat redundant by the inclusion of cellaret-drawers within designs for dining-room pedestals and sideboards.
During the early 19th century the lidded cellarets of Roman sarcophagus form, which were often of much larger size than its 18th-century predecessors, dominated Regency
pattern-books, and generally do not have stands. While firms such as Dillow (est. c.1730) of
Lancaster, Continued to supply cellarets in superbly figured
mahogany, from 1810 cabinet-makers under the
influence of George Bullock (c.1777-1818) increasingly promoted the use of indigenous English woods such as pollard oak and elm, frequently enriched with foliate marquetry arabesques in the “Buhl” style. However, from the 1830s this decoration became increasingly lavish, often combined with carving, and later Victorian cellarets arc often betrayed by their squatter, heavier proportions.
PLATE-BUCKETS AND PEAT-BUCKETS Plate-buckets are distinguished by their one-dished side that enabled servants to remove plates easily and straight-sided, or even polygonal form. Inspired by the need to ferry- plates the long distances from the kitchen to the dining-room, and usually made in pairs, plate-buckets were initially intended to be placed near the fire to keep the plates warm. The plate-bucket lent itself easily to embellishment and carving with pierced Gothick arcades, Chinese blind fretwork, and even marquetry inlay in the Neo-classical style; plain types were also made. The role of the plate-bucket was superseded in the late 18th century by the warmers enclosed within dining-room pedestals, and thus plate-buckets became increasingly plain, purely for use by servants for carrying china to the dining-room. The “peat-bucket” is an Irish term for a container traditionally thought to have been used for carrying peat to the fireplace. However, this is now thought to be unlikely as the bucket and peat together would have been very heavy indeed. It is now thought that they were used for carrying any number of items, including oysters. Although buckets are usually considered an English form, 18th- and 19th-century ones from The Netherlands arc among the most common found today, and can be distinguished from their English counterparts by their slightly smaller proportions, ribbed tapering bodies and, most characteristically, by the alternating use of light fruitwood and mahogany to give a streaked effect to the bodies.
• TRAYS 18th-century mahogany trays are rare; those that exist are often made from the leaves of old dining-tables; papier-mache trays may suffer from craquelure and
flaking; the best papier-mache examples have mother-of-pearl inlay.
• KNIFE-BOXES many have had the insides removed so that they could be converted to other uses – often as writing-cases in the 19th century; a premium is attached to those that retain their original fitments; examples with shell inlay sire usually from the North Country and Scotland; pairs of cutlery urns are very desirable.
• WINE COOLERS rare examples are those from the 18th century of carved mahogany or walnut.
• PLATE- AND PEAT-BUCKETS these are faked in huge numbers, often from old timber; look out for indications of consistent old damage, shrinkage, and seams to the brass bands, and beware of suspicious stains.