Posts Tagged ‘florail inlay antique dresser’

Antiques Recently Found on Antcollectors (1)

SPAIN AND PORTUGAL
THE FURNITURE OF THE IBERIAN
peninsular during the early 19th century was strongly influenced by prevailing styles in other European countries, mixed with the various tastes, techniques, and regional differences that reflect both Spain and Portugal’s cultural backgrounds.
The greatest foreign influence was the French Empire style. Spain was dominated by France for a period following the abdication of Charles IV and Ferdinand VII in 1808, when Napoleon’s brother, Joseph Bonaparte, introduced a taste for Empire furniture. A similar Francophile furniture style also developed in Portugal, which had come under French rule the previous year.
FERDINANDINO
However, the true flowering of the Empire style in Spain only occurred after Napoleon’s fall. It consequently bears the name Ferdinandino after Ferdinand VII, who reigned from 1814 to 1833. Less sophisticated and clumsier than French pieces, the Spanish variants are usually made of mahogany, with carved gilt decoration instead of gilt-bronze mounts. Classical motifs were preferred, especially figurative devices such as putti or swans. These are epitomized on the typical Gondola chairs, which had legs featuring swans or dolphins. Similarly, the king’s desk in the Royal Palace, Madrid, is made of mahogany supported on carved gilt swans.
The Spanish love of walnut, pine, cedar, and olive wood is also evident in pieces with relatively little decoration and few appliques. Overall, like contemporary Portuguese work, the pieces are heavier than true Empire furniture and often of slightly exaggerated proportions. Spanish pieces from the south also feature an occasional motif echoing Spain’s exotic Moorish past.
Although France was the predominant cultural dynamo, British, German, and Italian influences are all discernable in Spanish furniture of this period. The presence of British cabinet-makers on the island of Minorca helped to diffuse the principles of British Neoclassical design, while 18th-century ties with Naples generated Italianate forms.
With the accession of Isabella (1833-70), and the development of the so-called Isabellino style, a more romantic trend emerged in Spain, which revived many of its historical furniture types, particularly Baroque. As such, it corresponded to the style of the Second Empire in France.
PORTUGAL
In the opening years of the 19th century, British Neoclassical style reigned supreme in Portugal. The French occupation introduced a ponderous version of the Empire style, but when power returned to General Beresford in 1811, so too did a preference for Regency design. Trafalgar chairs were most popular, while the engravings of Sheraton continued to be influential.
Portuguese furniture production experienced a downturn from this time onwards: with the return of Dom Joao VI from Brazil, political and social instability was accompanied by general economic decline. This reached its peak with the civil strife under Maria II de Gloria (1828-53).
Portuguese furniture is characterized by the use of South American timbers, particularly those from the Brazilian forests, such as jacaranda and
pausanto. These woods are easy to carve and allow sharp details, so carving is more common on Portuguese furniture than its French or British prototypes. However, the furniture produced in Lisbon tends to be far heavier and altogether simpler than the examples that inspired them. Generally, some fine-quality furniture was produced, such as the mahogany and gilt-brass mounted suite supplied for one of the bedrooms at the Royal Palace of Queluz.
From the 1830s, when Maria
II’s consort, Ferdinand of SachsenCoburg-Saalfeld, began building the Pena Palace, the German Biedermeier style became popular.
Portugal’s strong colonial ties with India and the Far East ensured that much colonial furniture was also imported, particularly from Goa and the Malabar Coast. Often simplified versions of European styles carved in Eastern hardwoods, they tend to echo 18th-century styles rather than reflect the latest European trends.

PORTUGUESE COLONIAL CABINET
The cabriole legs are joined by a wave-shaped cross-stretcher with a central urn finial in the centre.
The cabinet terminates in claw-and-ball feet. Early 19th century.
NEOCLASSICAL SIDE CHAIRS
These side chairs are part of a set of four. They have mahogany frames with parcel gilt decoration. A scrolled top rail sits above a rectangular backrest. The seat rails are plain, but mounted with gilt rosettes. The chairs stand on circular, tapered legs. Early 19th century.

DINING CHAIRS
These Spanish chairs are made of walnut and form part of a set of ten dining chairs. Each chair is decorated with mask finials. The seat back comprises two vertical rows of turned spindles – the upper row is of widely spaced,
long spindles, and the lower forms a tightly spaced decorative border. The leather seats are attached to the frames with brass studs, and the seat rails are shaped and decorated. The chairs stand on ring-turned, reeded legs, which are joined by an H-stretcher. Early 19th century
MALLORCAN COMMODE
This marquetry commode, one of a pair, is made from mahogany, fruitwood, and rosewood. The rectangular, white marble top rests above a convex frieze drawer, which is inlaid with scrolling leaves, and three drawers, that are
inlaid sans traverse. The drawers are flanked by canted scrolled angles, which are also decorated with leaf inlay. At the base of the commode is an inlaid concave-fronted drawer above a banded rim and acanthus-carved feet.

Antique Mid 19th Century American Furniture.

A RENEWED RUSH of immigration from
northern Europe swelled America’s population in the mid-19th century. After the Civil War (1861-65), the victorious North was imbued with new vigour and wealth as the tide of industrialization swept across the states.
The Gothic style also remained popular during the second half of the 19th century. Examples of solid dark wood furniture crowned by cathedral-style trefoils and quatrefoils could be found in many middle-class homes.
UNITED STATES
APPROPRIATIONS FROM EUROPE The American Empire style reached its zenith around 1840, when the tide of fashion turned in favour of plain surfaces. Heavy furniture in mahogany and rosewood veneers dominated the later American Empire period.
The Empire manner was gradually ousted from its central position in American taste by an influx of European craftsmen, who helped to disseminate the Rococo-revival style. The Classical motifs of Empire furniture gave way to emblems drawn from the natural world, and rounded Rococo forms replaced the earlier architectural structures. The development of laminate veneers greatly aided the practitioners of the Rococo revival, led by German-born New Yorker J.H. Belter (see pp.296-97). Some American designers, such as Alexander Roux, eschewed the use of laminated bentwood in favour of a more authentic Rococo look. Roux was a French immigrant whose elaborately carved pieces featured decorative motifs drawn from hunting, such as grouse, dogs, and deer.
HOMEGROWN INGENUITY George Hunzinger, a German who arrived in the United States in 1855, devised ingenious space-saving, mechanical furniture. He amassed more then 20 patents during his career, for furniture that folded, extended, collapsed, or converted. William Wooton, a native of Indiana, secured a patent for an equally clever, but altogether more immutable form in the 1870s. The Wooton Patent Secretary was a large desk that concealed innumerable small drawers and compartments for the storage of documents and chattels.
A NEW AMERICAN RENAISSANCE Renaissance forms were rediscovered after the Civil War and incorporated into a new, distinctly American look. The 1876 Philadelphia Centennial
Exhibition was a statement of the nation’s confidence and marked the culmination of the Renaissance revival. Luminaries of the Gilded Age, such as j.P. Morgan, commissioned grand houses designed in the Renaissance style. The Centennial also spawned an interest in a revival of American colonial furniture forms.
The American people had long been fascinated with Egyptology, and a number of exhibitions of ancient Egyptian artefacts drew vast crowds during the latter half of the 19th century. It is therefore no surprise that Egyptian motifs found their way on to furniture of the period. Actual Egyptian forms were rarely used. Instead, lotus, sphinx, and other emblems were applied to Renaissance-revival furniture.
CHIPPENDALE-STYLE CHAIR
This mahogany side chair with an upholstered drop-in seat has an openwork splat, shaped top rail, and scrolled ears. Elegant cabriole legs terminate in claw-and-ball feet. It is one of a set of six chairs. c.1900.
GOTHIC-REVIVAL ARMCHAIR
This walnut armchair has a carved and pierced crest. The back is flanked by spiral spindles and stiles. The ring-turned arms terminate in ball-turned hand-holds, and the seat is raised on spiral-turned legs.
CHEST-ON-CHEST
This Colonial-revival chest-on-chest is made from mahogany. The upper section of the chest consists of an outset gadroon-carved top, two moulded frieze drawers, and three graduated drawers. The lower section has two
long drawers positioned above a gadroon-carved base and the piece is supported on claw-andball feet. The overall form is based on a mid 18th-century original. The legs are inspired by a mid 18th-century form, while the moulded top drawer is 19th century in style. Mid 19th century.
This tea table or card table, is an exact copy of a late 18th-century piece, with a top that opens out to provide a larger surface. Made from mahogany, the table is inlaid with boxwood. The frieze is inlaid with an urn motif, and the table is raised on square, tapering legs. Mid 19th century.
This Renaissance-revival, laminated walnut, triple-arch sofa is influenced by Louis XV style. It has a pierced foliate, scroll-and-grape clustered frame, centred by a carved mask crest. The tufted back of the sofa is in three sections above a padded serpentine seat with a floral-carved apron on cabriole legs.
The pediment has a central domed crest.
WOOTON DESK
Panel doors are lined with shelves and divisions.
This imposing variation of the fall-front desk has an elaborate, domed pediment. Two lockable, hinged front panels open to reveal an extensive, complex arrangement of interior drawers and divisions. The writing surface, also hinged, lifts from horizontal to vertical so the panel doors can close. The doors are also fitted with shelves and divisions. Late 19th century.
The wooden knobs are in a darker wood than the drawers.

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