Posts Tagged ‘french manner’

MID 19TH CENTURY CHESTS OF DRAWERS

MANY OF THE CHESTS made and sold in this period were direct descendants of their 18th-century counterparts. The chest was still in widespread use, both in the bedroom as a clothes store and in the salon, very often for display purposes only. Examples with specialist uses, such as music cabinets and folio chests, augmented the range of commodes, cabinets, and vitrines already found in the home. The traditional low, broad chest was frequently of very fluid form, incorporating serpentine, bombe, or bowfront curves reminiscent of 18th-century styles. Elaborate commodes were rare, however, and, in the drawing room, were often replaced by credenzas, or side cabinets.
CONTRASTING STYLES
A more contemporary look was provided by a new generation of tall and slender, rather elegant, filing cabinets, precipitated by the bestselling Wellington chest. These filing
cabinets tended to be less fussy than the more old-fashioned chests of drawers, particularly those in the Rococo-revival style, which were often excessively ornamented. Profuse use of gilt-metal mounts, sabots, and inlays combined with marble tops, carved skirts, friezes and aprons, and intricate marquetry decoration often made these very busy items of furniture. Neoclassical and Gothic forms sat alongside chests in the Rococo style, although these labels often referred to little more than token applied decoration, used by cabinetmakers to distinguish an otherwise plain piece of furniture.
FAVOURED WOODS
Tropical hardwoods, such as mahogany and rosewood, were frequently used for chests, although Dutch cabinetmakers often substituted walnut for their marquetry-decorated pieces, and cherry wood was sometimes used in the United States.
FRENCH COMMODE
This 18th-century-style commode has a moulded, veined marble top above a Rococo-style, rosewood- and walnut-veneered bombe case with polished, gilded, bronze mounts. The front of the piece is inlaid with colourful
marquetry, and shows an asymmetrical floral pattern. The case is set on cabriole legs. It is an accurate copy of a Louis XV commode and uses expensive materials. However, this mid 19th-century example was constructed by
machine rather than by hand.
ITALIAN PARQUETRY COMMODE
This kingwood parquetry commode is of bombe form and has a moulded Siena marble top above two chequer-veneered drawers. Each drawer has a flower-head motif centred over
the escutcheon plate. The same motif appears on the sides of the case. It is raised on square, cabriole legs, terminating in sabots. Although almost an exact copy of an 18th-century piece, its excessively slender legs reveal its 19th-
century origins.
DUTCH CHEST OF DRAWERS
The moulded top of this Dutch, Empire-style, walnut and marquetry tall chest of drawers has an outset frieze drawer. Below this are five equal-sized drawers, decorated sans traverse with fine floral marquetry inlaywork, which
exhibits a mixture of mid 18th- and late 18th-century styles in its overall design. The oval border is Neoclassical in inspiration, while the floral design within it is asymmetrical and, therefore, more Rococo in style. The case is supported on tapering, square-section feet. 1880.
FRENCH FILING CHEST
This late Louis XVI-style ebony and brass filing chest has a moulded edge above eight drawers. The drawers have leather fronts and brass catches and are supported on a plinth base. c,1900.
ANGLO-INDIAN WELLINGTON CHEST
Made of the distinctively striped coromandel wood — a type of ebony from the Coromandel coast of India —this Wellington chest also features surface carving typical of the subcontinent. c.1880.
BRITISH WELLINGTON CHEST
The moulded top of this figured maple chest protrudes above its frieze. Beneath the frieze are seven graduated drawers, flanked on either side by a locking flap. At the top of each flap is an applied scroll-leaf decoration. 1860.
GERMAN COMMODE.
This mahogany commode has a protruding rectangular top above four flame-mahogany veneered drawers. The front of the case has canted corners, with a carved scroll and acanthus top and bottom. The case is supported on carved scroll, bracket feet. c.1850.
FRENCH COMMODE
This bowfront kingwood commode has a moulded, veined marble top. The four drawers have veneered fronts, and are divided and flanked by brass-lined flutes. A veneered herringbone pattern is on each side. The commode has a shaped apron with gilt mounts and stands on bracket feet. c.1900.
AMERICAN CHEST OF DRAWERS
This chest has been grain-painted in ochre and yellow with dark green mouldings and recessed side panels. The backboard is dark green with the initials “A” and V’ in gold and copper. The chest has two short above four long drawers. Each side panel is stencilled with a vase of flowers.
AMERICAN BUTLER’S CHEST
This cherry wood chest has panelled sides and four dovetailed drawers with glass handles. The top drawer has a drop front with spindle columns and opens onto a fitted interior with four drawers, eight cubbyholes, and a central prospect door. Mid 19th century.
BRITISH CREST OF DRAWERS
This rectilinear chest of drawers has two short above three long, equal-sized drawers. Each drawer is decorated with laurel swags, and the long drawers also feature a central carved rosette. The chest is supported on a shaped plinth base. Late 19th century.
GERMAN COMMODE
This small commode is made from solid mahogany and veneered in various exotic woods. There is a single frieze drawer below the moulded top and two additional, bombe-form drawers decorated, sans traverse, with flowers, figures, and rocaille. c.1900.

Flatware, or cutlery, remains among the most popular antique silver today. Spoons, owned and valued by all classes of society, are among the earliest utilitarian silver to survive in any quantity – being small, they had a relatively low value as bullion and were not as readily converted into coin as larger items. Forks were only used for sweetmeats or desserts until the 16th century in continental Europe and the late 17th century in Britain. It was not until the 18th century that matching sets of silver spoons, forks, and knives were produced, but thereafter they were made on a large scale and in an extensive range of patterns. Complete and original sets of flatware are rare and expensive, since individual pieces were often very heavily used and then replaced.
APOSTLE SPOONS
English apostle spoons were made in London and the provinces from the mid-15th to the mid-17th century. They have a fig-shaped bowl and faceted hexagonal stem, and are so called because the cast finials depict the
12 Apostles; originally they were made in sets of 12 or
13 (the thirteenth spoon usually representing Christ), but very few full sets survive today. Spoons were often given as christening presents, the child receiving the spoon representing the saint after whom he was named. Each Apostle can usually be identified by the symbolic object in his right hand – for example keys or a fish for St Peter or a saltine cross for St Andrew. The bowl and stem were created from a single piece of silver, one part being drawn out for the stem and the other hammered into a shaped die for the bowl; the finial was attached with a “V”-joint on pieces made in London; provincial makers used a lap joint. The position of marks on apostle spoons is also distinctive – the town mark is in the bowl; other marks appear on the back of the stem.
Apostle spoons tend to fetch high prices on the market today, as they have been of interest to collectors and antiquarians from as far back as the 18th century. Many fakes were created by cutting off the stem from a similar spoon and adding a reproduction apostle finial. Indistinct features of the apostles are not always a sign that the finial is a fake, because in the 15th and 16th centuries a single mould may have been employed to cast hundreds of finials, so some genuine examples lack sharpness.
SETS OF SILVER FLATWARE
French styles of silver were popular in England after the Restoration in 1660, when King Charles II returned from exile in France. Among the new forms introduced was a type of spoon with an egg-shaped bowl and broad, flat stem ending in a simple trefoil, known as a “trefid” spoon. The bowl was joined to the stem by a tapering rib, or “rat-tail”, and sometimes the back of the spoon was decorated with scrolls in low relief or engraved with a crest or initials. By c.1690 the trefid pattern had flattened out into the “dognose” – the end of the stem had a central curve with a smaller one on either side. Dining forks, used in France and Italy since the 16th century, were also introduced to England at the Restoration; these followed the styles of trefid and dognose spoons and usually had two or three prongs, or tines. Early forks are rare and much sought after. Some fakes have been converted from spoons, but the proportions are slightly wrong and the tines too thin. Usually, early forks were thick and heavy.
By the early-18th-century forks, knives (with rounded cannon- or pistol-shaped handles), and spoons were made as a set – a trend probably influenced by the fashion for dinner services with matching ornament. The first pattern for matching flatware was the “Hanoverian”; it features a flat, rounded end turned upward and a ridge along the front of the handle. Coats of arms or crests were engraved on the back of the stem, since flatware was laid face down on the table in the French manner.
The Hanoverian pattern evolved by the 1760s into the “Old English” pattern, with a plain, rounded end but turned down instead of up (on spoons), according to the new fashion of placing cutlery face up on the table. In the same period, forks were made with four instead of three tines. With increasingly elaborate dining habits, special silver-gilt services for dessert became popular.
Flatware was made in a huge variety of patterns from the late 18th century, especially with the development of mechanized manufacture in Sheffield, which became the most important centre of cutlery production in England. The more popular styles in the late 18th and 19th
centuries included the “fiddle” (with the end of the handle in a fiddle shape), and the more ornate “King’s” and “Queen’s” pattern. Flatware of this date was often supplied with a fitted case.
Today, complete and original sets of flatware, even from the 20th century, are very rare, as pieces were often replaced due to heavy use. When buying flatware, it is important to check for forks that have been trimmed off (this is difficult to detect) and for spoons whose bowls have been reshaped to disguise wear.
CADDY AND MOTE SPOONS
Before the 1770s tea was measured out using the domed caps on tea-caddies; when these were replaced by larger lids a small spoon was kept in the caddy. From the late 18th century thousands of caddy spoons were produced in a diverse range of designs, especially by manufacturers who specialized in “toys” – wine labels, boxes, buckles, and other small items. Like wine labels, caddy spoons are popular with first-time silver collectors.
Among the earliest and most common designs was a spoon with a shell-shaped bowl; other popular novelty forms included a vine leaf with a vine tendril as a handle, a shovel or scoop, and, most coveted by collectors, an eagle’s wing and a jockey cap. Most spoons were made by die-stamping, but heavier and more expensive pieces might be cast. Filigree and handles of bone, ivory, or in other- of-pea rl were also used. In recent years many reproductions of earlier designs have been produced.
Mote silver spoons, or skimmers, were used to skim tea leaves off tea. Made from the early 18th century, they usually have a pierced bowl, with a pattern of circular holes or crosses and scrolls, and a slender, tapering, pointed stem, for unblocking the spout of the teapot. Mote spoons were often made en suite with teaspoons. Some fake mote spoons have been converted from teaspoons, but teaspoons have larger bowls and no pointed end and are shorter.
LADLES AND FISH SLICES
Ladles for serving soup, sauce, punch, and sugar were produced from the 18th century, sometimes en suite with tureens and punch-bowls. The styles tend to follow flatware, but some soup ladles were made with deep-fluted shell bowls. Punch ladles had circular or oval bowls with a lip and a handle of wood, whalebone, or silver.
Fish slices, produced from the 18th century, have a broad pierced blade and turned wooden or silver handle. Early pieces are pierced with simple patterns, but some Victorian ones depict fishing themes. Fish slices are easily damaged, especially on the piercing and where the blade joins the handle.

Apostle spoons
• CONSTRUCTION the finial is joined to the stem on London-made spoons with a “V”-joint and on provincial pieces with a lap joint
• COLLECTING very few complete sets survive today; most are provincial pieces
Marks
The town mark is typically found in the bowl; other marks may appear on the back of the stem
Flatware
• COLLECTING it is important to check patterns closely because of small variations in design; complete and original sets are now rare; those with an equal amount of wear on each piece are most collectable; early forks are valuable; knives made before 1800 are abundant but few have survived in good condition
Marks
These were struck near the stem in the early 18th century but near the handle by the 1770s
Caddyspoons
• CONDITION check for badly repaired pieces, with spoons that have snapped where the bowl joins the stem; filigree spoons tend to be very fragile
• COLLECTING designs are extremely varied
STYLES OF FLATWARE
Sets of flatware with matching decoration were first produced in the early 18th century. These are some common styles.

Featured at Antcollectors Silver:
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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.

Chests-on-chests
Although they  were inspired by the 16th-century meuble en deux corps that was associated with the period of Henry 11 in France (1547-59), it was not until the late 17th century that varguenos on chests, escritoires, and chests-on-chests (tallboys), without fall fronts or top sections, were recorded in England. Traditionally of oak, although gradual superseded by walnut versions during the reign of William and Mary (1689-1702), the earliest chests-on-chests are rare indeed; they are of a very simple form, with a low “waist”, and are supported on plain bun feet.
18TH-CENTURY WALNUT CHESTS-ON-CHESTS.

It was under Queen Anne ( 1702-14) and George I (1714-27) that walnut chests-on-chests became increasingly sophisticated. Usually with plain moulded cornices above two or three small frieze drawers and six or seven long drawers, standing on moulded
plinths and bun, or later bracket, feet, these early chests-on-chests are entirely dependent upon the figuring and colouring of the veneer for effect. Burr veneers, and particularly burr-walnut, were therefore highly prized, as this timber displays a far richer figuring than straight-grained walnut. By its very nature, burr-walnut (cut from diseased branches) does not exist in large sections, and so it is a sign of good quality when the veneer has been applied in strips, often mirror-matched, rather than in long sections, as the latter would suggest that the surface has been either reveneered or “grained”, whereby straight-grained walnut has been painted to simulate a burr wood. While the plainest, and indeed often the earliest, examples have little or no decoration,
save for a tidy construction of overlapping drawer-mouldings, during the first quarter of the 18th century chests-on-chests became increasingly architectural in form and elaborate in decoration, with dentilled cornices, canted and fluted angles, shaped bracket feet, crossbanding and featherbanding, and even chequerbanded inlay. The most sophisticated examples arc inlaid with a ,,Sunburst”, usually in ebony and walnut but occasionally in ivory, in the centre of the lower drawer, which has a concave front to create a sense of movement. A further development of this period was the secretaire chest-on-chest, in which the top drawer of the lower section has a fall front that conceals a fitted interior with writing-surface, drawers, and pigeon holes.
As with bachelors’ chests, originality colour, and patina are very important when looking at a chest-on-chest from this period. Elaborate crossbanding and inlay, unusually richly figured veneers, and replaced handles and feet are often later “improvements” to enhance the value of the piece. The handles, if original (in which case there is little reason for them all to have ever been
taken out), are a very good indicator of quality and craftmanship, and the finest early 18th-century examples are of richly lacquered brass with a pierced, sometimes engraved, backplates.
18TH-CENTURY MAHOGANY CHESTS-ON-CHESTS. Although provincial furniture-makers continued to work with indigenous woods such as oak, elm, and walnut, from the 1730s walnut was increasingly superseded by mahogany. y. Usually made in the solid, rather than veneered, mahogany chests-on-chests of the George 11 period (1727-60), built on the architectural legacy of their walnut forebears, reached their Rococo fruition in the 1760s through The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director (1754-62) by Thomas Chippendale (1718-79). Frieze s, hitherto always plain, were now carved in relief with mythological deities in the Palladian style, which had been promoted by William Kent (c.1685-1748) in the 1730s, with stylized acanthus sprays in the manner of William Hallett (c.1707-81) in the 1740s, or with interlaced blind-fretwork in the Chinese manner popularized by William Chambers (1723-96) in the 1750s. Similarly, cornices that had previously been flat became pedimented, swan-necked, and segmental, even centred by splayed eagles or acanthus cartouches, while the restrained bracket feet of the early 18th century were discarded in favour of Gothic ogee-bracket feet, often with carved and applied decoration. Moreover, this Rococo ornament was echoed in the increasingly Elaborate gilt-bronze handles, often manufactured in Birmingham, with a rich lacquered finish, and cast with C-scrolls, ,lowers, and chinoiserie pagodas.
Perhaps the rarest chests-on-chests are the serpentine-fronted examples executed by
Chippendale and his contemporaries during the 1760s. Often still with carrying handles
both upper and lower sections, a surviving trait from the French 17th-century concept of a commode-on-stand, they have cabriole legs and scroll feet.
The Neo-classical style that swept through Europe from the late 1750s and 1760s heralded a return to linearity and architectural purity. This new Classical language, first expounded by architects such as James “Athenian” Stuart (1713-88) and Robert Adam (1728-92) and adopted by cabinet-makers such as Chippendale, John Mayhew 1-36-1811), and William Ince was inevitably reflected in chest patterns made during the reign of George III (1760-1820). Increasingly plain and usually of mahogany, with plain bracket or occasionally, square tapering feet and flat-dentilled cornice, the more refined George III chests-on-chests are inlaid with ebony lines inthe “Etruscan” manner, or embellished with marquetry decoration including trailed husks to the angles or paterae to the friezes. This Neo-classicism gave way to the lighter “French” style promoted by Thomas Sheraton
I 751-1806) and George Hepplewhite (d.1786) in their respective pattern-books, The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book (1791-1802) and The Cabinet-Make• and Upholsterer’s Guide (1788-94). The chests-on-chests of the 1790s, often bow-fronted in form, are characterized by their plain decoration and splayed feet. Although the chest-on-chest was a popular form throughout the 19th century, later ones are usually inspired by 18th-century precedents and patterns.
AMERICAN CHESTS-ON-CHESTS
Mahogany chests-on-chests, also known as “double chests-of-drawers”, were to find their true expression in the hands of North American cabinet-makers such as John Cogswell (d.1818) and Stephen Badlam (17511815) in Boston, Massachusetts, Thomas Affleck (1740-95) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Thomas Elfe (1759-1825) in Charleston, South Carolina. Some country examples made by John Dunlap (1746-92) and Samuel Dunlap (1752-1830), and others in New Hampshire, are supported by free-standing frames. In some the top drawers of the lower sections are fitted as secretary drawers. Some examples from Massachusetts have blocked, serpentine, or bombe lower sections; a few made in Boston and Salem are elaborately ornamented with carved figures. Although Philadelphia chests-on-chests were made at the height of the Rococo period (1765-80), evidence of the Rococo is found only in the naturalistic carvings in the pediments and the swirled grain of the mahogany drawer fronts. A horizontal cornice separates the carved pediment with pierced tympanum from the unadorned facade. Chests from Charleston are closely modelled on English prototypes; some have removable broken-scroll pediments, and finely figured mahogany veneer glued of cores of straight-grained mahogany.

• FORM it is usual for a chest-on-chest to have three short drawers in the top section above three long drawers and three graduated drawers in the
bottom section.
• BEWARE beware of chests of drawers with three short drawers at the top: because of the desire for shorter pieces of furniture that fit in with the scale of houses today, the top sections of many tallboys have been provided with feet and made into chests-of-drawers;
it should be clear that the top has later veneering – the
top of the tallboy was not veneered, as it was too high to be seen; beware of tallboys inlaid with a sunburst (which is a particularly good feature), as this could be from a later date: on later examples the shaping is clearly more angular and awkward.
• QUALITY OF TIMBER this is one of the most important
considerations when assessing the value of tallboys.

Storage furniture.
Chests-of-drawers after 1840
The practical nature of the chest-of-drawers ensured its continued popularity after 1840. It was considered an essential part of any household and produced in vast numbers throughout Europe. Chests-of-drawers, called commodes if made in France or in the French manner, with serpentine curves and Rococo characteristics, range from the utilitarian to the virtuoso.
WOOD AND CONSTRUCTION
Despite the internationalism of styles, each country in Europe tended to use its native woods especially for the carcases; for example, France and The Netherlands used oak and Scandinavian countries used pine. Typically, Dutch drawer-linings are of oak, nailed together or dovetailed. Satinwood for veneers was imported from the East and West Indies. The satinwood used for furniture of the Edwardian period usually has strong lines, and is more likely to come from the East than the West Indies. Although birch was native to Europe and had been used for a long time on Scandinavian furniture, in Britain it had been confined to cooking utensils and provincial furniture. With the growth of furniture production in the 19th century, satin-birch was used as an alternative to the expensive satinwood; when cut carefully the wood could produce a decorative figure. Birch has subsequently come to be used for plywood and in furniture of modern design. Dovetails throughout central Europe at this time were 10 to 15mm (X–yin) at their widest point. In southern Europe they were broader and coarser, but all were in marked contrast to those made in Britain. There, the dovetails were consistently much smaller, often finer than a pencilpoint. This is an instantly recognizable feature of British and North American furniture construction.
PLAIN CHESTS-OF-DRAWERS
Many chests-of-drawers made in the 19th century were designed as parts of bedroom suites; the other components would be a bed, a wardrobe, and a pair of night tables. As a result of increased mechanization and the revival of styles, the choice for the Victorian purchaser was huge and designed to suit every pocket. The standard Victorian chest-of-drawers is of the very simplest form with two short and three graduated drawers constructed using traditional methods, with neat dovetailed joints. The proportions were generally rather heavy, and this was accentuated by a heavy plinth base. This type of chest-of-drawers was large and widely manufactured by firms such as Maddox of London (est. 1838) and William Smee & Sons (est. 1817). Pieces found today are likely to be originals and are modestly priced. Their plain, utilitarian design makes these chests long lasting.
The Wellington chest is also a relatively plain form of the chest-of-drawer. Named after the Duke of Wellington, whose succesful campaigns against Napoleon had made him a national hero, it was first introduced in the 1820s and originally intended to contain a collection of coins or other precious artefacts. It is characterized by its tall, narrow form and by the stiles (uprights) fixed to either side of the drawers. One of the stiles is hinged to cover the drawer ends at one side, which allows the chest to be locked. Wellington chests can have up to 12 drawers and occasionally a secretaire drawer in the middle. They were normally made of mahogany or rosewood, but there are also examples in pollard oak, burr-walnut, burr-elm, and yew.
Another type of plain chest was the two-part campaign chest. These were first made for use in the field during the military campaigns in the Peninsular War (1809-14), although they continued to be made throughout the 19th century. These chests are recognizable by their sunken handles and carrying handles at the sides, and feet that may be unscrewed and stored safely in the drawers while being moved. Of small, neat proportions they arc often made in teak.
TYPES OF DECORATION
As with other types of furniture, chests-of-drawers made after 1840 were decorated with a wide variety of ornamentation, reviving styles from previous centuries and employing mechanization to speed up production. The fine marquetry decoration that had graced Dutch cabinets-on-stands and other case furniture from the end of the 17th century, by such outstanding craftsmen as Jan van Mekeren (1658-1733), continued to be made throughout the 18th century and was still a popular form of decoration in The Netherlands during the I 9th century. The style normally associated with Dutch marquetry is that of flowers with birds and foliate scrolls. However, particularly from the second quarter of the 19th century, more Neo-classical motifs, including ribbon-tied swags, urns, and stiff leaves, were common, usually inlaid on mahogany grounds.
The fascination with Oriental art, dating from the 17th century, had a widespread appeal during the 19th.
One of the strongest expressions of this taste can be seen in the style and furnishings of Brighton Pavilion, designed for the Prince of Wales (later George IV) during the early 19th century. The style of the buildings and its furnishings continued the fashion for chinoiseries already set in the 18th century, using such materials as bamboo, japanning (a European version of lacquering), and caning. White real bamboo was generally used for Regency bamboo furniture, by the 1860s it had largely been replaced by imitation bamboo using such woods such as walnut and beech, and in the USA maple. The wood was turned, carved, and painted to simulate bamboo, in the manner already practiced by the Chinese in the 17th century. The Oriental influence was also strongly felt in the USA, where the production of imitation bamboo furniture was at its height during the 1880s. The forms made were distinctly Western, and the furniture was considered especially suitable for light, summery interiors in country houses, where the hot summer months would be passed, or for use in conservatories and as garden furniture. In Britain the craze for whimsical “bamboo” furniture was given a further boost when Japanese art was shown at the International Exhibition of 1862 in London, which gave rise to the Aesthetic Movement. Between 1869 and 1935 there were over 150 firms registered in Britain manufacturing “bamboo” furniture, including those with such exotic names as the Aizdu Bamboo Co. (est. 1884) in London and the Mikado Co. (est. 1893) in Birmingham. In the USA, where imitation bamboo was more popular than real bamboo, such firms as C.A. Aimone, the Kilian Bros, and George Hunzinger in New York were notable producers.
Another form of “Oriental” decoration was japanning. During the mid-18th century the Martin family in Paris were well known for their version of japanning, where the carcase was prepared and painted with Oriental designs or fetes galantes (open-air scenes) inspired by the paintings of Antoine Watteau and Francois Boucher. Numerous coats of amber varnish were then added until a hard coating was achieved. This technique was revived in the 19th century, although the quality achieved was never the same.
Inexpensive timbers could be grained or stained to resemble luxury woods. Thomas Sheraton (1751-1806) had given instructions in The Cabinet Dictionary (1803), and Nathaniel Whittock had suggested several ways of imitating timbers such as rosewood in The Decorative Painters’ and Glaziers’ Guide ( 1827). Whittock also advised on the creation of marbling effects.
Pieces decorated in this way remained popular as occasional and bedroom furniture well into the third quarter of the 19th century, and were revived again in the early years of the 20th.
Painted pieces were produced in large quantities, but are now scarce in original condition as the paintwork has rubbed off, or worse, has been stripped off completely. The practice of stripping antiques has now largely stopped, and pieces with original decoration are keenly sought after.
THE REVIVAL STYLES
Throughout the 19th century the revival of styles affected all forms of furniture, and the chest-of-drawers was no exception. Of all styles, the most influential and pervasive throughout Europe were those of the Louis
XV and XVI periods. While every country revived furniture styles from periods that had national connotations (Britain “Gothic” and Elizabethan, Italy “Renaissance”), most manufactured furniture in these 18th-century styles. By the end of the 19th century furniture made in different countries was often so similar that it can be difficult to tell where it was actually made. The increasing ease of communication, mechanization, and manufacture continued to dilute national characteristics.
At the International Exhibition of 1867 in Paris, the British firm of Wright & Mansfield (est. 1860) in London, won the supreme award for furniture. It showed a Neo-classical satinwood cabinet in the style of the architect Robert Adam (1728-92), decorated with plaques provided by the firm of Wedgwood. This gave rise in the 1880s to a revival of furniture based on the designs of Thomas Sheraton (1751-1806) and George Hepplewhite (d.1786). Sheraton Revival chests-of-drawers were usually made in light mahogany, satinwood or satin-birch, and decorated with inlaid stringing lines and shells or fan shapes, or painted with flowers and foliate scrolls. A series of books on interior design published in the late 1870s was directed at the middle classes and confirmed the fashion for Adam, Hepplewhite. and Sheraton, and in 1891 Sheraton’s
The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book (1791-1802) and Flepplewhite’s The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide (1788-94) were reprinted. Out of these revivals came the Edwardian style, which contained features of all three designers, adapted in shape and proportion, often using mahogany or satin-birch, and with bone inlay or painted ornamentation for decoration. Revivals were subject to misinterpretation, and copies were not always successful. For example, the slenderness of Sheraton forms was often slimmed down even more, and could look too attenuated and rather spindly.
After the eclecticism of the earlier 19th century, when various styles from different periods were thrown together, towards the end of the 19th century, there was a move by some firms to reproduce excellent, close copies of the original works. Some of these arc indistinguishable from the originals. Firms such as Gillow (est. c.1730) of Lancaster, and Edwards & Roberts (est. 1845) of London, developed reputations for these high-quality reproductions. Edwards & Roberts clearly stamped or labelled its chests-of-drawers. However, as it dealt in antiques and modern furniture as well as reproductions, and stamped or labelled everything that that came through its doors, it is often difficult to tell one of its copies from a genuine 18th-century piece. As well as precise copies by imitations by top firms, inexpensive were produced elsewhere.

• VENEERING check that veneers have not been used to cover poor construction.
• DATING Most Chests look distinctly 19th century, but there were fine copies of 18th-contury examples made, which can now be very difficult to distinguish; a 19th-Century mark or signature tends to be on mounts or locks rather than on the carcase, as in the 18th century.
• size as a general rule of thumb, smaller chests-ofdrawers tend to be more commercial – however, beware of fakes and items made from associated pieces.
• MARKS some firms marked their furniture with stamps or labels; marks can often be found on hinges.

Tea tables and tripod tables.
TEA TABLES.
Tea was first imported into Europe by the Dutch East India Company in the early 17th century, but it was not until the late 17th century that tables specifically designed for supporting the cups, saucers, and kettles required for drinking tea and coffee were introduced. Very few late 17th-century tea tables survive. Contemporary documents suggest that the earliest examples were either of imported Chinese or Japanese lacquer or japanned in imitation of Oriental decoration.
Although it was initially fashionable to drink tea in the many tea-gardens around London, by the mid-18th century such establishments had become increasingly poorly regarded and it became customary to entertain at home. Inevitably this led to the production of lavishly carved ornamental tea tables in the Rococo taste, and even to the construction of special tea-rooms, often appropriately decorated in the chinoiserie taste.
TRIPOD TABLES
Tripod tables were also made for serving tea, and, although provincial examples were made in indigenous woods, most English 18th-century tripod tables were constructed of solid mahogany. Designed to be folded Lip and stored away when not in use, they are invariably fitted with either bird-cage supports or tilt-top mechanisms. The former, whereby the top of the shaft is secured by a wedge into the bird cage, which in turn is fixed to the underside of the table by a hinge, allows the top to be removed, and was employed on the most sophisticated English and American tripod tables until the 1760s. Its slightly cumbersome form was replaced by the simpler tilt-top mechanism, whereby the platform at the top of the shaft is joined to the top by two lateral bearers and fixed by a lacquered-brass catch.
During the reigns of George I and George 11, tea and coffee were usually served from a silver tray or salver, the tripod table itself being initially conceived as a plain stand. The earliest tripod tables have, therefore, a plain, circular tilt-tops above ring-turned columnar, gun-barrel, baluster or vase-shaped shafts, supported by cabriole legs with pointed pad feet. From the 1750s tripod tables, referred to as “claw tables” by William Ince (1738-1804) and John Mayhew ( 1736-1811) in The Universal System of Household Furniture (1762), became increasingly elaborate, with acanthus and C-scroll carved knees, spirally turned shafts, and clawand-ball feet. The most expensive examples tend to be the slightly smaller kettle stands of the
1750s, which were conceived to support tea kettles only. Quirky regional types exist, perhaps the most distinctive being the “Manx” tripod, its cabriole legs terminating in shoe-shaped feet, the legs sometimes even carved with breeches.
Although tripod tables are traditionally associated with England and North America they were also executed in Germany, The Netherlands, Scandinavia, and France. From the late 17th century, Dutch painters often decorated the scalloped oval tops of plain-oak tripod tables with mythological scenes and imaginary landscapes, and this tradition survived well into the 19th century. In Brunswick, in Germany, tea tables, invariably with tripod supports, were decorated with “beadwork”, whereby, polychrome glass beads were strung together to create ,,mosaic” pictures, often of a walled garden. This concept was later applied to Sevres porcelain-mounted tables executed for Louis XVI and his court. In the late 18th century the English style became extremely fashionable, and cabinet-makers in Sweden, Denmark, The Netherlands, and France executed furniture in it. The age of satinwood ( 1780-1800) was particularly admired by cabinet-makers in The Netherlands, and Dutch tripod tables are distinguished by their slender downswept legs, joined halfway up by a circular platform and frequently decorated with elaborate parquetry. Although the thick circular tops appear to be too heavy for the slender bases, these Dutch tripod tables are rendered stable by the construction of the legs, which are veneered onto steel cores.
Although solid mahogany still prevailed, from the 1760s tripod tables were veneered in exotic timbers. No doubt influenced by the French fashion for lighter, more delicate, and refined furniture, they are lighter in design; the heavy mahogany tops and bold proportions of earlier examples were discarded in favour of thin, veneered oval and octagonal tops. Similarly, the richly carved turned shafts were replaced by thinner supports,while the cabriole legs gave way to plain, perhaps even slightly arched or downswept legs of square profile. The rare examples from the 1760s that are enriched with carving to the legs are decorated with Neo-classical ornament such as husks and anthemia.
Late 18th-century and Regency tripod tables tend to be far smaller than their earlier counterparts, owing to the fashion for small portable tables. They usually had oval or octagonal tops (although square and rounded rectangular ones were increasingly popular from the 1780s), which were often elaborately inlaid and decorated. While pictorial floral marquetry in the French manner was greatly admired in the 1760s, it was gradually superseded by Neo-classical ornament in the 1770s and 1780x, by geometric parquetry in specimen woods in the 1790x, and by japanned chinoiserie or penwork decoration and brass inlay, in the style of Andre-Charles Boulle (1642-1732) on a rosewood, ground in the Regency period.
Throughout the 19th century tripod tables were influenced by different revival styles and the eclecticism of the period; during the 1820s and 1830s the influence was medieval and Baroque, with barley-twists supports and ebony and ebonized surfaces, while the Rococo style was revived in the mid-19th century with tripod tables often elaborately carved with C-scrolls, acanthus, and mythical beasts, and usually either of gilt-wood or at least parcel gilded. The late 19th century also saw a revival of the style of Thomas Chippendale (1718-79) in the work of firms such as Wright & &Mansfield (est.1860) in London. Although Chippendale Revival tripod tables are usually betrayed by their exaggerated ornament, unusual proportions, and the quality of the timber, they are not always so easily distinguished, particularly if they are plain 18th-century examples that have been later carved and embellished.
PIECRUST “SUPPER” TABLES
In the mid-18th century, tripod tables began to be used not only as tea and coffee tables but also as intimate “supper” tables. While tea tables continued to be made with circular or waved rectangular tops, often enriched with balustraded galleries, supper tables with larger “piecrust” or scalloped, dished tops emerged. These piecrust tops, often dished with circular compartments “for holding Each a set of China”, as Chippendale stated in The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director (1754-62), are often exceptionally lavishly carved with rocaille decoration, shells, and foliage. Although cabinetmakers such as William Vile ((. 1700-67) and John Cobb ((.1715-78) would certainly have supplied such elaborate piecrust tables, the majority were simpler in form. Others were elaborately decorated with intricate mother-of-pearl or brass inlay.
TEAPOYS
The word “teapoy’”, from the Sanskrit for “three feet”, therefore a tripod, was first used in the Regency period to describe a free-standing vessel for storing tea. Usually in the form of rectangular caskets fitted with lidded tea-caddies and central glass mixing-bowls, they were often supported by central shafts and platforms with four downswept legs with scrolled or claw feet. Frequently the most elaborate examples in lacquer were made for export to Europe. Ivory and sandalwood teapot’s were imported via the Anglo-Indian trading links, the finest being made in Vizagapatnam, India. The demand for such items could not be satisfied from abroad alone, and japanned or penwork-decorated examples were made in Europe. Other British teapot’s were made of rosewood, perhaps enriched with brass inlay or gadrooned carving to the base of the casket. By the 1820s, teapoys tended to be quite large and relatively plain, with the exception of those of Tunbridgeware.