Posts Tagged ‘George IV’

Antiques: Furniture, Porcelain, Silver, Clocks Recently Featured at Antcollectors (6)

EARLY 19TH CENTURY
EUROPEAN INFLUENCES
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN American, British, and French furniture in the early 19th century is complex and there is often no easy way to distinguish the origins of pieces. Although the United States was stylistically dependent on the Old World, it still produced some highly original makers, who adapted the Regency and Empire styles in much the same way as European countries diluted the French Napoleonic style. However, it is Sometimes only possible to confirm that a piece is American by analyzing the construction timbers.
The American interpretation of styles is best seen in the work of Duncan Phyfe and Charles-Honore Lannuier. Phyfe’s Scottish origin probably encouraged him to adopt Thomas Sheraton’s style initially.
Phyfe usually worked in Santo Domingo mahogany, palisander, or purpleheart. He went on to produce pieces in the Empire style before developing the Fat Classical style, which favoured sculptural decoration.
Charles-Honore Lannuier was French and settled in New York in 1803. Having trained in France, he brought with him the Louis XVI style, which evolved into an idiosyncratic form of Empire. His furniture is often difficult to distinguish from the French prototypes, especially as he used costly materials and probably imported gilt-bronze mounts from Paris.
Pattern books produced in Britain and France by Sheraton, Percier, and others disseminated European style to the United States more quickly than in the past, so trends were less delayed.

DIRECTOIRE BERGUE
This French armchair exemplifies the berg&e design. It has a high, curved back with a top rail sweeping forwards to form the armrests, which are padded to provide support for the elbows. The chair has a fully upholstered seat
and back, downswept arm supports, and a gently shaped seat rail. The upholstery fabric is not original. The frame of the berg6re is carved with leaves throughout and is raised on short, tapering, fluted legs to the front and splayed legs to the rear. The front legs are decorated with carved rosettes. c.1800.

AMERICAN TUB CHAIR
Like the curricula chair (left), this Federal mahogany armchair shares characteristics with the bergere: the upholstered seat, back, and arms, and the continuous line of the rounded back and arms. Early 19th century.

ENGLISH PEDESTAL SIDEBOARD
This mahogany sideboard has a raised shell and acanthus-carved, shaped back over four frieze drawers. The breakfront pedestals are carved with lion’s-paw feet and open on to shelves. They stand on plinth bases. c.1820.
AMERICAN PEDESTAL SIDEBOARD
This Classical mahogany sideboard mirrors the English version (above) having a leaf-carved, shaped backboard and pedestals on a plinth base. The rectangular top is stepped and sits above an ogee-moulded frieze fitted with drawers. c.1840.

This mahogany, boxwood, and ebony-strung card table has a rectangular, crossbanded, folding top above a plain frieze and ring-turned, tapering legs with brass casters. Early 19th century.
GEORGE IV CARD TABLE
ENGLISH CENTRE TABLE
AMERICAN CENTRE TABLE
AMERICAN CARD TABLE
Made of mahogany and bird’s-eye maple, this card table has rosewood crossbanding and a hinged top above a serpentine frieze. The ring-turned, fluted legs end in turned feet. Early 19th century.
This rosewood table has a circular tilt-top with a plain, crossbanded frieze. It has an octagonal spreading pedestal and a concave triform base with scrolling paw feet. Early 19th century.
This Empire table has a circular rope-carved top with a plain frieze and a floral carved and gilded pedestal. The base and feet are almost identical to the English example, left.

AMERICAN SECRETAIRE
This Classical-style secretaire a abattant has a marble top and a frieze drawer flanked by figural mounts. The drop front sits above cupboard doors. Early 19th century.
FRENCH SECRETAIRE A ABATTANT
This Empire-style, mahogany tall chest has three drawers above a pair of cupboard doors. The case is flanked by tapered pilasters topped by gilt-metal female busts. Early 19th century

AMERICAN SOFA
This elegant American sofa has a similar shaped and carved top rail and outscrolled arms to the Regency sofa (see left). The back, arms, and seat are upholstered and raised on a leaf-carved seat rail. The sofa is supported
on elaborately carved legs that terminate in paw feet. Compared to the Regency example, this sofa is proportionally more bulky.
ENGLISH CELLARET
The rectangular hinged top of this mahogany cellaret encloses a divided interior. It is supported on a rope-turned plinth and raised on ring-turned brass caps with casters. Early 19th century.

AMERICAN CELLARET
This inlaid cherry-wood cellaret, on a stand, has a hinged lid and compartmentalized interior. The cellaret stands on square-section, tapering legs. Early 19th century.
REGENCY SOFA
This mahogany Regency-style sofa has a framed scrolling back and outscrolled arms with reeded, mahogany fronts. The squab cushion and bolsters are supported on a reeded seat rail with bead-and-reel moulded tablets.
The sofa is supported on splayed, reeded legs with leaf-cast brass caps and casters. The splayed legs are particularly susceptible to damage. Early 19th century.

EARLY 19TH CENTURY REGENCY BRITAIN FURNITURE

THE REGENCY WAS a clearly defined
period in British history From 1811 to 1820, the Prince of Wales, who later became George IV, ruled instead of his father, who was suffering from porphyria – a form of madness. However, as a furniture style, Regency has come to embrace a wider time frame, from the 1790s to the third decade of the 19th century.
Reflecting the exuberant tastes of the Regent himself, the period begins with his commission of the Neoclassical architect Henry Holland for his London home, Carlton House, in the 1780s, and concludes with the exotic, Oriental confection that is John Nash’s
Brighton Pavilion, remodelled for the Prince of Wales between 1815 and 1823. George, the Prince Regent, came to dominate taste in the early 19th century. He and his circle drew on a diverse group of talented architects and artisans, often trained in France, many of whom had worked on Carlton House. These included the architect, Charles Heathcote Tatham, the decorators and cabinet-makers, Morel and Hughes, and the clock-maker, Benjamin Vulliamy.
FURNITURE STYLE
Regency furniture is often symmetrical with clean, rectilinear lines. As such, it was inspired by French Empire furniture and the simple late 18th-century furniture designs of Thomas Sheraton. Large surfaces were often veneered in highly figured rosewood and then decorated with gilt-brass mounts of ancient motifs, such as rosettes, paterae, laurels, and anthemia. The Liverpool cabinet-
maker George Bullock is best known for his use of patterned surfaces; he frequently balanced English timbers, especially oak, with a riot of border patterns featuring stylized flower-heads, lotus leaves, and dot motifs.
The strict Neoclassical taste found its most archaeological expression in the designs of Thomas Hope, which he published in 1807. Not only had he plundered ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome for decorative ideas, but he also attempted to recreate ancient furniture and interiors. Probably the most
typical furniture of this type is the rounded klismos chair – first known to have been produced in ancient Greece
– which has back stiles that rise from outswept sabre legs to support an almost semi-circular back.
During this period, a wide variety of side cabinets of diverse outlines came to dominate the wall space in drawing rooms, replacing the use of commodes. In the dining room, a similar role was performed by the popular sideboard and chiffonier.
ECLECTICISM
It would be a mistake, however, to see the Regency as simply a curvaceous and light Neoclassical style. It was characterized by endless variety, a freedom of forms, and an eclectic
ornamental vocabulary. George Smith, who published a pattern book the year after Hope, reinterpreted his cold, academic designs by applying Neoclassical motifs to French Empire models that also included Gothic-and Chinese-inspired furniture. Indeed, exotic forms and materials became the hallmark of Regency taste. Smith popularized Hope’s designs in his pattern book, introducing them to a wider public.
Smith inspired impressive-looking furniture, with boldly carved leopard’s masks or large lion’s-paw feet, which anticipated the slightly heavier furniture of the 1820s and 30s.

The front rail and highly scrolled ends are inlaid with trailing foliage and flowers, terminating in floral paterae.
The seat rail is inlaid with a trailing brass foliate motif.
The design of the chaise longue is influenced by the contemporary French form, the meridjenne - a type of sofa with scrolled ends, one higher than the other.
Brass inlay detail
CHAISE LONGUE
This elegant Regency chaise longue is made of rosewood and is profusely inlaid throughout with brass inlay in a foliate design. The frame has a sweeping back rail which is centred with a scrolled hand grip, and has highly decorative
scrolled end supports. The generously padded seat and arms are supported on a rectilinear front rail decorated with a foliate motif. The piece stands on outswept sabre legs which terminate in lion’s-paw feet on casters.
Sabre legs terminate in lion’s paw feet and casters.
SMALL CENTRE TABLE
The surface of this tilt-top table has a painted scene within a laburnum veneer border. It is supported on a rosewood-veneered stem, on a base with scrolled, ribbed feet on brass casters. Early 19th century
MAHOGANY STOOL
This Regency mahogany stool has a gently shaped rectangular seat with scrolled ends and light carving on the surface. It is supported on an X-frame base with simple, carved decoration and stretchers. c.1810.
This mahogany writing table has a three-quarter brass gallery and a central, pull-out insert. There are six drawers behind a lift-up flap, two drawers on either side, and two in the frieze, supported on slender, turned legs. c.1800.
LIBRARY TABLE
The rectangular top of this rosewood library table is inlaid with a Greek-key border in satinwood and ebony. The frieze has a central pierced ormolu palmette and two drawers. The bowed legs are headed by gilt lion’s heads and
terminate in lion’s-paw feet, joined by a shaped stretcher. c.1810.