Posts Tagged ‘napoleonic antiques’

MODERNISM
CHAIRS
AS FURNITURE PRODUCTION steadily
shifted emphasis from craft-based manufacturing to industrial methods, so the look of the chair changed dramatically Ornament was doggedly erased from designs as structure became more important to the aesthetic look. Solid wood began to fall from favour (too expensive and inflexible) as moulded plywood and tubular steel stepped into the spotlight.
Just as the notion of open-plan space was creeping into Western architecture, so furniture was freed from fulfilling just one function. Chairs became
increasingly ambiguous, with some made for indoor and outdoor use, and others equally at home in an office or dining room. Chairs became lighter, too, as they were frequently moved around the house.
With mass production in mind, designers began to concentrate their efforts on fixtures. The aim became
to produce a chair made of a minimum number of components that fitted together easily and quickly It’s no surprise, then, that the cantilever chair became so popular, as the continuous loop of legs and base eradicated the need for numerous nuts and bolts.
While the structure of the chair became increasingly celebrated in its design, as opposed to any stylistic conceits, so the designer as an
individual receded into the background. Industry became more important than art, as designers sought to express nothing more romantic than the manufacturing process.
The reason the chair dominated the focus of designers’ effort`_ is because a person’s emotional attachment is far greater to a chair than to, say, a shelving unit. If Modernist designers wanted to alter their audience’s emotional and intellectual outlook, it was through the chair that they tried to do so.
The slender armrests display a use of cushioning that is rare fora chair by Marcel Breuer.
The steel struts beneath the seat have been bowed so they cannot be felt by the sitter.
The chair is made from non-reinforced tubular steel, thereby making it less rigid.
B34 CHAIR WITH ARMS
The frame of this cantilever chair is made from one continuous loop of tubular steel. Although the base looks as though it is all in contact with the floor, the side pieces bend slightly so that only the corners touch the floor — the idea
being that most floors are slightly uneven and the smallest change in level would make the chair wobble. This chair has arms with elbow supports, and a blue canvas seat and back. Designed by Marcel Breuer and produced by Thonet. 1928. H:85cm (33Vzin); W.57.5cm (22Vain); D:63cm (24-Xin), Qu I
This armchair was inspired by a model made by Alvar Aalto. The chair’s seat and back are made from a single sheet of laminated wood and sit within an oak open-arm frame. H:76cm (30in) CA
LANDI CHAIR
This easy chair comprises a series of square-section planks of pine, joined by wooden dowels. It has a slatted section on both seat and chair back. Designed by Hein Stolle. c.1930. BonBay 2
SIDE CHAIR
The seat and back of this early cantilevered chair are made of ebonized moulded plywood and sit on a chrome-plated tubular-steel frame. The armrests are ebonized beech. Mart Stam for Thonet. c.1930. BonBay 2
ZIG-ZAG CHAIR
One of a pair, this chair has a tubular-steel frame reminiscent of Rietveld’s Zig-Zag chair. The wooden seat is supported on steel rods and has a later vinyl cover. H: 82.5cm (321in); W.41.5cm (161in); D:63.5cm (25in). Qu I
Lightweight and durable, this stacking chair is made from pressed and bent aluminium. Each armrest and pair of legs is from one piece of aluminium. Hans Coray. 1938. H: 76cm (290); W.51cm (19in); D:55cm (21in). BonBay 2
CLUB CHAIR
AALTO-INSPIRED CHAIR
EASY CHAIR
The rectilinear frame is made from stained pearwood secured with brass fittings. The chair is upholstered in hand-woven woolen fabric. Peter Keler, Bauhaus Weimar. 1925. H:69cm (27in); W.62cm (24V:ln); D:68cm (26%0). WKA
LOUNGE CHAIR
CANTILEVERED ARMCHAIR
One of a pair, this armchair has a tubular-chrome frame and seat with cushions upholstered in a dark brown, brushed fabric with red trim. The armrests are black-enamelled. H:86.5cm (34in). SDR I
Designed by Gilbert Rohde, this cantilevered armchair has a bright chrome base and black laminated armrests. The cushions are upholstered in ivory leather with a black trim. H:94cm (37in). SDR 1
THE STACKING CHAIR
STILL FOUND IN CAFES WORLDWIDE, THIS ICONIC DESIGN IS PERHAPS THE FIRST STACKING CHAIR, AND CERTAINLY THE FIRST WIDESPREAD DESIGN, OF ITS KIND.
The so-called Bistro chairs These have a pressed-steel frame and are painted red; with plywood seats. c.1926. H:82cm (32Vin). DOR 3
The origins of this chair, despite the efforts of numerous historians, have proved murky at best. The design is most likely to have been developed in France some time around 1925, specifically for the country’s booming cafe culture. The chair bears a strong, albeit rather crude, resemblance to chairs designed by Emile Jacques Ruhlmann, although it’s doubtful whether the French high-society designer ever had a hand in its conception.
What is perhaps most impressive about the chair, apart from its stackability, is its economy of materials. The steel used is incredibly thin and, to give the legs rigidity, the steel has been subtly curved. To save further on metal, holes have been cut from the seat back. While the perfect low-cost, space-saving chair was to become something of a holy grail for 20th-century furniture designers, few ever bettered the chair design that first set the ball rolling.
FREE SWINGER ARMCHAIR
The base of this chromed-steel cantilevered armchair from Austria is the only part of the structure that is exposed. The chair seat and back are filled with down and upholstered in sand-coloured velour. H:84cm (331in). DOR 3
LAMINATED LOUNGE CHAIR
This chair has been made from one sheet of cut and moulded laminated birch and resembles the Gerald Summers classic (see p.438). The arms are fixed to the back with metal brackets. Hans Pieck. 1944. H:76cm (30in). Bon Bay 4
BAUHAUS ARMCHAIR
This chair was designed by Erich Dieckmann for the Weimer Bauhaus, in collaboration with Ernst Mayo. Made from solid beech, it has a bowed back and slatted seat. c.1930. H:81.5cm (321:in); W.52.5cm (21in). WKA
DINING CHAIR
This is one of a pair of stacking birch plywood dining chairs that were produced by Artek. The chair has a circular wooden seat and a pierced plywood back, supported on L-shaped plywood uprights. c.1930s.
DIAGONAL CHAIR
This chrome-plated, tubular steel chair is named after the supports between the seat back and legs. The arms, seat, and back are of laminated wood. W.H. Gispen. c.1927. H:82.5cm (321-in); W-54cm (2111n): D:60cm (23,Xln). QU 2
SLATTED CHAIR
This Viennese chair has a tubular-steel frame and solid, stained-beech wooden slats for the seat and back. The arms have wooden armrests. One of a set of four. 1925. H:84.5cm (33V4in). DOR 3

The Exotic: the 1860s and 1870s
In the 18 6os hair went up again and earrings returned to favour. Their comeback was marked by a great variety of types and styles. Size fluctuated throughout the period, but grew to enormous proportions in the late i 86os and early 18’70s, when earrings almost rested on the shoulder. This fashion, although started in France and England, spread throughout Europe, and we also learn from an article in the trade-paper Watchmaker, Jeweller and Silversmith of 187 5 that: ‘long pendent earrings are coming into fashion again in America.’
It was the great age of novelty. Women suspended from their ears any unusual and bizarre object they could think of. Among the favourite shapes for earring pendants
were windmills, buckets, shovels, hammers, hens brooding in baskets, and hum P. 78 ming birds. Even exotic creatures such as Brazilian beetles were suspended from ears
in the place of gemstones. Goldfish swimming in bowls were simulated by tinted in P 03 taglios. The Chinese-inspired ‘willow pattern’ is seen on many plate-shape gold earrings from 1870, enamelled in blue and white with the traditional pagoda, willow tree and figures on a bridge. Arrow earrings also appear to have been in great favour, P 79 either simply attached to the earlobe or designed in two sections so as to appear to transfix it.
Earrings of these types were not products of ‘haute joaillerie’ and not intended to be particularly artistic-, they were meant to be amusing and decorative, ‘novelty’jewellery to be worn for a season and then discarded. This explains firstly why they are always of little intrinsic value, being made of thin gold leaf decorated with enamel rather than gemstones, and secondly why few of them survive. They were certainly not the type of jewel to pass down in the family as an heirloom.
Interest in travel and advances in scientific knowledge together with the development of new industrial techniques, all affected the design of earrings around the middle of the century. New materials such as ‘Blue John’ or Derbyshire spar, lava from Vesuvius, colourful feathers of hummingbirds from Mexico, and beetles from Brazil, whose hard and green iridescent shell proved a successful and unusual sub-
stitute for gemstones, all made their appearance. The beetles were either simply at P. 107 tached to a gold hook to be inserted through the pierced earlobe or grouped more 126 elaborately in girandole arrangements. There were also exotic flowers, such as cas- P. roe
cades of stained ivory fuchsia blossoms; bunches of bulrushes set with turquoises baskets of flowers held by a hand, and acorns. The popularity of the latter is demon-
1o6 strated by its appearance among the drawings of Mellerio and by the firm’s ad-
vertisement in the magazine La Femme et la Famille et le Journal des Jeunes Personnel. p. 102, Animals were also favourite subjects; among the most amusing are frogs ready to
103 spring from bulrushes, nesting birds, brooding hens and coiled serpents entwined
with a vine spray. Hammers, ladders and well-pulleys with buckets reflect an interest P. 78 in industry. Although the fashion for novelty earrings appears to have started in
France, it assumed its most bizarre forms in England.
Classical revival
Another leitmotiv of i 9th-century jewellery is revivalism, a means of enriching the present by looking at the past. This had developed in the I 830S when designers such as Pugin in England and soon after Froment Meurice in France turned to Gothic art as a source of inspiration. Few examples of earrings in Gothic style are known, and those are usually made from Berlin iron, a material particularly well suited to reproducing Gothic tracery. The full bloom of revivalism occurs in the 18 6os and I 870s and this is particularly true of jewellery. The styles to be revived were mainly pre-Classical and Classical, Italian and French Renaissance and the period of Louis XVI.
Contemporary archaeological discoveries in Etruria and in the Greek Islands such as Knossos, Melos and Rhodes were bringing to light large quantities of exceptional ancient jewellery. The importance and popularity of earrings in antiquity was in some ways comparable to the 18 6os and 18 70s- It was natural, therefore, that antique shapes, designs and techniques were copied or reinterpreted in this period.
Among the leaders in this style were the Castellanis in Rome and Naples; they not only copied and reinterpreted the examples of the past but also set antique fragments such as engraved gemstones and coins as part of their interpretation of ancient jewellery. This is particularly evident in works like the gold and cornelian earrings set with Roman intaglios depicting a trophy of arms and a hunting scene.
P 97 Ernesto Pierret was another famous jeweller in Rome who produced earrings of Etrusco-Roman inspiration. A good example is the pair designed as a triangular panel decorated with bead-work and corded wire typical of Greek and Etruscan goldsmithwork flanked by baton motifs with spherical drop terminals probably inspired by the Roman crotalia which Pliny describes as ornaments designed to tinkle at every movement. This was a favourite motif for earrings and many examples survive where the baton-shaped drops are combined with various surmounts such as the Athenian owl with spread wings perched on a pediment.
The taste for Classical designs was widespread throughout Europe. Similar examples were produced by firms such as Robert Phillips in England and Eugene Fonte-
P 109 nay in France. Fontenay made great use of bead-work and corded wire in the mounts of his earrings, which were frequently set with carvings or enamel miniatures of scenes from Pompeian frescoes and had fringed drops and palmette or rosette surmounts.
Gold and pearl earring in archaeological revival style, circa 1870, inspired by the ancient Roman `crotalia’.
This archaeological fad was such that as early as 18 59 it became the target of satirical sketches. In ‘A Young Lady on the High Classical School of Ornament’, Punch (15 July 1859) depicted a devotee of the Antique style with an excess of jewels, tiara, hair ornaments, necklaces, bracelets, pendants and long earrings, all of Greek and Etruscan inspiration.
Some revivalist earrings derive specifically from well known antique prototypes while others are merely pastiches of different archaeological motifs. A good example
of the first type is the Etruscan a baule earring of 6th/5th century BC pedigree, which p. io, reappears, almost identical, in the late i 86os. It has one closed side, with a decoration of applied stylized flowerheads, rosettes and wirework typical of ancient examples. The enamel decoration is undoubtedly prompted by close examination of ancient a baule earrings, where inlays of glass paste, which unfortunately have barely survived, were used to enliven the decoration. This represents an attempt by the 19th-century jeweller to reproduce in its entirety the ancient prototype and stresses the past importance of polychrome work.
Subjects such as rams’ heads, miniature Eros figures riding birds, amphorae of p. 99, various shapes and blackamoors’ heads popular in late Classical Greek, Hellenistic and Etruscan earrings were revived in abundance. Not only were the forms derived from Antiquity but also the techniques: granulation was largely used — although never reaching the finesse of Antiquity — with wirework and beading to pick out details, and, as in the past, enamels were preferred to gemstones.
Other popular shapes of Antiquity which had never been related to ear ornaments were now converted into earrings, e.g., Carlo Giuliano’s miniature oil lamps decorated with black enamel, modelled on lamps used for votive offerings in temples and sanctuary precincts.
Even 19th-century ‘novelty’ materials such as lava from Vesuvius, Wedgwood jasper-ware and tortoiseshell were adapted to earrings inspired by the Antique. Somehow the frilliness typical of the 19th century creeps through the severe and linear shapes of archaeological Classicism, so that they could never be mistaken for
the real thing. This is particularly true of two pairs of earrings where Roman gold p. 98 low-relief and Greek amphorae are suspended from circular surmounts decorated with frivolous 19th-century flower motifs.
The typical fitting of all these earrings is a thin S-shaped gold hook inserted in the ear from front to back, at times secured, like many ancient examples, by an additional semicircular catch at the back.
Notable as a successful reinterpretation of Classical ideals is the emerald and diamond parure commissioned by Napoleon III from Mellerio; although its overall design is definitely archaeological, its pendent earrings of sober, sculptural shape p. 8o have no strict connection with any ancient prototype.
Besides Greek, Roman and Etruscan art, Egypt provided an important source of inspiration, not only in terms of shapes and designs but also of colour choice and com-bination. Interest in ancient Egypt was stimulated by the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869 and by the contemporary excavations in the Nile Valley carried out and
P 96, published by Auguste Marlette. Falcons, papyri, mosaic or gold Pharaoh masks and
113 scarabs were soon fashionable motifs to adorn the ears, and dramatic combinations of bright colours such as lapis or turquoise blue, deep red and opaque white typical of Egyptian art gained favour throughout Europe.
Renaissance and 18th-century revival
The Renaissance revival, with its interest in sculptural and figurative shapes and enamel-work, began in the 1840s in France but did not affect earrings until the 18 6os and 18 70s. Among the influential jewellers working in this style was Carlo Giuliano, an Italian who spent most of his working life in England. Among his most
P. striking works is a pair of earrings in gold and polychrome enamel, opaque and translucent, each in the form of a stork devouring a serpent. In this case not only does the enamel technique and the bold sculptural shape remind us of the famous Renaissance figurative pendants, but the symbolism too is Renaissance; the stork devouring a snake standing for the soul overcoming carnal pleasure derives from a well known Renaissance emblem.
Fantastic creatures such as dragons and griffins with pronounced sculptural quality and the widespread use of polychrome enamels were typical of the French Renaissance revival. What gives away the fact that these belong to the 19th and not the 16th century is their passion for ornate and frilly detail, which always tends to creep in and
P. detract from the boldness of the sculptural effect. This is particularly evident in the
fringe of pearls and rosette surmount of the griffin earrings reproduced.
P 79 The gold, polychrome enamel and hardstone cameo earrings, each set with a cameo mask holding a floral festoon suspended from a tree-headed mask surmount, which the London jeweller John Brogden exhibited at the Paris Universal Exhibition oft867, although imbued with a certain Renaissance feeling, are closer to late i 8th-century Neoclassicism. The choice of differently coloured agate for the two cameos of Classical Dionysus masks is a rather unusual feature for the period. It is interesting that in this case both the original design and the finished jewels survive.
P. 74, In France, among other revivals, that of the Louis XVI style was particularly
77 favoured by the Empress Eug6me who, anxious to emulate Marie Antoinette in establishing in France a ‘grand’ monarchic tradition, revived, together with the crinoline, all the girandoles, bows and ribbon motifs of French 18th-century jewellery. She commissioned J. -E. Bapst, the famous French jeweller, to remount part of the crown jewels in Louis XVI style. The great majority of pendeloque and girandole earrings revived at this time in France were set with pearls and diamonds, but Eugenie’s favourite stone was the emerald, and it quickly became the most popular coloured gemstone in France.
Fin de sihle
As a consequence of the opening up of Japan to trade with Europe in the 18 5os and of the revolution there in 1866, Japanese art, until then little known in the West, started to exert considerable influence on the evolution of ornament and decoration. In the mid- i 870s it became popular in Europe to mount small pieces of Japanese metalwork as jewellery. Shakudo and shibuichi, the metal inlay techniques developed by Samurai swordmakers for the decoration of sword mounts and guards, entered the world of jewellery. Shibuichi and shakudo plaques and miniature fans decorated with flowers, butterflies, insects, birds and bamboo provided with a small suspension hook became very fashionable earrings and the Europeans soon began to imitate them in chased gold and silver. A good example is the pair of pendent earrings in the shape of a rectangular plaque decorated with fan-shaped motifs.
The increasing ease of travel in Europe encouraged interest in foreign countries and people liked to bring home souvenirs of the localities they visited. Italy with its sights and monuments was amongst the favourite destinations. Souvenir earrings are usually made of materials which are typical of a certain location: Roman mosaics, or micromosaic, made of minute glass tesserae depicting sights of Rome or scenes from the Campagna, and Florentine mosaic made of larger pieces of variously coloured inlaid semiprecious hardstone, usually in floral patterns, were extremely popular. Roman and Florentine mosaics had in fact been used in jewellery since the early i 800s; the earliest form of mosaic earrings consisted of a simple oval plaque connected to a smaller panel surmount with fine gold chains. Later examples dating from the i 86os and 187os are much more varied in shape and often reminiscent of archaeological revival designs. Early examples of Roman mosaic earrings have almost unbelievably tiny glass tesserae, producing a precision of detail which matches that of painting. Later examples are much coarser.
Among the plethora of 18 6os and 18 7os earrings another type can be clearly distinguished, known as the ‘fringe’ earring. This usually consists of a circular or oval surmount above a fringe of articulated pointed drops. It was popular throughout Europe but especially fashionable in England around 1870 where the drops tight-
Three earring designs in pencil and gouache of the late i 870s, from the archives of Mellerio, Paris. Note the fringe ornament typical of the time.
ened up to form a compact fringe of tapered gold chains in contrast to their Continental counterparts where the pendent elements are frequently fewer and well spaced. The distinction is clear if one compares the French designs illustrated in Mellerio’s archives with English examples set with carbuncles, Wedgwood jasperware plaques
P. 123 or decorated with white and royal blue or turquoise coloured enamel. The inset of small pearls or diamonds in a starshaped motif at the centre of the gemstone or enamelled boss surmount is another typical feature of jewellery of the time. Archaeological influence is frequently noticeable on the surmounts of these earrings. Most examples are fairly voluminous and long, measuring approximately 6 to io cms; in spite of this, their weight is negligible since the fringes that constitute a large portion
p. i 1 of the earring are made of hollow gold drops or of light gold chain. More expensive examples of diamond-set fringe earrings, though less common, are well known.
Naturalism in jewellery reached its peak in this period under the spell of the Parisian Oscar Massin, whose naturalistic and botanically accurate creations characterized by tremblant and pampille decoration became a model for jewellers throughout Europe. Cascades of flowerheads, sprays of leaves and flowers and single flowerhead
P. 124, clusters were to be seen on grand occasions. The designs by Mellerio and by the Ger-
125 man Frederick Kreuter reproduced here illustrate the variety of forms fashionable at the time.
The star motif had been popular in jewellery since the 18 6os. At first its design was exploited mainly for brooches, and only in the late 18 6os was it introduced into earring design. Typical of this date are earrings mounted with large carbuncles, amethyst cabochons or enamelled gold bosses inlaid at the centre with a pearl or diamond
p. 116, star-shaped motif. In other examples the whole earring takes on the shape of a star
117 suspended by a simple hook from the ear. The basic six-pointed star offered scope for many variations: the points could multiply up to eighteen, of different lengths and widths. In the late 18 8os and 189os knife-wire settings came into favour and this, together with a taste for light and less symmetrical shapes, prompted the creation of elaborate earrings in the form of off-centre stars, comets and shooting stars. The favourite gemstones for this type of ornament were diamonds since they could best suggest real stars; less expensive versions were set with half pearls and very pale opals. Many sets were made in this style, comprising earrings, a brooch, and a necklace which could also be worn as a tiara; a design by Mellerio commissioned by Queen Isabella II of Spain is a good example.
Towards the end of the century the fashion for large and varied earrings subsided in favour of smaller and more sober ear ornaments, either clusters or single gemstones, simply claw- or collet-set in very unobtrusive, delicate mounts provided at the back with a flattened hoop fitting. The fashionable design for daywear in the 18 gos consisted simply of a single pearl embellished with small diamonds. At night the favourite earring would be a single diamond of varying size. The change towards smaller earrings was this time dictated not so much by hairstyles, since the ears were
Four ink designs for pendent earrings by Kreuter, Germany, 1867-70. The top one is star shaped; the second and fourth decorated with star and fringe motifs; and the third with a fringe only.
A collection of North Italian gold
pendent earrings, circa i 800. Their large size, linearity and two-dimensional, geometrical quality are typical of early t9th-century earrings in Europe. Many include a central plaque in relief stamped out of a thin sheet of gold, to simulate a cameo with a profile of a Classical warrior, a type of imagery which had become popular at the time of the Napoleonic campaign in Northern Italy Of 1796-97. Note the contrast between the austere profiles and the delicate lace-like filigree border decorated with typical hollow hemispherical motifs.
still left uncovered, as by the fashion for high frilled collars during the day and for the ‘collier de Chien’, or dog collar, at night, both of which dressed the neck and filled in the space between ears and shoulders. Long pendent earrings which visually interfered with high collars and neck ornaments disappeared almost completely. The few pendent earrings of the 189os were of moderate size, in the shape of very delicate pearl and diamond articulated drops which moved and reflected light.
The discovery of the Cape diamond mines in South Africa brought a plentiful supply of fine stones onto the market. A single, large, flawless, white diamond of high quality was now usually preferred to a fussy arrangement of small stones. The new abundance of diamonds also led to new ways of cutting: cushion-shaped diamonds, fat and bulky in order to retain the maximum carat weight of precious material, became thinner and circular in shape, with the culet or back facet reduced to a pin-point, thus exploiting to the maximum the exceptional optical quality of diamonds to reflect and disperse light. The new brilliant cut involved a waste of up to 5o% of the rough crystal but the final result was thought to be worth it.
Apart from diamonds, a variety of other stones were set in cluster earrings; often a larger coloured stone would be mounted within a border of smaller diamonds. Black Australian opals, together with pale and metallic sapphires from Montana, appeared on the market in the 189os; amethysts and peridots were great favourites and with their purple and lime green colours well complemented the pastel tints of contemporary dresses. In the 189os pearls and half-pearls were the preferred alternative to the more expensive diamond borders and with their delicate sheen particularly suited the soft silks in fashion during the last decade of the century.
The Art Nouveau movement, which reacted against the repetitiveness and lack of imagination in the decorative arts and jewellery and challenged the excessive emphasis placed on intrinsic value, promoted many new, original and daring designs — but not for earrings. There are hardly any Art Nouveau earrings, and the few that survive must be considered exceptions. An extraordinary pair created by Rene Lalique is definitely a ‘one off’. They are typical in their choice of less expensive materials (large milky opals, translucent enamels echoing the colour of the opals, richly coloured matt gold) and in the flowing line of the decorative thistle motif rendered in enamel at the front and engraved at the back. But they are unique in their unconventionally large size and their detachable clip fitting, a feature which became normal only in the I 930s. It is possible that such clip fittings were devised to allow the earrings to be worn as necklace pendants.

Antiques Recently Found on Antcollectors (3) - Scandinavia

THE GREAT BRITISH VICTORIES of Abukir
(1798) and Trafalgar (1805), which opened up trade along the North Sea coastline, suggest that sympathy for Britain and British design could be evident in Scandinavian furniture. This was not always the case. Denmark and Sweden’s ambivalence to France encouraged the British Prime Minister, Pitt, to destroy the Danish fleet and bombard Copenhagen, creating much animosity towards the British. This affected trade and shipping and left the Danish-Norwegian economy at the point of bankruptcy in 1813.
So, although there are traces of British Neoclassicism in early 19th-century Scandinavian furniture, it was often due either to the residual effect of late 18th-century design, or it had filtered through the influence of north German cabinet-making.
The one positive outcome of these hostilities was that local craftsmen were protected from British competition and were encouraged to develop their own workshops and styles. As in the rest of Europe, the Empire style predominated, although it had marked local characteristics.
DANISH EMPIRE
A traditional preference for simplicity, and the need for frugality as a result of war and financial hardship, gave rise to a version of the prevailing French style called Danish Empire, which was taken up by three of the Scandinavian countries. Although mahogany was
favoured, and was used in the larger, wealthier cities, it was difficult to obtain due to war. As a result, the Danish Empire style made use of light local woods, such as alder, maple, ash, and birch, which could be polished to look like satinwood. Mahogany furniture did reappear after 1815, and was generally veneered on pine rather than oak pieces.
Danish furniture was often inlaid with contrasting woods, such as citrus, rather than having ormolu mounts. Inlaid lunettes and arched details were popular, as was the occasional pressed brass or giltwood detail.
One of the most distinctive chairs produced in Denmark was the klismos chair, designed by Nicolai Abilgaard in 1800 and now in the Copenhagen
Museum of Decorative Arts. Similar
to a chair later designed by the sculptor Hermann Freund (now in the Fredericksborg Castle), it mimics the ancient Greek original.
The Danish custom of using one room as a combined dining room, drawing room, and study at this time resulted in some unique types
of furniture. One of these, the Chatol, consisted of a cylinder bureau with a retractable writing slide, surmounted by cupboards for storing cutlery and glassware. Another was a divan, which had cupboards in the sides.
HETSCH STYLE
In Denmark, the Neoclassical style lasted into the 1840s, thanks to the late Empire style popularized by Gustav Friedrich Hetsch. Hetsch had studied with Charles Percier in Paris earlier in the century, returning to Copenhagen to direct the porcelain factory. He was also a designer and his works were often scholarly reproductions of antique prototypes. This style, which favoured the use of carved appliques and mouldings over mounts, is sometimes confusingly called Christian VIII after the Danish king who reigned from 1839 to 1848.
SWEDEN
Sweden was slightly more francophile in its tastes than Denmark, particularly in Court circles. The furniture in the Yellow Room at Rosendal Castle in Stockholm, created for the king in the 1820s, is closer to true French Empire style than any furniture produced in Scandinavia during the early 19th
century It was designed by Lorenz Wilhelm Lundelius, the leading craftsman in Stockholm.
A famous secretaire, made by Johan Pettey Berg in 1811, demonstrates how Swedish cabinet-makers absorbed German heaviness, combined it with Empire motifs (such as white marble pilasters), and added the occasional British reference, such as the Sheraton-inspired inlaid shell.
The Hetsch style eventually arrived in Sweden, but it did not become dominant because Neo-Gothic had taken hold there quite early Indeed, by 1828, there was already a room decorated in the Gothic style in the Royal palace in Stockholm.

BIEDERMEIER LOVE SEAT
This mahogany, Biedermeier-style love seat has a solid, rectangular form with outswept arms. The back and sides of the seat have brass-moulded panels and fan spandrels. The arms have rosette terminals and mahogany
facings. The seat rail has brass mounts and is supported on verdigris brackets, carved in the shape of drapery. The piece terminates in massive gilt and verdigris claw-and-ball front feet. The love seat has an upholstered back, sides, and seat. Early 19th century.

SWEDISH SECRETAIRE
The tall, flame-veneered case of this Swedish Empire secretaire has tapering sides. The upper section of the case has a fall front positioned beneath a shallow drawer. The lower section consists of three graduated drawers; the bottom
drawer has a cut-away arched shape. The piece is raised on rectangular block feet. This secretaire is made in the style of furniture from towards the end of the period and is a move away from the Empire style. It was possibly made by J.C. Reher. 1841.

DANISH ARMCHAIR
The substantial hooped-back, upholstered backrest of this mahogany armchair is raised on curved supports. The upholstered seat has square, tapered legs at the front and sabre legs at the rear. Early 19th century.
EVE LATE GUSTAVIAN ARMCHAIR
This Swedish gilt-and-painted armchair has an upholstered seat and back, a curved top rail with lion’s head terminals, and carved, down-sweeping arms. The padded seat is supported on a carved seat rail and is raised on turned and fluted legs at the front and sabre legs at the rear. Early 19th century.
LADY’S WORKTABLE
This late Gustavian Swedish worktable has an oval, galleried top above a single frieze drawer. The table top is supported on tapering legs terminating in brass caps and casters and joined by a shaped cross-stretcher.