Posts Tagged ‘parquetry’

19th Century Empire Furniture.

A ROYAL FRENCH CENTRE TABLE
Centre tables became increasingly popular in the early 19th century Designed to stand in the middle Of a room, this piece was intended to be seen from all angles. Consequently, the tessellated marquetry top is decorated on all sides, and the top even
swivels. Placed over planks, which make up the top, the veneers include alternating petals of maple and mahogany. The outer border is crossbanded with tulipwood and encloses several thuyawood panels “inlaid” with trophies of Science, Painting, Gardening, Architecture, Music, and Navigation.
Technically the use of the word “inlaid” is inaccurate here as the trophies and the thuyawood ground are cut from veneers of equal thickness and pieced together (more like parquetry). In other words, the trophies are not laid into a thick piece of timber but are veneered on top of the secondary carcase of the table top. The pentagonal column and the concave-sided plinth are veneered in burr elm. This local light-coloured wood, like the maple veneers on the top, is typical of the taste for boil (lairs during the Empire period.
Equally typical of this style are the ormolu mounts on the column and plinth, depicting
winged figures of victory. This choice of subject is of great significance, as the table bears a print label inscribed Chateau des Tuileries/1929 and 1047 Salon dc la famille du Roi.
This table was made for
Louis XVIII of France by LouisFrancois-Laurent Puteaux around 1815. The victory
figures could, therefore, refer to the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy after the final exile of Napoleon in that year.
An exceptional piece, it is unusual for the period, as most pieces relied on well-figured veneers for decoration rather than parquetry.
A burr-elm and marquetry centre table This piece has a circular swivelling top, with a central geometric-inlaid rosette and broad border. It is raised on a pentagonal column and supported on a concave-sided pentagonal plinth. The table rests on bun feet. Made by Puteaux
Table top
The trophies of Science, Painting,
Gardening, Architecture, Music,
and Navigation are divided by
green-stained wreaths.
A GREAT DEAL OF the furniture produced in Europe,
the United States, and South Africa from the time of
the French Revolution to around 1830 owes some closely
stylistic allegiance to the French Empire style. The
British Regency and German Biedermeier styles (see
pp.206 and 216) were both highly idiosyncratic and,
although indebted to the Napoleonic manner, were
influential in their own right. It is one of the ironies countries France had conquered,
of the period that countries so hostile to Napoleon including Spain, Italy, and the
and French rule, including Britain, Germany and Netherlands.
Russia, adopted a style derived from Paris fashions.
NEW CUSTOMERS Napoleon famously failed to conquer, still
The period is also notable for a subtle shift in market
from the aristocratic patrons of pre-revolutionary
France to the bourgeoisie. It is sometimes argued that
the rise of the middle-class buyer heralded a decline
in the quality of furniture, but the discerning eye
will appreciate that fine Empire furniture is of an
equal quality to that which preceded it. The Industrial
Revolution also affected furniture workshops, which,
throughout the 19th century were increasingly
mechanized. This process was aided by the disbanding
of the guild system in France early in the Revolution,
freeing cabinet-makers and bronze founders from the
restrictive procedures formerly enforced upon them.
style remained the height of fashion until 1815 when the Emperor
was finally exiled for
good. Thereafter, it became heavier in porportion and freer of decoration such as ormolu mounts.
However, as the Empire style was taken up in various other countries in Europe, it was combined with the local traditions and
techniques. In the American furniture, which was largely Influenced
by British style: the shaped back panel, bowed front
and tapering legs display the Classical influences of the period.

Longcase clocks
The weight-driven longcase clock, regulated by a pendulum, was introduced c.1660. The long case may have developed as protection for the pendulum and weights – they hung below the movement, which was held with the dial in a hood. Cases were mostly made by cabinet-makers and so reflect the style of contemporary furniture. Longcases are especially linked with Britain, but fine versions were also made in continental Europe and in the USA, where they are known as “tallcases”.
EARLY BRITISH LONGCASES
The earliest British longcases, made from the 1660s mainly in London, had cases of ebony-veneered oak with architectural pediment tops, but walnut-veneered clocks, typically with flat or crested tops and Baroque twist columns on the hood, were fashionable toward the end of the 17th century. The square brass dial had a narrow, applied and silvered chapter ring, applied spandrels of cherubs’ heads, scrolls, or foliage, a roughened or matted brass centre, and heat-treated, durable, blued-steel hands; most examples also had a seconds dial. Perhaps the leading clockmaker of this period was Thomas Tompion (1639-1713).
Marquetry decoration was very popular on the best longcases from the 1680s to c.1710. Before the 1690s this usually consisted of panels of birds and flowers, or geometric patterns, or parquetry, on the trunk and base. Later examples are decorated all over with elaborate designs of arabesques, scrolls, flowers, birds, and figures. Another common feature of late 17th-century longcases k the lenticle: a small, oval, glass window in the trunk
door, revealing the pendulum. With the fashion for larger rooms in the early 18th century, very tall longcases –up to 2.5m ( 8ft 2m) in height – were popular. Classical hood columns that were influenced by contemporary architecture replaced Baroque twists. Dials increasingly became larger and c.1715 the arched or break-arch dial was introduced.
Japanned decoration reflected the European interest in Chinese and Japanese art from c.1700 to the 1770s. Japanning was a European version of the costly, time-consuming process of lacquering. Japanning – usually black and green but occasionally red, yellow, blue, or cream – was painted all over the case on a layer of gesso; gilt chinoiserie designs were then added to the ground.
DUTCH LONGCASES
Longcase clocks were produced in the Netherlands from c. 1670 to the end of the 18th century. Although in many ways they resemble contemporary British clocks, some features are distinctively Dutch. These include the bombe base, sometimes with projecting scrolls; C and S scrolls at the top and bottom of the trunk door; a cast-metal Ienticle surround; large paw
or ball feet; and gilded figural finials. Cases were typically veneered in walnut, with ebony or light-coloured wood stringing or marquetry decoration. Musical work and automata in the dial arch were common features.
The earliest dials were square and had narrow, sometimes skeletonized, chapter rings. Around 1715-20 the break-arch dial came into general use the addition of the arch allowed more
elements to be displayed, such as the maker’s name, a strike/silent lever, the phases of the moon, or even automata. After c1800 the minutes were numbered only every 15.
LATER BRITISH AND AMERICAN LONGCASES In the 18th century high-quality longcase clocks were produced in English cities outside London and in Scotland, especially in Bristol, Oxford, Liverpool, and Edinburgh. From c.1750 the majority of fashionable London makers used mahogany for cases, while oak was popular elsewhere in Britain; makers in the USA, where the industry was well established on the eastern seaboard, preferred indigenous woods such as maple and cherry, although mahogany was also used. London cases of this period typically feature an elaborate pagoda top, two or three brass ball-and-spire finials, and sometimes quarter columns at the corners of the trunk and base, with decorative brass stop-fluting.
The arched brass dial with applied chapter ring and spandrels remained popular and some dials from the 1770s also featured a subsidiary calendar dial, instead of
an aperture. Engraved one-piece brass or silvered-brass dials appeared between 1750 and 1770. Iron dials,
painted with floral motifs, portraits, or mythological and allegorical figures, were introduced in the 1770s and used extensively on British provincial longcases and in the USA, where supplies of brass were limited.
In the Victorian period longcases suffered a decline in quality: painted dials, broad, flimsily constructed cases, and mass-produced movements were common. Novelty and bracket clocks were more popular than longcases, although longcase regulators remained in fashion.
FRENCH LONGCASES
Weight-driven longcases were never made on a large scale in France. More popular at the beginning of the 18th century was the pendule stir socle, a spring-driven bracket clock on a matching tall pedestal or plinth. Cases were made by such leading French cabinet-makers as Andre-Charles BOUlle (1642-1732). Examples by Boulle are typically surmounted by a gilt-bronze figure. In the mid-18th century the best French makers produced a type of longcase which, although not a true regulator or precision clock, was known as a it regulateur. With its outward-curving, bombe trunk, it was very different in style from British longcase clocks. Cases were finely veneered in walnut or rosewood, with rich ormolu mounts and details in mahogany, sycamore, tulipwood, and olivewood.
Production of the pendule stir socle and the regulateur was confined mainly to Paris, but other major centres of clockmaking in the 18th and 19th centuries included the Jura region and the Franche-Comte, the latter renowned for its Comtoise longcases. Most late Comtoise clocks
featured an elaborate pressed-brass pendulum, visible through a teardrop-shaped, glazed trunk section where the case was at its most bulbous; these pendulums were matched by elaborate pressed-brass dial frames.
• WOODS Britain: ebony-veneered oak was used in 1660s, walnut and olivewood veneers in 1670; walnut-veneered cases were used c.1715; mahogany first appeared in 1720s and by c.1750 had largely supplanted walnut, oak remained popular in the provinces in the 1 8th century; USA: indigenous woods Such as cherry and maple gave a distinctive style; some mahogany was also used
• DIALS square dials were typical until c.1715; thereafter the break-arch dial, often featuring a rolling moon or the maker’s name, was popular; silvered dials appeared c.1760, white dials c. 1770, circular dials c.1800; painted metal dials are typical on American pieces
• CASES earliest British cases are in simple architectural style; after 1670s marquetry decoration was used, also on Dutch clocks; lacquer was used in the Netherlands mid- to late 17th century and was popular in Britain c.1720-70s; chinoiserie designs were very popular
• MARRIAGES dials and movements -,veto often removed from one case and placed in another: look for a pendulum that appears too large for its case, a dial that does not fit the hood, or any parts that are not original
• CUT-DOWNS longcases that have been shortened are known as “cut-downs”; peg holes will be visible if feet have been removed; outline of removed cresting or finials may be visible; proportions may look awkward

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

Cabinets-on-stands
Created for the storage of papers and valuables, the earliest cabinets, known as “table-cabinets” as they stood on tables rather than stands, came into fashion in the 16th century. During this period they were made in Tuscany with inlaid architectural decoration, and in Augsburg with stylized Mannerist marquetry depicting architectural ruins and mythical beasts in the style of Lorenz Stoer’s Geometrica et Perspectiva ( 1567); in Spain cabinets were made with Moorish-inspired mudejar (marquetry), or in ebony with parquetry (these were also produced in the Spanish Netherlands).
MARQUETRY AND LACQUERED CABINETS
The Baroque love of rich, florid decoration led to the fashion for oyster-veneered and marquetry cabinets-on-stands, the production of which was dominated by Huguenot craftsmen trained in Amsterdam and The Hague. In the late 17th century oyster-veneering was gradually superseded by such elaborate decoration as “seaweed” marquetry, which in turn gave way to Boulle marquetry on a tortoiseshell or kingwood ground. Interestingly the illusionistic floral marquetry panels executed by Andre-Charles Boulle (1642-1732) at the Gobelins workshops in Paris were no doubt inspired by Dutch 17th-century  still-life paintings. Floral marquetry cabinets, often enriched with mother-of-pearl or green-stained ivory, were executed throughout Europe from the 1660s, but the most celebrated makers were Jan van Mekeren (1658-1733) in Amsterdam, and Pierre Gole c.1620-84) in Paris. Often decorated with flowers and birds, even exotic parrots, Dutch and English examples of the William and Mary period (1689-1702) arc usually of walnut with oak-lined drawers, the stands enclosing two drawers and supported on four, five, or six baluster or bar-twist legs with waved stretchers and bun
Japanese and Chinese lacquer cabinets were first imported by the Fast India companies in the 17th century. Usually decorated with gilt chinoiseries on aubergine, black, or red lacquer grounds, they were mounted in silver, copper, or brass, with chased hinges and escutcheons. Oriental cabinets were exported without stands, and late 17th-century stands made in The Netherlands, Britain, and Germany tend to be in the florid Baroque taste, with caryatids in the angles and deep, pierced foliate aprons.
In the late 17th century, in response to the demand for and cost of Oriental lacquer, European craftsmen created japanning. This technique was first practised in Berlin by Gerard Dagly (1657-1710, and in England by John Stalker and George Parker who wrote A Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing (1688). Later 18th-century examples are distinguished by the design of their stands, which were usually also japanned, and often enriched with Chinese fret angle-brackets.
In the 19th century the cabinet-on-stand was replaced by the display cabinet. As a result, 19th-century cabinets-on-stands tend to hark back to 17th-century prototypes, in particular those with ebony-and-tortoiseshell veneer, or of a full-blown Baroque character, with Boulle or floral marquetry and Pietro dure plaques.
• MARQUETRY CABINETS a flat stretcher is commonly used on the stand; frequently the legs have been replaced, and this will reduce value; ivory inlay is a sign of good quality; the marquetry on the inside of the cabinet should be of a rich contrast to the outside, as it has not been exposed to sunlight, and should retain its vibrant colours; during the 1770s and again in the 1840s there was an interest in antiquarianism, and 17th-century marquetry door panels were often removed and reused in more fashionable pieces of furniture.
• JAPANNING when chipped, it reveals a whitish gesso.

Chests-of-drawers before 1840.
BACHELORS’ CHESTS
Bachelors’ chests, so-called because they were originally placed in a “bachelor’s bedroom apartments”, were conceived as multi-purpose chests for storage, dressing, and writing. Predominantly of walnut, although oak and elm were used for more provincial examples, the earliest bachelors’ chests date from the late 17th century. Betrayed by their bun feet and broad, domed moulding framing the deep drawers, early bachelors’ chests are usually veneered with straight-grained walnut and simplecross banding. During the early 18th century the form became increasingly sophisticated, with neat dovetailing and the introduction of a brushing-slide above the top drawer; the heavy bun feet were discarded in favour
of shaped bracket feet. Although the form was replaced by the fashionable French commode design in the mid-18th century, provincial furniture-makers continued the tradition throughout the 18th century. However, these later examples are usually betrayed by their larger scale, often with mahogany-lined drawers, and Rococo or Neo-classical handles.
BOMBE COMMODES
The concept of a free-standing chest-of-drawers was first introduced by Andre-Charles Boulle (1642-1732). Initially known as tables en bureaux, and representing perhaps the earliest fusion between the table form and a sarcophagus-shaped coffer, Louis XIV Boulle commodes are characterized not only by their brass inlaid decoration but by their swollen “sarcophagus” or Roman-tomb form. During the Regence (1715-23), this developed into the commode en tombeau, which was widely manufactured by Parisian cabinet-makers. Under Louis XV bombe commodes became increasingly Rococo. Veneered on pine or oak carcases and usually with oak-lined drawers, they arc invariably enriched with parquetry or marquetry decoration, usually embracing fruitwoods and numerous exotic woods, particularly tulipwood and amaranth. More elegant and serpentine in shape than their predecessors, these commodes stand higher from the ground on slightly splayed legs with ormolu sabots (”shoes”). The geometric parquetry was often subtle, while the ormolu Mounts conveyed the full-blown Rococo spirit, perhaps nowhere more so than in the commodes of Charles Crescent (1685-1768).
Inspired by French prototypes, mid-18th-century bombe commodes with parquetry decoration were made throughout Europe, particularly in southern Germany (usually in elm and fruitwood, with long drawers above low aprons), Genoa and Naples (with distinctive dished aprons and
starburst kingwood cube parquetry), and Sweden (upright bombe form, pine carcases, and spring-locking drawers, such as those by the cabinetmaker Johann Christian Linning; 1759-1801).
The desire throughout Europe for all things “exotic”, particularly lacquer, encouraged such specialist “japanners” as John Stalker and George Parker in England, Gerard Dagly ( 16,57-1715) in Berlin, and the Martin family in Paris to produce their own versions. The name Martin became synonymous with the art of japanning, and indeed the technique is still known as vernis Martin. Louis XV commodes mounted with panels in vernis Martin painted in imitation of Oriental lacquer, with posies of flowers, and arcadian landscapes, were invariably commissioned by marchand-merciers (dealers in luxury goods) such as Simon-Philippe Poirier (1720-85). Regarded as the height of fashion and extremely expensive, they were mounted with luxurious ormolu mounts, and many can be accurately dated to between 1745 and 1749 through a tax mark.
GEORGIAN CHESTS-OF-DRAWERS
The commode reached England through such celebrated pattern-books as The Universal System of Household Furniture (1762) by John Mayhew (1736-1811) and William Ince (c.1738-1804) and The GGentleman Cabinet-Maker’s Director (1754-62) by Thomas Chippendale (1718-79), who described the form as a “French commode tables)”. However, the majority
of George II and George III chests-of-drawers are simple and plain, and the vast majority of those that correspond closely to published patterns arc usually Victorian. They are often of mahogany, with canted rectangular or
serpentine-fronted moulded tops above graduated drawers and moulded plinths with shaped bracket feet refinements to this basic form include fitted dressing-drawers or brushing-slides; canted angles carved with either trailing foliage, cluster-columns, or Chinese blind-fret; ogee or carved bracket feet; and luxuries such as superb lacquered-brass handles, cedar-lined drawers, and S-pattern keyholes, all of which are characteristic of Chippendale’s workshop. However, during the 1760s sumptuous marquetry commodes in the Louis XV manner, introduced by Pierre Langlois (active 1759-81) of Tottenham Court Road, London, became increasingly fashionable. As a result, plain figured mahogany was often discarded in favour of exotic woods, including sabicu, rosewood, and ebonny, and later satinwood, often with parquetry. During, the 1770s the marquetry style that had been so swiftly adopted for commodes by cabinet-makers such as John Cobb (C. 1715-78) and the firm of Ince & Mayhew (est. 1787) became increasingly linear and Neo-classical in design.
TRANSITIONAL AND NEO-CLASSICAL COMMODES
The explosion of Neo-classicism was slow to filter through, and sometimes during the 1760s there was an unhappy fusion of Neo-classical decoration on Rococo forms. Commodes of this type are known as Transitional, a form particularly identified with the French cabinet-makers Jean-Francois Oeben (1721-63) and Roger Vandercruse ( 172 8-99 ).
As the Transitional style became more refined, plain linear commodes, veneered in satinwood or mahogany and virtually denuded of mounts, were made. During the 1770s and 1780s the cabinet-makers Jcan-Henri Riesener (1734-1806) and Gilles Joubert (1689-1775) continued to supply the royal household with sumptuous commodes enriched with lavish Neo-classical ormolu Mounts and pictorial marquetry panels, while Etienne Levasseur (1721-98) and Adam Weisweiler (17441820) promoted a return to the “antique” style of the late 17th century particularly the brass inlay associated with Boulle. On a more modest level the basic commodes remained remarkably unchanged throughout the Louis XVI and Directoire (1795-9) periods. Made in the solid (as opposed to veneered) and usually of mahogany, although more provincial examples arc often of fruitwood, they have cared, moulded marble tops above two or three short frieze drawers and long panelled lower drawers, flanked by fluted angle columns, and stand on turned, tapering legs with toupie feet in brass caps. Dependent again on the figuring of the timber for impact, although this is often enhanced by brass stringing, they are restrained examples of architectural Neo-classicism. Particularly inspirational to English cabinet-makers through the influence of architects such as Henry Holland (1745-1806), this general form of commode was widely copied throughout Europe. It was through the work of the cabinet-makers David Roentgen (1743-1807), in Germany, and Christian Meyer (active 1787), who worked in Russia but may have trained under Roentgen, that this style reached its apogee.
MAGGIOLINI COMMODES
Neo-classical marquetry commodes were made throughout Europe from the 1770s. The fashion originated in Paris and rapidly spread across Europe. In Italy the Neo-classical style is synonymous with the Giuseppe Maggiolini (1738-1814) in Milan. His work is characterized by superb Neo-classical and arabesque marquetry in walnut, olivewood, and tulipwood, although he also used rosewood in the early 19th century. “Maggiolini” commodes are usually loosely constructed, with a rough-hewn softwood carcase and thickly dovetailed poplar-lined drawers. Owing to the prolific production of commodes from Maggiolini’s workshops during the early 19th century not to mention that of his competitors and imitators, the quality of work inevitably suffered. However, the enormously popular Maggiolini commode continued to be made during the 19th century.
EMPIRE AND RESTAURATION COMMODES
Empire furniture heralded a return to the ornament of Classical antiquity, inspired partly by Aventures dams la basse et la haute Egypte (1802) by Baron Vivant Denon ( 1747-1825). The French Empire style dominated European taste through such influential publications as Recueil de decorations interieures ( 1801-12) by Charles Percier (1764-1838) and Pierre Fontaine (c.1762-1853). These pattern-books illustrate the finest commodes executed for Napoleon I in the huge workshops of cabinet-makers including
Francois-Honore-Georges Jacob (1770-1841) and Bernard Molitor (c.1730-1833).
However, it is the designs of Pierre de La Mesangere, published as Collection de Meubles et Objets de gout (1802-35), that most clearly reveal the type of commode commissioned by less elevated patrons. These were initially veneered with mahogany on oak carcases, but the British blockade of 1806 prevented colonial timbers from getting to France, and the price of mahogany rose so high that cabinet-makers were forced to resort to such indigenous woods as maple, walnut, elm,ash, and yew. Empire commodes, both those with drawers and those
with doors (a vautaux), are linear in form, the marble tops often supported above panelled friezes with ormolu mounts, the drawers flanked by columns or Egyptian herm or caryatid figures, and often supported on ebonized hairy-paw feet.
Following the defeat of Napoleon (1815) and the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy, commodes became increasingly restrained and visually heavy relying on flame-figured timber for impact. Often with overhanging frieze drawers and largely denuded of mounts, even handles, they frequently stood on plain plinth bases, although shallow bun feet or plain square legs were also sometimes employed. As this style inspired European cabinet-makers, particularly those in Spain and Germany, it is often difficult the origin of Restauration commodes.
Under Charles X (1824-30) commodes in a lighter, less monumental taste again became fashionable, both in lighter woods, particularly bird’s-eve maple, and in the Gothic or a la troubadour style. Closely related in form to Restauration commodes, and largely unmounted, commodes in light woods were initially inlaid with stringing in exotic timbers such as amaranth and ebony, but during the 1830s and 1840s this evolved into increasingly lavish Boulle-style marquetry. In contrast, commodes made in the Gothic taste were made in mahogany and oak and were decorated with such carved ornament as crocketed finials and arcades. Although a revival of the Gothic taste had first been proposed by the architect Mansion as early as 1804, it was not until the 1830s and 1840s that it gained more widespread interest.
• VENEERING 17th- and 18th-century veneers are hand cut and thick ( 1-3min/tt in); later veneers were machine Cut and are paper thin; often the tops of chests-ofdrawers have been revenered because of damage (water, splitting), so it is important to check that the veneers are of the same uneven thickness all over.
• ALTERATIONS check that each of the drawers in chestof-drawers is of the same construction, as often one of them will have been changed because of damage.
• SHRINKAGE this is a common occurrence and is
frequently seen in the drawer bases; this is perfectly acceptable, and sometimes the splits have been repaired with canvas; those examples that do not show signs of shrinkage should alert suspicion.
• CONSTRUCTION Italian commodes are typically rather loosely constructed and made of cheap timber.