Posts Tagged ‘REPRODUCTIONS’

ceramics - pottery and porcelain
COLLECTING POTTERY and porcelain has been fashionable in England since the end of the seventeenth century, when Queen Man- brought her Japanese porcelain from Holland to decorate Hampton Court. The fashion was wildly popular throughout the eighteenth century, when the great porcelain factories were founded and East Indiamen sailed home from China with a hundred thousand pieces and more aboard.
In the nineteenth century Lady Charlotte Schreiber, whose collection is now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, combed western Europe for old pieces, paying C4 for a Chelsea rabbit tureen and complaining that it was too dear. Today, every antique shop has a- least a few pieces, and often dozens from which to choose.
Eighteenth century porcelain is still the goal of most collectors, although that of the nineteenth century is being increasingly collected, studied, and put into cabinets. The bargains go to those who know, but even the novice can, buy well today, at a time when inflation and the increasing popularity of the pastime sees to it that the value of good pieces rises constantly.
Porcelain made in the eighteenth century is now expensive, although even at current prices it is still an excellent investment. Perhaps Worcester porcelain is the safest of all. No one has ever really lost money by buying old Worcester because it has steadily appreciated over the years, and its popularity has never been the subject of fashion in the same way as the wares of other factories. Coloured Worcester is now beyond the reach of most pockets, except for nineteenth century wares, but transfer-printed and blueand-white Worcester are still reasonably priced.
The odd Chelsea or Bow plate is perhaps as much as one can hope for in the provinces, and the collector must turn to specialist dealers for most of it, but good plainly decorated specimens occur, and there is always the possibility of a chance discovery of something more important.
The minor eighteenth century factories, such as Lowestoft and New Hall, are frequently represented among the stock of country dealers, especially cups and saucers and similar items. Buying the wares of the nineteenth century manufacturers – Minton, Spode, Davenport, Worcester and so forth – is an exercise in discrimination, with prizes in the form of enhanced value for those who are able to identify the work of some of the better known artists who worked for these factories.
Wedgwood, wildly popular in the USA, where it is almost a way of life, is becoming scarce in England, but all of it is plainly marked, and the addition of ‘Made in England’ to the mark first used in 1898 forms a watershed between old and new wares. Most sought are the eighteenth century pieces, but these are hard to find. It should be remembered, however, that Wedgwood is by no means confined to the familiar jasper stoneware. Increasing interest is being taken in creamware and the black basalts stonewares, and the search for such rarer varieties as rosso antico with white jasper ornament is worth making.
English pottery generally has always been a popular subject with the collector less able to afford the expensive porcelains. English delft is perhaps the most popular in these days with many collectors, and the cost of the rarer specimens rivals that of good porcelain. But there are many humbler, but no less interesting, examples to be had at a few pounds apiece, particularly blue-painted Bristol delft.
Staffordshire red ware is still reasonably inexpensive although specimens are uncommon, but Whieldon wares, especially those with the tortoiseshell glazes, are met with relative frequency, and the price is not high for plates, although the scarcer varieties, such as figures and teapots, sell for a good deal more.
Good salt-glazed stoneware is always in demand, especially the enamel painted varieties which are apt to be expensive. Cheapest of all are the undecorated plates moulded with a variety of intricate border patterns.
less than they cost when first imported. The collector who likes them, and is prepared to take a chance on their return to fashion, could hardly do better than buy them at present. They will probably be much more expensive in a few years’ time.

The earlier Staffordshire figures, and such related things as Toby jugs, are in a higher price-range, and are correspondingly scarce. Rarest of all are figures decorated with the coloured glazes of Ralph Wood, but the enamelled figures of Enoch Wood are not uncommon, and the finer quality specimens deserve more attention than they get. Staffordshire chimney ornaments of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are popular, despite crudities of modelling and finish, and there has lately been a noticeable increase in the popularity of mid-nineteenth century Tatbacks’, especially portraits of celebrities and notorious criminals of the day.
Railway mugs which were made at the time of the great railway
boom, especially when they depict such well tried favourites of the
enthusiast as the locomotives Rocket and Fury, are becoming ex-
28 tremely popular, and prices have risen considerably within the last year or so. Especially to be sought are such unusual variations as the double-heading – two locomotives coupled in tandem – and locomotives depicted against a background of identifiable scenes. Continental pottery and porcelain are less well-known in England. Here the knowledgeable collector may still find opportunities of picking up notable bargains. Dutch delft is perhaps the commonest variety of Continental pottery to be found, and later copies and reproductions are legion. Much less common are the products of such famous factories as Frankfurt, of which I have bought a number of specimens in country towns at very reasonable prices.
The z.,eilleuse – a tea or food-warmer to be found both in pottery and porcelain – is an extremely popular collector’s item on the Continent, and specimens are sought here. They are usually in the form of a separate base, a cylindrical centre portion and a surmounting basin and cover, or a teapot and cover. A small lamp –the godet – in the base provides heat for the vessel. English versions in delft and creamware from Leeds and Wedgwood exist, but these are food-warmers. The tea-warmer is much more likely to be continental, although a Swansea version exists in the Victoria & Albert Museum. In demand are the nineteenth century figures adapted for this purpose and known in France as personnages, the best of which were made by the Paris firm of Jacob Petit in the i 830’s. Good continental porcelain of the eighteenth century is scarce, but worth looking for. I found recently a group of figures of 1760 from the Italian Doccia factory in the shop of a provincial dealer who had no idea what it was. Few dealers outside the London specialists know anything about the minor German porcelain factories, and both figures and service-ware can be found occasionally, usually at fairly low prices. Mock ‘Sevres’ abounds, especially that decorated in turquoise blue with gilding of a quality which will not stand comparison with the much finer eighteenth century gilding. It must be remembered that these eighteenth century wares were repeated by the factory in the 187o’s, and although they are decorative, they have no enduring value to the collector.
Attention should be drawn to the many reproductions of Italian maiolica, especially drug-jars, seen in many shops. These are hardly ever offered as old, and they have no value to the collector who, however, should be alert to the possibility of a genuine specimen.
Today, when the country is continually being combed for antiques of all kinds, the antique shops of the provinces are probably richer in good things than they have ever been. The proportion of damaged objects, however, is high, and it is now unusual to find figures which do not need repair of some kind. One would not reject a finely painted eighteenth century dish because it was cracked; although the crack reduces the value, it still makes an effective display in the cabinet. Damaged dishes with perhaps a few sprigs of flowers, however, are of little value except to the impecunious enthusiast.
There is still a vast amount of Chinese porcelain to be found, most of it brought to England during the eighteenth century by the East India Company. Much of it was specially made for this large and thriving export trade, and the patterns are those demanded by European shippers. Collecting Chinese porcelain, therefore, is likely to fall into two distinct categories. The first will include the enormous quantity shipped to European order — armorial
pieces decorated with subjects based on contemporary engravings, and even direct copies of European porcelain. The second, inclined to be more exclusive, contains porcelain in the Chinese taste, and such stonewares as the celadons, as v.,ell as T’ang pottery. The latter wares were all imported towards the end of the nineteenth century and later for collectors who demanded purely Chinese things, and the variety met outside the specialist dealers in London are usually painted in blue underglaze. These, once fashionable,
30 are no longer in great demand, and often can be bought for much.
books to read
There have been more books written about ceramics than any other branch of antique art, so our list is highly selective. Incidentally, don’t overlook the second-hand book trade and antiquarian booksellers. Some of the finest works were published in the nineteenth century and have not been reprinted. Examples can often be found and usually they are remarkable for their fine colour plates of interest-mg pieces.
General works
Pocket book of English ceramic marks, j P Cushion, Faber, 12s 6d
Handbook of pottery and porcelain marks, j P Cushion & 11″Honey, Faber, & 12s 6d Encyclopaedia of British pottery and porcelain marks, G Godden, Jenkins, C6 6s Porcelain through the ages, G Savage, Penguin, ros 6d Talking about teapots, Y Bedford, Parrish, C1 5s Pottery and porcelain, F Litchfield, Black, £3 ros Concise encyclopaedia of English pottery and porcelain, W Markowitz & L Haggar, Deutsch, £6 6s
Country Life book of china, G Wills, Country Life, Ci 5s English pottery and porcelain figures, B Hughes, Lutterworth,
,C2 5s
Pottery through the ages, G’Savage, Cn ~sell, C i 5s
English pottery and bone china, B & T Hughes, Lutterworth, C1 5s British pottery and porcelain 1780-185o, G Godden, Barker, L2 15s
Antique English pottery, porcelain and glass, L E C Ramsay, Connoisseur, Cz 5s English blue and white,
B Naine,,, Faber, £3 ros
English pottery and porcelain, JVB Honey, Faber, Cr ros
British pottery and porcelain, S 1v .fisher, Arco Art, r2s 6d
Lutterworth, C2 2S
China-Trade porcelain, Phillips, Country Life, £5 5s
Old English porcelain, W B Honey, Faber, ki zos Porcelain through the ages, G Savage, Cgsell, ,Er ros
English cream coloured earthenware, D C Towner, Faber, £2 Ss
English porcelain of x8th century,, L Dixon, Faber, C2 2S Connoisseur dictionary of marks, M Taylor, Connoisseur, ,Cr 5s
English ceramic figures, B Hughes, Lutterworth, C2 2S Medieval English pottery, B Rackham, Faber, L2 5s
Chelsea
Chelsea porcelain - Red Anchor wares Vol I, F S Mackenna, Lewis, £7 7s
Chelsea porcelain - Gold Anchor wares Vol 11, Lewis, £7 7s
Chinese and oriental
Oriental blue and white, Sir Harry Garner, Faber, £3 3s Ceramic art of China, TV B Honey, Faber, £3 3s
Corean pottery, W B Honey, Faber, Er r5s
Later Chinese porcelain -Ching dynasty, R S,-)-, Faber, £2 10S
Coalport
Caughley and Coalport porcelain, F A Barrett, Lewis, £7 7s
Continental
Dresden china, W B Honey, Faber C. rs
Weidenfeld & Nicolson,& 7s 6d European ceramic art, W B Honey, Faber, Cro ros
French faience, A Lane, Faber, ,Cr ros
French porcelain of the x8th century, W B Honey, Faber, ‘Cr ros
Concise encyclopaedia of continental pottery and porcelain, W Markowitz L Haggar, Deutsch, C6 6s
z7th and x8th century French porcelain, G Savage, Barrie & Rockcliffe, £3 3s
x8th century German porcelain, G Savage, Barrie & Rockdiffe, £3 3s
Pocket book of German ceramic marks,, Cushion, Faber, r5s
German porcelain, W B Honey, Faber, Cr r5s
Italian majolica, B Rackham, Faber, & 15s
Italian Porcelain, A Lane, Faber, & i5s
Roman pottery, R Charleston, Faber, £2 2S
Pocket book of French and Italian ceramic marks, Y P Cushion, Faber, i8s
4D George Savage verifies the genuineness of a new acquisition
Leeds
The Leeds pottery, D Touln Cory Adam, k4 4s
Liverpool
Liverpool porcelain of 18th century and its makers,
K Bonet’, Batsford, £6 6s
Longton Hall
Longton Hall porcelain, B Watney, Faber, C2 5s
Pinxton
The Pinxton china factory,
L C Exley, Coke-Steel, £r 2s 6d
Staffordshire
Good Sir Toby, D EvIes, Lewis, ‘I IOS
Early Staffordshire pottery, B Rackham, Faber, £r i os Collecting Staffordshire pottery, L Stanley, Allen, k3 3s Staffordshire portrait figures of Victorian age, T Balston, Faber, £3 3s
The pictorial pot lid book,
H G Clarke, Tantivy Press, (3 3s
Wedgwood
Wedgwood wares, W B Hone}’, Faber, Ci 15S
Wedgwood, 14′Mankou,itz, Batsford, £7 7s
Wedgwood ABC, HButen, Antique Finder, Ci 5s
Wedgwood artists, H Buten, Antique Finder, Ci 12S 611
Worcester
Worcester porcelain, F S Mackenna, Lewis, £7 7s Worcester porcelain, F A Barrett, Faber, C2 5s
Coloured Worcester porcelain of the first period, R Marshall, ,C12 I2S
Life and work of Robert Hancock, C Cook, Chapman & Hall, £2 2s
Victorian ware
x9th century English pottery and porcelain, G Bemrose, Faber, ,C2 5s
Victorian pottery and porcelain, B Hughes, Country Life, & 12s 6d
Victorian porcelain, A G Godden, Jenkins, C2 2s
Victorian pottery, H 111′a’-Pfield, Jenkins, & 2s
Art Gallery and Museum. Cheltenham, Glos (Englisiporcelain)
Athenaeum annexe, Manchester, Lancs (ceramics; BantockHouse,Wolverhampton, Staffs (Worcesterporcelain)
Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, Durham (European porcelain) British Museum, London (all subjects)
Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford, Beds (general porcelain,, Charterhouse School, Godahning, Sy (Peruvian pottery, City Art Gallery, Leeds, Yorks (Leeds and Staffordshire pottery)
City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, Works (Wedgwood; County Hall and Museum, Abingdon, Berks (Saxon pottery; The Curtis Museum, Alton Hants (general)
The Dyson Perrins Museum, Worcester, Worcs (It,orceste, porcelain)
Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea (Swansea and Nantgarw) Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art, Durham (Malcolm MacDonald collection of Chinese pottery and porcelain)
Holborn of Menstrie Museum, Bath, Som (general) Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port
34 Sunlight, Cheshire (Wedgwood)
Municipal Museum, Warrington, Lancs (Edelsten collection ofeeramics)
Museum and Art Gallery, Bootle, Lancs (Lancaster collection of English figure pottery and Bishop collection of Liverpool pottery) Museum and Art Gallery, Paisley (Renfrew) (ceramics) Museum and Art Gallery, Reading, Berks (Blotch collection of Delft)
Museum and Art Gallery, Rotherham, Yorks (Rockingham) Museum of Art, Hove, Sx (Pocock ceramic collection)
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, Gloms (Swansea and Nantgarw)
Parc, Howard Museum, Llanelly, Corms (Llanelly pottery, Pharmaceutical Society’s Museum, London (Lambeth drug
jars)
Public Library, Southall, Middx (Martinware pottery collection)
The Sharp Collection, Wonersh, Surrey (China teapots) Spode-Copeland Museum, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs (Spode and
Copeland)
Townley Hall Art Gallery, Burnley, Lanes (Chinese pottery) Victoria and Albert, London (all subjects)
Wallace Collection, London (English and European porcelain) The Wedgwood Museum, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs (Wedgwood)
London
Take a trip down New Cavendish Street (the Baker Street end) and visit Cavendish Antiques, E A Baker, Artinterias and Dixon Mudd. All offer wide stock at all price ranges. Dixon Mudd is a regular exhibitor at the Chelsea Antique Fairs, where his stand is one of the most colourful and usually surrounded by admirers.
Mr Alexander Raghinsky is always ready with useful advice for the modest collector. He started his business by selling his own magnificent collection of ‘blue and white’ and his current stock includes specimens of most factories at prices ranging from 30s to real collector’s pieces. Mr Rahinsky can be found in Collectors Corner, Portobello Road, on Saturdays.
When you visit the Portobello Market, make a point of stopping at Mercury Antiques i Ladbroke Rd, close to Notting Hill Gate tube. Miss Liane Richards has a good stock for the amateur collector and
always offers continental pieces. She has just extended her premises to include the shop next door and often has a table full of slightly damaged pieces on the pavement outside. Commander Coxon is a familiar name to all collectors who visit antique fairs. He doesn’t have a shop nowadays, but is always available on Saturday in Collectors Corner at the Portobello Market, W1 I.
John Hall and David MacWilliams have a most unusual shop at 17 Harrington Rd, SW7.Theyspecialise in theatrical items and their stock includes a wide selection of Staffordshire portrait figures. The Victorians had the rather gruesome habit of making pottery models commemorating some of the more colourful crimes of the century. Models would be made depicting the murderer, the victim and often the scene of the crime. Examples of these and other portrait figures can be obtained at the above address, also at W W 35
Warner 226 Brompton Rd, SW3 and R Bonnets 582 King’s Rd, SW6.
Beauchamp Place, SW3 close to Harrods, is another centre for the collector’s notebook. David Newbon, Beauchamp Galleries and Gay Antiques have a good range of both English and continental items and at number 16 P & K Embden specialise in eighteenth century pieces, including a fine stock of Chinese ceramics of early date.
Chinese works of art are largely the prerogative of Mayfair dealers. Sydney Moss 51 Brook St, Wi has a fine stock, also John Sparks Ltd at 128. Bluest & Sons, 48 Davies St and Barling of Mount St Ltd together with Spink of King St, SW i are some of the names famous all over the world for their important stock of oriental ceramics.
At 66A Kensington Church St, W8, Hoff Antiques specialise in eighteenth century porcelain and M Impey 172 Walton St, SW3 offer early English pottery as well as eighteenth century Chinese and English porcelain.
36 Miss Fowler has an attractive
little shop at IA Duke St, Manchester Square, Wi. One comes across this shop rather unexpectedly and she has a fine stock of early ceramics.
George Savage of George Savage & Associates Ltd 9 Porchester Place, Connaught St, London W2 is the author of books ranging from the ever - popular Pelican Porcelain through the Ages to the American Birds of Dorothy Doughty which, priced at $6o, is one of the few books ever to enjoy the distinction of being at a premium on publication day. Another director, Diana Imber, is known for her scholarly translations of important books on continental wares and far eastern art. The company specialise in pottery and porcelain for collectors at all price-levels, and everything carries a warranty.
Some other London dealers in ceramics
(full addresses can be found in back of book)
SW: Albert Amor (r8th century English and continental porcelain), Canterburys (Antiques), Ltd, H R Hancock & Sons
(Chinese porcelain)
SW3 H E Backer (Continental porcelain), David Newton, Newman and Newman
Wx Antique Porcelain Co, Peter Boswell (specialists in tea and dinner services),
J J Drukker, Filkins, Lories, Manheim, Peerage Antiques
W8 Delomosne, Finearts, Jean Sewell
NWx F L Caira, T E Gascoigne
George Savage and his partner Diana /mbar discuss the merits of a piece of oriental sculpture
Home counties and southern England
Some of the best porcelain and pottery dealers are ladies. Take Vera Sutcliffe for instance. She has her shop in Croydon, Surrey. Here, many beautiful items will delight the connoisseur and she also undertakes expert restorative work. Swansea and Nantgarw, increasingly difficult to find, are amongst her specialities. Vera Sutcliffe can also be found at the Kensington Antique Fair.
Another specialist is Mrs Vicki Minoprio of 40 West St, Alresford. Although her shop is comparatively new, her experience goes back much further. Her shop is the result of many years collecting by Mrs Minoprio and her husband. Stock is of the finest quality and
does credit to the lovely old town of Alresford, Hants. (Main A31 Farnham to Winchester).
Amongst the south coast dealers we must mention Malcolm Anderson Bexhill, Sussex, for his stock of English, Continental and Chinese porcelain; also Trevor Antiques Brighton and Howard Lington of Bournemouth.
Pot lids have always been popular collectors’ items and are rapidly rising in price. Alexander Antiques Bletchingley, Surrey can be guaranteed to have some always in stock. The Old Forge Hollingbourne, Kent also try to keep a selection of these elusive items.
Hungerford, Barks boasts six antique shops. Riverside Antiques is a branch of the London firm Fine-arts Ltd and always has a good selection of porcelain, English, continental and Chinese.
Drug jars, whether they be maiolica originals or reproduction, have always been popular. Durston Antiques Petersfield, Hants and Quinney’s Sawbridgeworth, Herts, usually have some in stock.
Mr and Mrs Behrens have just moved into new premises in Winchester, and have many smaller pieces of porcelain to choose from.
Some other dealers in the home counties and south
Stewart Acton, Brighton, Sussex Adam House, Henley, Oxon J J Allen, Bournemouth, Hants Bennett & Stow, Alresford, Hants Bishop, Marlow, Bucks Margaret Cadman, Brighton, Sussex
Fortunate Finds, Eastbourne, Sussex (by appointment only)
Major & Mrs Grogan, Horsham, Sussex
Leon’s Antique Shop,
38 Tunbridge Wells, Kent
Winifred Williams, Eastbourne, Sussex
The west country and Wales
We don’t suppose there are many people who would drive miles to buy matching basin and ewer sets; getting rid of the things is usually the bigger problem. If you are thinking of throwing some out, send them down to Mr and Mrs Scammell in Morchard Bishop. In the heart of Devon their Glebe House has several showrooms of small general antiques – including a basin and ewer department!
A porcelain dealer out of the ‘top drawer’ is Andrew Dando of Bath. He has a large stock of all types of ceramics, English, continental and Chinese. Again, the usual warning when recommending Bath – Mr Dando is closed on Saturday afternoon.
Four specialists in Worcester porcelain in the west country are Arthur Philpott in Worcester itself;
Peter Jackson Falmouth and Studio Antiques Bourton - on - the - Water, Glos, who specialises in the Dr Wall period. Incidentally, the small coffee cups, typical of the early Worcester factory make an excellent collection. Many of these pieces are marked with the sign of the artist even if not that of the factory itself, whereas coffee cups from many other factories more often than not do not bear a mark on the cup – only on the saucer.
Stanley Fisher Bewdley, Worcs, is the author of British Pottery and Porcelain, and a leading specialist in Worcester pieces.
Nantgarw (pronounced nangaroo) and Swansea porcelain is the speciality of J Kyrie Fletcher Ltd of Newport. Due to the limited operating period of these factories, good examples are rather rare and collectors who wouldn’t have looked at a cracked dish a few years ago are now keen to snap up any piece that comes their way, especially if it is a marked piece. Mrs S L
0 Part of George Savage’s collection of Chinese porcelain
Chislett of Bradstone House, Lydney, Glos often has some pieces amongst her other porcelain stock, as has D S Hutchings of Newport, Mon.
At Dawlish in Devonshire is Arthur West, right opposite Dawlish Water. Mr West has some excellent pieces, and don’t be put off by the sight of modern Devon pottery on sale in the same premises. He had a most delightful collection of early English blue and white pieces on display in the window at our last visit.
Although primarily a trade supplier, Reginald Andrade gives a warm welcome to the private buyer. Having been in the antique business since 1907 he has a great wealth of experience and knowledge which he willingly passes on to the enthusiastic collector. Mr Andrade can be found in Plympton, Devon, in a large Victorian house, bursting with stock. He has at least ten showrooms devoted to ceramics and you have to pick your way around carefully for fear of trampling a Derby plate underfoot. It is best to know what you’re looking for before calling on Mr Andrade, otherwise the amount of pieces offered tend to confuse to the point of being overwhelming. Mr Andrade himself has a liking for jugs – of which he has a roomful, but he always finds space for one more, even if he has to hang it from the ceiling!
Ruskin pottery is a little known art to most people and we know only of one specialist. Robert Ferneyhough always has examples
as well as English and Chinese porcelain at Brook House, Henleyin-Arden, Warks.
Patrick Walker Burford, Oxon offers delftware with other pottery and porcelain items in this lovely old Costwold town.
In Wimborne Minster, Dorset Metcalfe,7ackson has premises with the strange-sounding name Trumpeters 25 West St. He stocks only top quality pieces and is extremely knowledgeable on Chinese art. Mr Jackson always has some oriental porcelain and pottery for sale.
`Antiques’ Bridport, Dorset, keeps a stock of coronation mugs. These are in a little display right at the back of the shop, easy to miss unless you know what you’re looking for.
Miss Valentine Ackland has a thriving business which she runs from her home in Maiden Newton, near Dorchester. She stocks mainly small items, with quite a lot of ceramic pieces which she sends by mail all over the world. Her house is called Frome Vauchurch and it is. rather difficult to find — so be prepared to ask a local the way. Miss, Ackland collects stock over a period of months and then publishes a mailing list. If you’d like to receive a copy, she’ll be pleased to hear from you.
Highly recommended, and especially for the pretty and peaceful environment in which she works, is, Mrs Gavin Young Longburton, near Sherborae, Dorset. Spring House is one of the prettiest
thatched houses in Dorset. Mrs Young, wife of the show-jumping judge Colonel Gavin Young, restores porcelain, pottery and enamels. She undertakes work by mail and will restore anything within reason. She also has pieces for sale both perfect and restored.
Dormy House Antiques at Marlborough in Wilts, always try to keep a good stock of commemorative jugs. ‘But they go out as fast as I can get them in’, complains Denys Bellerby, the owner.
Some other dealers in Wales and the west
G Deacon, Bath, Som.
Mrs H G James, Bodmin, Cornwall (Staffordshire portrait
figures)
C & D O’Donoghue, Torquay, Devon (by appointment only)
Old Timbers Antiques, Tewkesbury, Glos (lustre pottery)
East Anglia
Some especially fine stock can be seen in Cambridge at the premises of Collins & Clark, also at The Grange, Wroxham, Norfolk.
Edward Levine of Cromer, specialises in English and Chinese porcelain, also S H Partner of Colchester.
There is no sign to the premises of Peter A Crofts who has a lovely stock of English porcelain. To get to ‘Briar Patch’ you must take the
JOSEPH & EARLE D VANDEKAR
Members of the British Antique Dealers Association Porcelain • Glass • Pottery • Paperweights
Ormolu • Furniture

THE AGE OF THE DESIGNER
CHIPPENDALE PERIOD
IT is as well to realise at the outset that the title of this chapter, The Age of the Designer, is one largely of convenience, and must not be accepted without certain qualifications 1930 chairs dining black . That it implies an age when certain men were working out styles in an individual way is perfectly true, but it does not mean that these were the only men working in those styles ; neither does it mean that they were necessarily the originators of them greek designs and motifs . This may sound some-,A hat of a paradox, but the case is simple when one comes to analyse it kem weber designed art deco .
Take two outstanding cases, those of Thomas Chippendale and George Hepplewhite brass railings marble furniture . Both these names have come to stand for certain styles in furniture, and a chair, or w hatever it may be, can be picked out and dubbed as one or the other antique epergnes and marks on bottom . But this does not necessarily imply that it was made by either of these cabinet makers deco legs . When one comes to consider the vast amount of mahogany furniture of the period which has survived (discounting the many fakes and reproductions) it must be obvious that all of it could not possibly have been made in the workshops of just two firms decorated night tables . That both firms prospered and turned out a good deal of furniture is true, but against this was the fact that it was all made entirely by hand, so that the labour and time involved must have been tremendous rococo eagle dresser .
It becomes obvious then that, taking just this aspect of the case, there must have been many cabinet makers who were making furniture in these styles, and we have now to consider whether these were plagiarists copying the ideas of just two men, or whether the names Chippendale and Hepplewhite have come to be applied to certain furniture merely because these two fashionable cabinet makers happened to be working in styles which had evolved naturally delftware pottery . Opinion on the subject has changed considerably during the last twenty-five to thirty years antique german desk . Chippendale FIG rene prou . 107 how to distinguish a 19th century empire sofa . ARMCHAIR
WITH FLATTENED
TOP BACK RAIL wooden upholstered arm chair .
About 1755 makers of silver table ware in late 1800’s .
The tendency to replace the rounded or hooped back by the flattened top rail is shown in its culmination in this chair calamander wood bookcase .
FIG 18 century hall tables . 108 frosted glass vase with smokey streaks . CHAIR WITH
SQUARE MOULDED
LEGS “18th century desserts” .
About 176o what, what+british vernacular .
When this square form of
leg was introduced, the
stretchers were once
again used anttic dishes . The double
ogee section of the legs
was used almost ex-
clusively antique blue side table .
FIG chippendale dining double pedestal . 109 antique gateleg drop leaf round table . LADDER BACK ARMCHAIR belgium porcelain dining tables .
About 1760 making cabriole legs with padded feet .
The back Is a departure from the upright slat type which had been used almost exclusively since Queen Anne’s time swedish antique round carved tables . It was probably a resurrection of the tall ladder back of James II time parts of chambersticks .
FIG oriental drop front . 110 typical art deco furniture . SIMPLE
MAHOGANY CHAIR antique folding card table dutch painting .
x76o-1770 baltimore fancy chairs .
For less wealthy cus-
tomers plain chairs were
made which in a general
way followed the pre-
vailing fashion but with
costly carving and other
detail omitted late medieval sideboard . They
were sometimes made in
beech chest on legs sofa table .
funtature dating . CHAIR WITH CHINESE INFLUENCE antique white chamber pot .
About 76o early soft paste teapots .
The Chinese influence is shown in particular in the use of the lattice work in the back and the frets in the rails whitle marble tables. consols, sideboards, dining . At best it was but a grafting of Oriental detail on a purely Western form spergne antique .
FIG guilloche antique frame -russian -ebay . 112, UPHOLS• TERED ARMCHAIR 1850s gateleg with butterfly leaf .
About i26o,
t II Note that the back has lost the winged form seen in the last example of an upholstered chair in Fig english walnut club chair . 79, p how african art inspired art deco . 101 rectangular drop leaf sofa table . Small fretted brackets between the front legs and sea, rail were often used as
in this example russian neoclassical secretaire .
Strong Trade Tradition
used to be held up as a great designer and practical cabinet maker, so great and individual in style that the whole trade automatically turned to him as a leader and copied his works in sheer admiration george oakley furniture . To-day people are more cautious in accepting this theory blue glass pheasant .
Both Chippendale and Hepplewhite were practical cabinet makers antique furniture made with scottish pine . Their places of business are known to have been, the former in St lovers on a swing’ meissen porcelain . Martin’s Lane and the latter in Cripplegate, and both published books of designs georges jacob furniture . Possibly it was these books that gave rise to the theory that they were the leaders of design, the fact being lost sight of that these were virtually catalogues aaron burr desk . The more likely theory is that both men were extremely successful interpreters of styles which were a natural development along traditional lines 17th century silver tableware . In the sense that both were able, practical cabinet makers, with a gift of originality, they helped to establish styles on thoroughly sound traditional lines and at the same time impart to their work a feeling of individuality thonet recliner . Apart from this, it can hardly be claimed that either was a great designer, turning out purely original work in the way that, say, Wren designed buildings which were entirely individual and obviously the work of a great inventive genius jackfield pottery animals .
The case of Robert Adam as a designer of furniture is in a rather different category antique silver fish knives and forks . Adam was an architect, not a practical cabinet maker, and he designed his furniture specially to suit the houses he built edgar brandt deco tables . It was natural, then, that his furniture should show more of a definite break from tradition, because he was not fettered by years of training in a certain established school (with whatever advantages and disadvantages that carries with it) flatware forks types . At the same time, the fact that he became an extremely successful architect with a large clientele made it inevitable that he should attract the attention of many cabinet makers, who would make furniture which was either a copy of pure Adam work or was just founded upon it display cabinet design in royal style . Thus, except for certain authentic specimens, one cannot hope to do more than classify a piece as being in the style of Adam
THE CHIPPENDALE PERIOD
With this explanation of a title which might otherwise be regarded as misleading we may turn our attention to the first C’hippendale’s Status
school of design, which began at about the time when the second rising for the house of Stuart took place, 1745 coalport 1920s vogue collection . We have seen that by this time mahogany was used exclusively—that is, so far as the towns were concerned warm entree dish . There still was a certain amount of oak furniture made in country districts, but it was mainly in the style of years before and cannot be said to be typical of the period pennsylvania dutch antique china cabinet hand painted pictures . It has also been noted that in some respects the Queen Anne feeling was retained, especially in the pieces which had always been made in solid wood funtature dating . In particular, the chair had still much in it that was reminiscent of early times, although the gradual flattening of the top rail and the straightening of the uprights had introduced a new element furnuture pieces supboards style bambocci .
Taken generally, the early Georgian period was disappointing from the point of view of design cockerel mark pottery . It is to be admitted that design is largely a matter of individual taste square white occassional table . One man can find satisfaction in work that has no appeal to another mallard furniture . At the same time the models of about 1730 make a poor showing when compared with the best work of Queen Anne’s time, especially in the chairs for sale antique pedestal candle table 3 legs brass claw feet . Chair making then, as to-day, had become largely a specialised job, and for some curious reason the craftsmen somehow failed to make the best of their opportunities pop up cigarette deco dispenser . Not that the work was generally inferior in the quality of the workmanship ; the carving was often of a high order ; but that the outlines and general shapes were often poor rare antique japanese tea bowls . For instance, the cabriole leg often degenerated into an overshaped thing, and the claw and ball foot lost a great deal of its former vigour british deco table . The shapes of the backs, too, were often unsatisfactory and give one the impression that in feeling round for a new expression the craftsmen were lacking in appreciation of a well-balanced line, good craftsmen though they might be “antique collectors blog” .
By 1745 or so there was a definite upward tendency again steel dining table germany . This has often been put down to the advent of Chippendale antique austria 1855 - 1953 statues . That his individual work was generally of a high order, showing a fine appreciation of line backed up by the best craftsmanship, is true, and in that sense he probably did influence the trade, but it is doubtful whether this alone could have been the guiding force in the whole world of cabinet making black desk curved legs . It is too much to expect that his influence could have become general in so short a time and extend all over the country The probable truth is that that particular age produced a number of men all largely gifted with an eye for good proportions and line porcelain table clocks . It is difficult to explain just why this should have been, but parallel cases happen in all the arts and crafts at certain periods english sterling silver chambersticks . They lapse for a while and then a whole number of capable men come along, and the art is lifted from the rut into which it seemed to be sinking antique designs of dinner tables .
Chippendale’s Director paul de lamerie sauce boat .—We may, at this point, turn to what little we know of Chippendale himself antique ivory chinese queen ang king . This is derived chiefly from his book, The Gentleman and Cabinetmaker’s Director, first published in 1754, and from bills for goods supplied by him regency era anquite beds . His workshop was first in Conduit Street, Long Acre, and afterwards in St design italian crockery cupboard . Martin’s Lane, and it is apparent that he conducted a very flourishing and fashionable business antique walnut tall boys . It appears that in 1755 fire broke out, and a notice of the event states that there were twenty-two workmen’s chests in the shop antique english knights dining tables . When one adds to this the men who would have been engaged in polishing, fitting, and general work it is apparent that a great deal of work must have been turned out antique imari porcelain . Later in his life (he died in 1779) he made a good deal of furniture to the designs of Robert Adam blonde french deco vitrine .
That he himself was a practical carver and cabinet maker there is no doubt, and this makes it all the more remarkable that so many of the designs in his book were impractical bernard palissy . It is to be admitted that the plates were the -work of an engraver who may have used considerable licence, but, even so, it is difficult to conceive of a practical man passing designs which he must have known could not have been made as they were frosted glass opalescent glass . From the preface of a later edition it is apparent that many people of the time had their doubts as to the practicability of some of the designs, for he makes a sort of apology, and attributes the adverse criticisms to ” Malice, Ignorance, and Inability antique dressers by northern furniture .” Possibly there was something in it metal plates and trays from iran . No man becomes successful without somebody feeling the jaundice of jealousy, but all the same Chippendale would have had his work cut out had he had to make some of the items exactly as they appeared in his book glass cabinets display printers type .
In some rare instances it has been possible to identify pieces of furniture with illustrations from the Director and the differences where the practical cabinet maker has had to adapt the design are obvious davenport desk 19 century . Probably the truth is that the The Gentlemen and Cabinet Maker’s Director
book was intended primarily as a catalogue which would attract men of wealth to the workshop antique elm table & chairs . The list of subscribers includes many titled people and rich merchants, who would be likely to have money to spend, and these were objective of the book ; people who would turn over the leaves and make a selection of things they would order from him british longcase makers .
It is true that the book was also described as a trade book which would include directions for making the various
FIG, 114 charles side table stretcher walnut . SIMPLE SIDE TABLE WITH MOULDED LEGS swedish furniture 1930 .
About i76o marquetry drop leaf side table .
The straight leg moulded along its length was used considerably by the Chippendale school swedish antique side table . Note that the inner corners are deeply chamfered antique bookcases london .
pieces antique commodes chamber pot . In the event the main bulk of the subscribers were cabinet makers (this probably accounts for the defensive preface he wrote for his second edition), but from Chippendale’s own point of view these were probably incidental to the main object decortive burr rosewood vase .
CHAIRS
The middle and second half of the eighteenth century has often been called the golden age of cabinet making, and it was in this Chippendale period that it blossomed 1920 art deco antique dressing table . As a first example, take the armchair shown in Fig walnut armchair josef urban art noveau . 107 antique side table with sloped shelves . It represents a type that has never been excelled dining table glass silver antique . Individual taste may prefer, say, the fine shield back chair of the Development of the Chair
Hepplewhite school (and certainly that is beautiful enough), but in its own particular way this Chippendale chair has all the parts that go to making a really fine piece, satisfying in line, sound in construction, and of the finest workmanship lancashire antique bureau 1790 .
In many ways this chair is a direct descendant from the Queen Anne models with which we are already familiar antique drop front writing desks . Other influences were to creep in later, but here almost every detail has something about it that shows its origin in the traditional line ancient gothic furniture . The legs are of the cabriole type and have the turned club foot used as early as the late seventeenth century czechoslovakia r porcelain . They are finely proportioned, with the full, high knee completely free from the overdone, bandy shape often found in earlier mahogany work antique bidet table . The knee carving is of acanthus leafage, which was the first stage of development from the shell and husk detail of Queen Anne models ancient greece furniture . The back is the culmination of the stages of evolution shown in Fig scroll planter table y chair . 102, Chapter VI leopold stickly table 1959 . The uprights have only a slight curve—both backwards and sideways—the combined effect of which is to give a sort of serpentine shape when seen from the three-quarter view revolving chipendale bookcase . The right-hand upright shows this clearly antique little silver . The top rail is straight (the word is used in contrast with the full rounded shape of Queen Anne models), and the slight dip at the ends gives an acute corner “18th century desserts” . This detail should be compared with those in Fig 19th century sewing tables with . ioz 1800 furniture desk ivory inlay wood . Tradition, too, is preserved in the retention of the single splat in the back, though it is pierced and carved to give the effect of a series of interlacing straps and scrolls buy antique pembroke inlaid table .
An innovation of the Chippendale period was that of the square leg office chair french . In some cases it was completely plain, but as a rule it was moulded along its length as in the chair in Fig i8th century english silver table . io8 metal borders friezes fretwork . In section the moulding was usually a double ogee, and at the top it was cut away to leave a plain flat surface to which the upholstery materials could be fixed antique desks by wilkinson and son . It should be noted that in this type of chair the stretcher rails are introduced once again antique oval table with middle drop leaf . The shaping of the back is similar to that in Fig antique wheel engraved glass patterns . 107, though the splat is rather more reminiscent of an earlier pattern like that in Fig arts and crafts liberty of london oak furniture . 102 george 1 style mahogany stool .
At the same time that these fine chairs were being made for the fashionable people in town a simpler form was being turned out in country districts black lacquer armchairs . Sometimes these were in mahogany, but quite a number were made in beech or even oak and stained to resemble mahogany english fcbinet makers 19th century . Fig antique telescopic dining tables . i i o shows a Oriental and Gothic Influence
chair of this kind “liberty furniture” . The legs are plain and the back splat has the simplest possible piercing voysey furniture . As a rule these chairs have a certain coarseness and heaviness about them, and are obviously the effort of a man working in an unfamiliar element augsburg marquetry table cabinet .
A particularly effective pattern of chair was the ladder back shown in Fig furniture ornaments ny . iog mahogany inlaid console table . It was a completely new departure so far as the cabinet maker was concerned, though it may have had its origin in some of the tall back chairs made in the latter part of Charles 11 reign sideboard lacquer mother of pearl . These often had a series of plain horizontal slats, with shaped edges fitting between turned uprights antique table with off centered middle leg . In the present chair the slats are pierced as well as shaped, and are fitted to the characteristic curved uprights 19th century german furniture makers . It will be seen that the same straight moulded legs are used as in Fig jacobean monks chair . ic,8, and the curious fact may be noted here that, except for one or two occasional variations, the same pattern of moulding is used practically always in these chairs prohibition parlor clock . It seems rather odd that a trade convention, or whatever it may be called, was so strong that almost every chairmaker followed it american art deco bar furniture .
Chinese Influence duncan table claw drop leaf drawer .—A rather curious influence that took a considerable hold on the world of furniture after the middle of the century was the Chinese curule friedrich schinkel . There was a popular rage for things oriental at the time ; Nvalls were covered with Chinese wall papers, and Chinese pottery was in demand jourdain modernist chair . Sir William Chambers had made a visit to China and on his return published a book of drawings of oriental studies exoticism, furniture . Its effect on furniture was the introduction of such motifs as temples, bells, lattice work, and elaborate frets, the whole often being seasoned with a strong French feeling art nouveau and august endell . In mirror frames especially the intermingling of the Chinese and French was strongly marked serrurier-bovy, silex . A chair having its origin in the popularity of this Chinese style is shown in Fig antique french candelabra . i i i black amethyst dishes . Note in particular the detail in the back and the frets of the rails berkey & gay american empire furniture . Furniture treated in this way is often spoken of as Chinese Chippendale, but it will be realised that it is only a rather bizarre adaptation of a few Eastern motifs to typical Western work, and is not really Chinese in feeling clock 1700th century wood . Chippendale shows a number of chairs of this kind in his book reproduction potboard dressers .
Oriental and Gothic Influence
chair of this kind inexpensive antique wardrobes . The legs are plain and the back splat has the simplest possible piercing antique sideboard 1825 . As a rule these chairs have a certain coarseness and heaviness about them, and are obviously the effort of a man working in an unfamiliar element value of empire style china closet 1910 .
A particularly effective pattern of chair was the ladder back shown in Fig antique shaving supplies quartz . iog antique furniture “made in france” coffee table art deco . It was a completely new departure so far as the cabinet maker was concerned, though it may have had its origin in some of the tall back chairs made in the latter part of Charles 11 reign art deco silver train straight on view image . These often had a series of plain horizontal slats, with shaped edges fitting between turned uprights turn of the century drop leaf table imperial . In the present chair the slats are pierced as well as shaped, and are fitted to the characteristic curved uprights curved walnut dining chair . It will be seen that the same straight moulded legs are used as in Fig baltimore & annapolis 18c cabinet makers . ic,8, and the curious fact may be noted here that, except for one or two occasional variations, the same pattern of moulding is used practically always in these chairs rent baroque wood carving furniture . It seems rather odd that a trade convention, or whatever it may be called, was so strong that almost every chairmaker followed it french antique writing secretaire .
Chinese Influence thonet rail styles .—A rather curious influence that took a considerable hold on the world of furniture after the middle of the century was the Chinese antique english tea tables . There was a popular rage for things oriental at the time ; Nvalls were covered with Chinese wall papers, and Chinese pottery was in demand arita porzellan in deutschland kakiemon . Sir William Chambers had made a visit to China and on his return published a book of drawings of oriental studies andre hunebelle glass . Its effect on furniture was the introduction of such motifs as temples, bells, lattice work, and elaborate frets, the whole often being seasoned with a strong French feeling “john dwight” potter fulham . In mirror frames especially the intermingling of the Chinese and French was strongly marked philadelphia chippendale antique dining . A chair having its origin in the popularity of this Chinese style is shown in Fig inexpensive french desks furniture . i i i porcelain figures of famous people . Note in particular the detail in the back and the frets of the rails 19th century american rosewood rococo console table . Furniture treated in this way is often spoken of as Chinese Chippendale, but it will be realised that it is only a rather bizarre adaptation of a few Eastern motifs to typical Western work, and is not really Chinese in feeling early imperial ming porcelain . Chippendale shows a number of chairs of this kind in his book painted silver trays .
FIG 18th century forks . 117 antique wrought iron candle sticks . SIMPLE BUREAU IN MAHOGANY 4 section antique cutlery box .
About 176o antique monk’s table .
The drawer fronts are edged with a cocked bead, and at the front corners
quarter-round turned pillars are inset cabinet maker 1840s .
FIG decorative writing styles . 118 bureau furniture . WRITING DESK WITH LEATHER COVERED TOP old fashioned wooden tray with silver legs .
About 1765 when were tea tables first used .
The moulding above the knee space is carved, a common feature of
Chippendale work antique metal tables with drop leaves . This would have been Impossible in walnut work
because the moulding was built up with a thin layer of walnut louis xiv roll top desk .

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.

MID 19TH CENTURY GARDEN FURNITURE
BOTANY WAS A HOUSEHOLD SCIENCE in the 19th
century, appealing to the rational, genteel, pious, and relentlessly self-improving Victorian mindset. Its popularity inspired an unprecedented interest in gardening that permeated the social strata. Jane Loudon’s 1840 publication Instructions in Gardening for Ladies advocated the pastime as one eminently suited to the disposition of the fairer sex, and was a runaway success. The terrarium, invented in 1827 by Dr Nathaniel Ward, allowed people to grow exotic plants in a cold climate — even on a window sill —and protected delicate specimens from harsh urban environments. The abolition of glass tax in 1845 made conservatories more affordable, and they became fashionable settings in which to entertain one’s guests.
Gardens of the period were generally bright and bold, with vast beds planted with swathes of colourful plants very much in vogue. Garden ornaments took many forms, but were rarely subtle. The era that witnessed the introduction of the garden gnome to Britain also saw householders hang brightly coloured
glass globes, called gazing balls, as decorative additions to their gardens. Urns, statues, birdbaths, obelisks, and even life-sized reproductions of animals, all in metal or stone, populated the gardens of the wealthy. The same ostentatiousness was at work in garden furniture design of the period. Where garden chairs and tables had been relatively restrained early in the century, they became increasingly elaborate as the 19th century progressed. Simple, wrought-iron forms gave way to industrial cast iron that mimicked the triumverate of styles — Greek, Gothic, and Rococo —that dominated interiors.
IRON CHAIRS FROM IRONBRIDGE Cast iron was far cheaper than wrought iron or bronze and was ideally suited to use in the garden, owing to its strength and resistance to rust. A number of iron foundries across Europe had been engaged in the production of garden furniture for some time when the Darby family owners of a large iron works at Coalbrookdale in Shropshire, turned their attention to the manufacture of iron products. Taking their lead from companies such as Val d’Osne in France, they built the Coalbrookdale
TRAINED TREE
Heinrich Weber ’s engraving shows
a more unusual approach to garden
furniture. Instead of buying a canvas
sunshade for your garden table and
chairs, it suggests creating a natural,
yet rather formal, sunshade by
training the branches of a tree over
an umbrella-shaped trellis. The table
and chair are cast-iron. c 1850.
Company into the pre-eminent manufacturer of
garden furniture of the mid 19th century. Its
most popular designs are still in production
today The process was an industrial one:
iron was cast from moulds in a variety of different shapes, and then pieced together to produce furniture of various styles. At
the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, the company won a Council Medal, and Queen Victoria paid £300 for a statue of Andromeda made by them. The centrepiece of Coalbrookdale’s 1851 exhibit was its new range of Nasturtium chairs and benches, which epitomized garden furniture design of the period. The ironwork was elaborately pierced with floral designs and scrolling to give a Rococo look, yet the actual
construction of the furniture was simple and suited to mass production.
RUSTIC FURNITURE
A vernacular tradition of handcrafted garden
furniture persisted in tandem with the industrial cast-iron aesthetic. Local craftsmen fashioned and sold basic wooden benches and chairs, as well as more elaborate novelty forms. Unfortunately, few examples now survive due to wood’s tendency to rot, especially when exposed to the elements. In the United States, a celebrated form of rustic timber furniture started to gain popularity in the later part of the 19th century. Named after the mountain range – now a national park – in upstate New York from which it originates, Adirondack furniture used native timbers, such as oak, cherry, butternut, birch, and walnut, and often included the bark. It echoed the local Great Camp
style of architecture in that it assimilated the
natural contours of the branches and roots
from which it was fashioned.
CAST-IRON GARDEN CHAIRS AND TABLE
Each of these chairs has a pierced scroll back and circular pierced seat on four scrolling legs. The table has a solid top and stands on three scrolling legs. There is a lady’s mash at the top of each
table leg. 1880
CAST-IRON GARDEN SEAT The back of this green-painted, cast-iron garden seat for two features a lily-of-the-valley design. The seat is a scrolling cast, and there is leaf decoration on the legs. It may have been made by the American A.J. Mott foundry. Late 19th century.
SWAN GARDEN BENCH This garden bench with its simple board seat and back is transformed by the cast-iron ends formed in the shape of swans. There tire traces of old white and orange paint and repainting in places.
KEW GARDENS
The first gardens at Kew Park were laid out by the Capel family during the late 17th century In 1772, George III inherited the Gardens from his mother and, by the end of the 18th century,
many of the monuments and buildings familiar to generations of visitors were in place. The development of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew coincided with a revival of interest in Classicism, itself a consequence of the vogue among the landed classes to go on the Grand Tour. Expeditions by botanists throughout Britain’s expanding Empire unearthed myriad newly discovered plants, which were brought back and exhibited at the Gardens under the “kind superintendence” of Sir Joseph Banks, whom George III had established there in 1773. Banks, who became President of the Royal Society in 1778, established the Gardens as the
British centre for economic botany His death in 1820 coincided with George Ill’s, and Kew
Gardens lost its direction for 20 years.
Between 1841 and 1885,
father and son William and Joseph Hooker held consecutive directorships of the Gardens and contrived a renaissance in its fortunes. Among the developments they oversaw were the construction of the iconic Palm House and the Temperate House – the largest surviving mid 19th-century
glass structure in the world. William Nesfield, a watercolourist turned landscaper, designed a new arboretum for the Gardens as well as the cedar-lined Broad Walk and the parterres around the Palm House. The Victorian obsession with botany bequeathed the world an educational and recreational landmark – Kew Gardens became a World Heritage Site in 2003.
The Palm House This was built between 1844 and 1848 by Richard Turner, with Decimus Burton as architectural consultant. Light but strong wrought-iron “ship’s beams” were used to create a vast 15.2m (50ft) open, pillarless span.

Antique 19th Century Scandinavian Furniture.

THE SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES
emerged from a period of economic strife in the 19th century eventually finding the confidence to channel the historical revivals of the period into a distinctive regional style.
DANISH TASTE
In Denmark it was the Late Empire, or Christian VIII style, first popularized by the architect Gustav Friedrich Hetsch ( 1788-1864), that held sway in the mid 19th century. It expressed
a rigid Classicism through applied ornament carved with urns, acanthus leaves, and similar motifs. Some of this decoration was not carved but instead was made from sawdust pressed into moulds, an economical innovation that illustrates how the profession embraced new technologies.
The improvement of the Danish economy in the 1830s was spurred on by a series of four national trade and industry exhibitions. The displays at these exhibitions were reviewed by a consortium of the cultural, scientific, and artistic elite put together by Hetsch himself. Under the
watchful eyes of these arbiters of taste, who included the physicist H.C. Orsted, the Danish furniture industry managed to avoid some of the creeping vulgarization that afflicted so many other European nations. Although there was a certain lowering of standards among the mass-market trade, the best practitioners maintained very high standards. Cabinet-makers in Copenhagen actually enjoyed joyed a boom that echoed that of 18th-century London, with master craftsmen beginning to combine workshops with grand exhibition spaces in which they could both display and sell their wares. C.B. Hansen, the
Court chair-maker, was among the first of these newly successful furniture-makers.
SWEDEN AND NORWAY
Swedish furniture in the mid 19th century was still dominated by the Gustavian style, which had emerged more than half a century earlier. Imitations and reproductions of the Rococo and Neoclassical forms produced during that time also remained extremely important. The very light, off-white stains and painted finishes that are hallmarks of Gustavian furniture were ideally suited to Swedish interiors, as maximizing available light was a boon in Scandinavian countries. The bois-clair look, a remnant of the Gustavian style, remainder firm favourite, at least for case furniture and chairs. Woods that could not be stained to achieve a light finish were often painted white or pale grey, or sometimes parcel gilt.
A version of the Danish style pioneered by Hetsch was adopted in Sweden for a time, but failed to survive the first half of the 19th century. Instead, the Swedish were quicker to embrace the Gothic-revival style that had been so successful in Britain. Hansen was one of the pioneers of the Swedish Gothic revival,
employing a much lighter touch than his British counterparts, to correspond to the pale Scandinavian palette.
Norway enjoyed a growing economy during the mid 19th century, and the laying of the first railways and a growing merchant shipping fleet helped to increase internal and external trade. Despite a growing nationalistic feeling, Norwegian furniture of the period was largely based on Swedish and British models. However, some of the vernacular furniture produced did carry a recognizably Norwegian aesthetic in the form of brightly painted folk art roses and other traditional details.
A SCANDINAVIAN AESTHETIC The Neoclassical, Gothic, and Rococo revivals dominated Scandinavian interiors as they did throughout Europe. Denmark and Sweden produced a great many salon suites in these revival styles, consisting of a sofa and four side chairs, sometimes also including a pair of armchairs. The popularity of these suites was such that they could be found in most fashionable middle-class homes.
Much of the furniture of this period was made from painted soft woods, such as pine or beech, and drew inspiration from French, Russian, and German designs. From about 1870, a
Biedermeier revival began, and lighter birch wood was used. Forms remained simple and veneers became thinner and plainer in design.
Towards the end of the 19th century, the Scandinavian furniture industry began to assert a distinct regional identity with the enthusiastic uptake of a starker, Modernist aesthetic. Lilta Hyttnas, the cottage inhabited by the great Swedish artist Carl Larrson from 1888, became the archetype for austere but homely interiors throughout Sweden. The textile and furniture designs of his wife Karin helped to introduce an abstract aesthetic to the wider Scandinavian consciousness.
This steel, two-door safe has a stepped top with two reeded finials and an overhanging cornice moulding with leaf-tip borders. The two cabinet doors have Neoclassical and foliate decoration and are flanked by circular pilasters raised on paw feet. Mid 19th century.
These armchairs are part of a suite of Danish painted furniture, which includes a settee and four side chairs. Each armchair has an upholstered rectangular backrest with laurel-leaf
cross-form splat, and downswept armrests raised on curved supports. The upholstered seat is raised on circular, tapered legs, which are decorated with leaf banding. 1880.
carving between rows of bead carving. The drop-in upholstered seats with a leaf-and-vine frieze and rosette corners, are raised on turned and fluted legs headed with fish-scale carving.
Late 19th ceolury.
SWEDISH CENTRE TABLE
This Gustavian-style painted table has a rectangular top above a bead and leaf-tip frieze with swags. Acanthus leaves adorn the tapering, fluted legs. Mid 19th century,
DANISH WORKTABLE
This Empire-revival walnut worktable has an oval top above a frieze drawer. Supported on two tapering legs, it is headed by gilt wings and has outswept feet. c_1870
SWEDISH ARMCHAIRS
Each one of this pair of Swedish Empire style., beech or fruitwood, painted open armchairs, has a rectangular, padded, and leaf-tip-bordered backrest, a spool turned
DANISH SAFE
DANISH ARMCHAIRS

Enamelled glass
The process of enamelling has been known since Roman times, and from the end of the 13th century was used to great effect by Islamic glassmakers to decorate mosque lamps. In Europe enamelling first appeared in Venice in the 15th century, and spread elsewhere during the 16th century. In Vienna in the early 19th century beakers were decorated with transparent enamels
in the Biedermeier style by such artists as Gottlob Samuel Mohr and Anton Kothgasser and in the later part of 19th century copies of earlier styles were made by manufacturers all over Europe, the most outstanding of which were Islamic- and Iznik-style wares, which were made in France, and Histortsmus wares, which were produced in Germany.Enamelling
, which can be used to decorate both colourless and coloured glass, was used extensively in Europe from the 16th century. It was employed most notably to decorate armorial wares, but it was also used to create bright and colourful decoration in naturalistic motifs; naive and charming designs of flowers and animals are highly characteristic. On many wares enamelled decoration was used in conjunction with gilding.
ITALY
The invention of cristallo glass c.14.50 by Angelo Barovier (4.1460) provided a perfectly clear ground that was ideally suited to enamelling in brilliant colours. Enamelling, a technique that the Venetians probably learned from Islamic glassmakers, was at its peak in Venice from the 15th to the mid-16th centuries. The process involved applying a thick paste of powdered glass and a colouring metallic oxide in an oil medium to the surface of the glass, which was then heated in a furnace, where the enamel and glass fused. Each colour required a different firing temperature, and the work could easily burn if overfired. Enamelling is a notoriously difficult technique, and most enamelling of this period is
restricted to the borders, with simple scale and dot patterns. On much more sophisticated wares, such as specially commissioned commemorative tazze (ornamental serving dishes), enamelling was often combined with gilding, and decoration included portraits, coats of arms, family and guild crests, and mythological figures. Although enamelling fell out of favour by the late 16th century, it was revived during the second half of the 18th century by Oswaldo Brussa, who, with his son Angelo, decorated clear-glass beakers, carafes, and bottles with birds, flowers, and biblical scenes in a charming and naive style.
GERMANY AND BOHEMIA
In the 16th century enamelling was developed as a popular form of decoration in the regions of Germany and Bohemia. From the mid-16th century German glass decorators, inspired by finely decorated wares from Venice, used brightly coloured enamels to decorate large, simple shapes made from coarse, robust soda glass. The technique was especially popular for decorating traditional drinking glasses or goblets, particularly the Humpen (simple, cylindrical drinking vessels, the foot rims of which are decorated with white enamelled dashes). Variations on the Humpen include the Reichsadlerhumpen (”Imperial Eagle Beaker”), which was designed to toast and show allegiance to the Holy Roman Emperor, and featured the double-headed Imperial eagle with outstretched wings from which hang shields showing the constituent parts of the Empire; the Hofkellereiglas (decorated with armorial decorations), Wilkommhumpen (”greeting glass”), usually of large proportions, and Kurfturstenhumpen (”Elector’s beaker”), decorated with depictions of the Holy Roman Emperor and the Seven Electors of the Empire.
Other German drinking vessels that were enamelled Include goblets and beakers such as the Passglas (a tall cylindrical beaker decorated with horizontal bands, which indicated the amount of beer to be consumed by a drinker before they passed the glass on to the next person) and the Stangenglas (a long narrow beaker on a pedestal base). These wares were enamelled in very bright colours with decoration such as dated armorial and political motifs, Lind designs commemorating guilds and trades.
In Bohemia in the 18th century enamelling was mostly used to decorate flasks, bottles, and tankards made of opaque-white Milchglas (”milk glass”). The white body imitated porcelain, and the decoration featured people, animals, and flowers painted in a naive folk style in bright polychrome enamels.
In the 17th century Johann Schaper (1621-70),
a Hausmaler (”home painter”) based in Nuremberg, developed an enamelling techniques which he used to decorate both glass and porcelain. Schwarzlot (black-lead) enamelling involved decorating glass vessels (mainly tumblers) with black or brown transparent enamel, and was fashionable from c.1650 to 1750. Designs were typically inspired by engravings and depicted battle scenes, landscapes, and mythological subjects.
In the 18th century the popularity of Schwarzlot decoration spread to Bohemia and Silesia. One of the most celebrated exponents of the technique at this time was Ignaz Preissler (1676-1741), a glass and porcelain painter, who used the technique to decorate glass tumblers and flasks with mythological scenes, townscapes, Laub- and Bandelwerk (decoration of interwoven leaves and strapwork), and chinoiserie.
BRITAIN AND SPAIN
Before 17.50 enamelling was relatively rare in Britain. Among the best-known early British enamellers were the Beilby family. In 1760 William Beilby (1740-1819) and his sister Mary Beilby ( 1749-97) moved from Bilston, in Staffordshire, to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in the north-east of England, where they enamelled wares between c.1762 and 1774. Their most celebrated wares are large pieces, Such as the “Royal Beilbys” – goblets featuring the Prince of Wales’s feathers and made from 1763 to commemorate the birth of the Prince of Wales (later George IV); their armorial goblets enamelled on the howl and commissioned by local families are also of note. Typical decoration includes simple borders of thinly applied white flowers, fruits, hops, and barley; more ambitious designs include Arcadian landscapes, ruins, and even sporting scenes.
Other British decorators who painted with enamels include-80) and Michael Edkins
,James Giles (1718
(173 1 34-18 11). Giles decorated glassware for the Falcon Glassworks (est. 1693) in London. Edkins, who worked
in Bristol, painted opaque white glass, both with chinoiseries and with charming, naive designs of insects, birds, and other naturalistic motifs.
In Spain enamelled glassware was produced most notably at La Granja de San Ildefonso near Segovia. Established in 1728 by the Catalan glassmaker Ventura Sit (d.1755), near the palace of La Granja, the factory employed French and German glassmakers, who brought with them a variety of techniques and styles that gave the glass an international character. Typical wares include glasses and tumblers, and although many were embellished with gilded decoration, enamelled floral designs, notably tulips and roses, were also popular.
Italy
• GLASS cristallo glass is most typical; some wares appear slightly cloudy due to Grizzling
• DECORATION many pieces feature naive folk art designs of flowers or biblical scenes; on some examples enamelling is used in conjunction with gilding
Germany and Bohemia
• GLASS Milchglas should be a slightly off-white colour
• COLOUR earlier, more collectable glass is often a smoky greyish-green colour; most later glass is a strong green
• DECORATION commemorative designs, rustic scenes, and flowers in bright colours arc typical
• CONDITION damage to enamelling can greatly reduce
the value; worn gilding is common but insignificant
• BEWARE be careful with .Schwarzlot glass that features transfer-printed decoration, as many reproductions were made in the 19th century
Britain and Spain
• GLASS glass is mostly clear, or sometimes blue or white
• DECORATION Britain: some wares by the Beilby family feature armorials; many pieces depict charming, naturalistic designs; Spain: floral designs, especially tulips and roses, arc highly characteristic; designs should be neat and well drawn; enamelling is often combined with gilded decoration
• COLLECTING Britain: “Royal Beilbys” and armorial goblets with coloured decoration are valuable and highly collectable
Styles of enamelled glass produced after 1800 are many and varied. In Germanic Europe (a region that included such cities as Prague, Vienna, Copenhagen, and Berlin) the period known as the Biedermeier period (c.1815–c.1848) was one of middle-class prosperity, and this ensured the continued popularity of such decorative arts as glassmaking. Enamelled wares from the early 19th century are typically decorated with topographical scenes, floral designs, and portraits in bright colours. Following the re-establishment of the German Empire in 1871 there was a revival of the production of traditional German styles of glass; this revival is known as “Historismus”. Exceptional enamelled wares were produced in France in the 19th century, notably elaborate Islamic designs and some delicately decorated opaline wares. In Britain enamelled decoration was mainly restricted to monochromatic transfer-printed patterns on opaque white grounds.
GERMANY AND BOHEMIA
During the Biedermeier period Samuel Mohn (1762-1815), a Hausmaler (”home painter”) in Dresden, pioneered the use of a thin, transparent enamel decoration, which he used to great effect on tumblers and beakers. His son Gottlob Samuel Mohn (1789-1825) learned the technique from his father and in c.1811 went to Vienna, where he
met Anton Kothgasser (1769-1851), a painter at the Royal porcelain factory. Both men used the technique to decorate simple, straight-sided beakers and,
from 1814, a type of beaker known as a Ranftbecher, with a waisted or tapered body and a thick cogwheel-cut base. Kothgasser’s enamelled decorations resembled romantic watercolours; his designs included fine landscapes,
cityscapes (particularly of Vienna), portraits, and allegorical and Neo-classical subjects. Mohn used silhouettes and allegorical subjects as decoration but is best known for his tumblers decorated with topographical motifs – palaces, cityscapes, and tourist views; his beakers typically have gilded borders. Other distinguished contemporary enamellers include Carl von Scheidt and Andreas Mattoni (1779-1864), 79-1864), who established a school at Karlsbad where Ludwig Moser (1833-1916) was a pupil.
Following the unification of Germany in 1871, there was a fashion for reproducing “historic” styles to create a sense of national identity; this trend (which also appeared in Italy in the mid-19th century) is known as “Historismus”. Glassware was just one of the media in which designs were reproduced in the “old German” style, characteristically with decorations of spurious crests, dates, and national insignia. There was a flood of traditional German drinking glasses made, including Humpen (simple, cylindrical beakers), Romer (drinking glasses with flared feet, wide cylindrical stems, and ovoid bowls), the Kuttrolf (a type of pouring flask), and other vessels made in imitation of 16th- and 17th-century originals, with false dates and inscriptions. These copies can usually be recognized by overelaborate decoration in bright, inappropriately coloured enamels, fictitious crests, crests of large towns rather than families, and heavy glass that is free from imperfections (early glass is frequently flawed). Wares, which are often of a very high quality and collectors’ items in their own right, may bear enamelled signatures identifying the manufacturer. The leading producers included the Rhenish Glasshouse (1886-92) in Ehrenfeld, Koln-Ehrenfeld, situated on the Rhine, near Cologne, and Meyrs Neffe of Bohemia (1841-1922) in Adolfov, known for producing copies of goblets with Hochschnitt (”high cut”) decoration during the 1890s. Hausmaler who worked on “Historismus” wares include Fritz Heckert, a glass enameller who established a glass-decorating works in Petersdorf, Bohemia, in 1866 and a glass factory in 1889. The company was active until c.1890 and specialized in the production of Humpen, enamelled with designs copied from traditional woodcuts and engravings. The strong Bohemian enamelling tradition was also continued late into the 19th century by such companies as Ludwig Moser & Sons (est. c.1857) in Karlsbad (now Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic).
FRANCE AND AUSTRIA
In the 19th century French enamellers gained international renown for their fine wares, receiving
commissions from all over the world, particularly
from Arab states, in the Near East. Much French
enamelling was executed on the finest opaline
glass. Some of the best examples arc Vases
decorated with animals, birds, and sprays of
wild flowers. Some of the most impressive,
although quite rare, French enamelled wares
pre produced by Philippe Joseph Brocard
(4.1896) and I.J. Imberton Inspired by 13th-
and l4th-century Islamic lamps, which were
elaborately decorated with arabesques, stylized
scrolls, and floral designs in thick, opaque
enamel, Brocard experimented with this style
from the I 860s. His designs included copies
of mosque lamps, vases, ewers, and dishes;
these pieces, decorated with thick enamelling,
jewelling, and gilding, won first prize at
the Paris Exhibition of 1878. Imberton also
decorated fine Islamic-style wares with stylized
motifs. In Austria the style was taken up by
the glass company of J. &’ L. Lobmeyr- (est. 1823) in Vienna, which designed a range of Islamic style glassware for the domestic and export market, and also won prizes for its Islamic-style wares at the Paris Exhibition of 1878.
BRITAINIn
Britain the firm of W.II.., B. Richardson (est. c. 1836) near Stourbridge, was famous lot- it, high quality wares and patented designs. It produced glass using many patented techniques. One was known as “vitrified colours”, the finest examples of which were shown at the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London. The commercial process involved transfer printing [)lack or coloured designs such as a pictorial scene onto the glasse
hebody
(which was i opaque:), and then firing the design. Sometimes the enamels were hand-painted onto the body, although this is not so common. The firm of Bacchus (est. c.18 16; later George Bacchus & Sons) in Birmingham also produced a series of wares in the 19th century, which were decorated with transfer-printed enamels, most of which feature Neo-classical scenes.

Art Deco Glass
After a decline at the end of the Art Nouveau period, art glass became popular once again during the inter-war years. France was the leader in design and innovation, with the prolific Rene Lalique being the foremost glassmaker in the Art Deco style. Functional pieces were very often turned to purely decorative purposes, and Lalique’s moulded, opalescent, or frosted glass,
ranging from vases to architectural panels, spawned a gre many imitators. In the USA the Steuben Glass Works produce fine engraved stemware. Moulded glass was usually max produced and sometimes hand-finished; makers also used such techniques as enamelling and engraving to embellish glass -will the fashionable stylized motifs of the era.
Lalique, Daum, and Marinot Glass
European industrial decorative-glass manufacturers of the Art Deco period, most of which operated in France or Bohemia, were primarily influenced by the work of Rene Lalique ( 1860-1945). Many chose to copy his style and techniques, making clear or opalescent glass vessels and statuary with a frosted finish. The wealth of output provides a wide range of choice for collectors, and many focus on only one category, or even on one colour or motif. The present-day market is similarly led by Lalique prices, and most glass by other manufacturers, found throughout Europe, North America, and beyond, rarely rises above decorative value.
RENE LALIQUE Glass
Lalique began glassmaking in 1910, having already established a successful career as the leading jeweller of the Art Nouveau period, and in 1921 took over a large glassworks at Wingen-sur-Moder in Alsace to produce his designs. He was a prolific designer, and made an enormous variety of items, ranging from , and tablewares to clocks, lighting, and architectural panels. Most of his work was machine-made to a high standard. Lalique relied on metal moulds for casting or mould-blowing glass, and many items, particularly panels and larger vessels, show evidence of “chill marks”, or ripples, on the surface. Mould seams were often left, or only partially polished off. Certain objects, including vases, were made by Lalique himself (rather than by the workshop) using the cire perdue (lost-wax) technique. Since the mould has to be broken in order to retrieve the glass, each cire perdue cast is unique, and such items are highly collectable.
The majority of Lalique wares, and virtually all architectural panels, lighting, and table glass, are clear with a frosted or partially frosted surface. Opalescent glass was also used. Some vases were produced in colours, including amber, electric blue, and black, and these command
premium prices. Lalique created various forms of lighting, often in inventive shapes or containing geometric or figural decoration. Clear or opalescent light bowls are generally more desirable than those of a Yellow colour. Lalique designed several hundred perfume bottles, the rarest and best of which are as valuable as some coloured vases. Other categories of collectable interest include the range of 27 automobile-hood ornaments (car mascots), made from 1925 to 1932, boxes, inkwells, ashtrays, and letter seals.
THE INFLUENCE OF LALIQUE GLASS
Marius-Ernest Sabino (1878-1961) produced a wide range of vases, statuary, and lighting from c.1923 until the closure of his glassworks in 1939. Much of his work clearl displays the influence of Lalique; however, few examples are as finely executed as Lalique wares, nor were Sabino’s designs as imaginative. The best examples are in deep, opalescent glass of milky blue. Most popular are the highly stylized figures of women, while coloured vases, mostly black or smoky topaz, have a limited following. Sabino also
produced car mascots, often copies of designs by Lalique. Reproductions of Sabino’s wares using the Original moulds have been made since the 1960x.
Edmond Etling &- Cie (active 1920x-1930x) commissioned moulded opalescent glass, comparable in standards of design and manufacture to Sabino. Figures of draped female nudes produced during the mid-1920s, often in a pale-bluish tint, are especially collectable, with values rivalling Sabino and lesser Lalique. Other typical subjects were animals and ships, and some vases were also produced.
Other French glassmakers in Lalique style include the firm of Verlys, which operated in France and the USA; Andre Hunebelle, who specialized in lighting and frosted vases of geometric design; and the firm of Genet & Michon, makers of innovative lighting, frosted architectural panels, and vases. A large variety of frosted glass, geometric-patterned
glass geometric-patte lampshades, and hanging lights is reproduced today and can be found at reasonable cost.
DAUM GLASS
The factory operated by the Daum family in Nancy from 1875 to the present day produced some of the best and most distinctive French Art Deco glass of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Daum Specialized in artistic Art Nouveau overlay and etched glass until the
1920s, but introduced new lines in the Art Deco style before 1930, mostly under the direction of Paul Daum. The two most characteristic types of Art Deco Daum glass are the mottled and the acid-etched lines.
Mottled glass was usually of amber colour, often with golden metallic inclusions, and was used for vases and some lamps (which are far more desirable than vessels), blown into heavy metal armatures. The typical wrought-iron metalwork may be signed “Edgar Brandt” or attributable to the firm of Louis Majorelle 1859-1926) in Nancy. Daum glass of this type is relatively low in value as pieces tend to be cumbersome and a little sombre.
Vases, bowls, and table-lamps in heavy, thick-walled, vividly coloured glass with deeply acid-etched decoration are the most collectable Art Deco Daum. Colours include green, amethyst, amber, turquoise, and grey; monumental vases in “electric” colours, particularly bright blue and vibrant yellow, are highly sought after. Matt and polished surfaces were sometimes combined. Value is directly in proportion to the depth and complexity of the etched decoration; vessels with shallow, sparse decoration tend to be of later origin and are relatively inexpensive. Pale colours and a smoky grey arc also indicative of late origin (possibly post-World War II). Table-lamps are usually in thick, clear glass with a frosted or grainy surface texture and vertically etched grooves forming a geometric, abstract pattern. Lampshades are bullet-shaped (the more popular) or mushroom-shaped. Any authentic Daum etched table-lamp is of considerable value, particularly if it is of large scale. A few- shades of similar style were also made, but are generally less popular than lamps.
MAURICE MARINOT GLASS
Maurice Marinot (1882-1960) was a painter and glass artist who worked largely independently from c.1911. This glass was not mass-produced and is rarely found on the market; however, it is easily identifiable and widely collected, particularly in Europe. Marinot created mostly functional pieces such as vases, jugs, and bowls, often of abstract, sculptural form, and experimented with decorative techniques such as trapping bubbles or metal foil within thick, heavy walls of glass. Between c.1915 and 1918 Marinot made enamelled glass, which is somewhat less collectable than his later work and consists mainly of pale-coloured or bubbly vases and decanters painted with Art Deco-style flora, fauna, or figures in bright polychrome enamel. Later, internally decorated pieces are often in the form of stoppered bottles (the stopper may be a glass sphere), free-blown in thick, clear glass decorated with bubbling, inclusions, and streaks of colour, and sometimes deeply etched with geometric or figural patterns.
Rene Lalique
• TYPES before 1930: clear glass with partially frosted finish is most common; after 1930: almost all frosted and clear; some pale opalescent and pale yellow/amber colour; designs remained in production after Lalique’s death, when a new crystal glass N as used
• ALTERATIONS authentic but altered pieces of Lalique include vases with ground necks, perfume bottles with “married” stoppers, and opaque vases with “plugged” bases; all designs are recorded in a catalogue raisonne
• FAKES mostly inferior and of poor quality with signatures added; beware of post-war Lalique with the pre-war signature added
Marius-Ernst Sabino
• TYPES opalescent glass using typical Art Deco motifs
• REPRODUCTIONS since the 1960s old moulds have been used to make certain items; the opalescence is more intense than on the originals and map appear “oily-
• COLLECTING large, stylized female figures are the most popular
Etling & Cie
• TYPES most pieces are in opalescent glass, comparable in standard to Sabino
• COLLECTING figures of draped female nudes produced during the mid-1920s 920s are especially collectable; values rival Sabino and lesser Lalique; reproductions in frosted glass were made in France in the 1970s
Marks
Opalescent glass is marked with the name, usually with “France” or “Paris” added
Daum
• TYPES most characteristic are mottled and acid-etched
• FAKES these exist as similar but ulterior pieces, including table-lamps, that appear to be acid-etched hut can be identified as moulded on close inspection
• COLLECTING monumental vases in “electric” colours
with deeply acid-etched decoration are preferred; metal armatures are often cracked and should be inspected
carefully;depth, quality,and complexity of decoration Lire vital for determining value – vessels with shallow, sparse decoration tend to be of later origin and have little value; pale colours and a smoky grey are indicative of later origin (possibly post-World War II)
Maurice Marinot
• TYPES handmade, small-scale items with heavy, thick-walled glass arc most typical; much of Marinot’s work is internally decorated or enamelled
• COLLECTING work is rare and consequently expensive
Marks
All pieces are engraved with the Marinot signature
Other French makers
ARGY-ROUSSEAU AND DECORCHEMONT
The style of the pate-de-verre (glass paste) specialists Gabriel Argy-Rousseau (1885-1953) and Francois-Emile Decorchemont (1880-1971) evolved from the Art Nouveau to the Art Deco during the 1920s. Argy-Rousseau produced vases decorated with stylized figures or geometric patterns in rich colours, together with table-lamps (the most valuable of all Art Deco pate-de-verre), plaques, and some translucent pate-de-cristal vessels. Popular Argy-Rousseau Vases were produced in large numbers, each one being hand-finished; motifs included Egyptian and mythological subjects. The output of Decorchemont, whose work is less collectable than that of Argy-Rousseau, is mainly in pate-de-cristal, often of bluish tone. Small vessels of Neo-classical form are typical. External decoration is subtle, and may be in the form of geometric engraving.
GOUPY AND HEILIGENSTEIN
Working from his Paris studio between 1918 and c.1936, Marcel Goupy (1886-1954) designed glass and ceramics sold mostly through the gallery of Georges Rouard in Paris. Goupy glass includes thin-walled vases, decanters, and goblets in clear or pale monochrome glass, painted with stylized flora, fauna, or figural decoration in semi-matt polychrome enamels. Auguste-Claude Heiligenstein (1891-1976) was an assistant to Goupy at Rouard from 1919 until 1926; he produced enamelled glass for several firms and independent commissions until the mid-1930s. Heiligenstein specialized in figural decoration, often featuring Neo-classical women in translucent enamels. Colours are naturalistic, often predominantly bluish and sometimes edged in gilt. Forms include vases, decanters, and pendants.
Other French Art Deco glass artists who used enamel decoration include Andre Delatte, who worked near Nancy in the 1920s and made mostly vases in opaque, bright colours. In his best pieces the decoration combines etching overlay with polychrome enamel painting. The firm of Muller Freres (est. 1895) in Luneville made speckled glass comparable to Daum c.1930, which may be fixed with metal armatures. The most valuable glass of this type was used for a series of lamps in the form of animals.
LESSER-KNOWN MAKERS
French Art Deco glass by small or lesser-known makers is widely available and varies greatly in quality. The unique, deeply acid-etched sculptural work of Aristide Colotte (1885-1959) in clear crystal ranks among the highest achievements in Art Deco decorative glass, but not widely collected. Similarly, the strikingly Modernists geometric glass desk items designed by Jean Luce (1895-1964) arc not greatly sought after, despite the practicality. Luce also designed glass for the ocean liners of the Compagnie Generale Transatlantique
(C.G.T.). Other Art Deco glass includes the
popular range of vases, lamps, and other wares
produced by Charles Schneider (1881-1953) from
c.1918 until the early 1930s. Most is of mottled.
bubbly glass mould-blown into heavily walled
vases and bowls. Vessels of this type, which may have applied feet or handles of contrasting colour, are common and of relatively little value. Schneider produced vases and a few table-lamps as “Lc Verre Francais”, typically in overlay glass etched with Art Deco decoration.
Argy-Rousseau and Decorchement
• WARES before c.1920: mostly small, Art Nouveau pieces, including jewellery and ashtrays; after c. 1920: larger items, including vases, in a more symmetrical style
• CONVERSIONS attention should be paid to large vases,
which may have been drilled for lamp attachments
• RESTORATION this may be visible on heavy, opaque pieces through transmitted light, and reduces value
• COLLECTING rich, deep colours and well-defined decoration are most desirable; heavier vases are popular
Goupy and Heiligenstein
• DECORATION polychrome enamelling
• COLLECTING Goupy: large-scale works and figural work are his most collectable pieces
Marks
Goupy: enamel or gilt script in the design or on underside of foot; Heiligenstein: most have an enamel or gilt signature, dates, and title of decoration
Lesser-known makers
• COLLECTING Luce: desk items arc popular with Art Deco collectors; Schneider: mould-blown vessels are common and of relatively little value; large pieces, geometric forms, lamps, and pieces with applied elements are the more valuable Schneider wares

Most American glass made during the inter-war years was in traditional style and of press-moulded manufacture, but inexpensive interpretations of French glass, particularly that of Rene Lalique (1860-1945), were popular during the early 1930x. American glass of this period is rarely found outside the USA, as it was not exported; a thriving network of American-glass collectors exists, but there is virtually no interest in this type of Art Deco glass elsewhere in the world.
STEUBEN GLASS
Steuben Glassworks (est. 1903) was founded in Corning, New York, by the Englishman Frederick Carder (1864-1963). Steuben is the most prestigious and highly regarded American glassmaker, partly owing to its elegant and distinctive work in the Art Deco style.
Before 1933 Carder designed much of Steuben’s ware himself; after that date most Steuben Art Deco glass was designed by John Monteith Gates (6.1905) or
Sidney Waugh (1904-63), who worked almost exclusively in clear crystal. Steuben glass is not Modernist or avant-garde; vase forms are typically restrained, often of Neo-classical or Chinese inspiration. Engraved decoration is impressive, comparable to that of contemporary glass made by the Swedish firm of Orrefors (est. 1898). Much of the engraving is figural, featuring slender forms with subtle, geometric stylization. During the late 1930s and 1940s Steuben also produced a range of heavy, cast, clear crystal animals, some in geometric Art Deco designs, for use as bookends and paperweights; these are highly collectable today. Decanters, often with air-trapped stoppers, are also common.
Stemware, bar items, and a few elegant vases designed for Steuben by the leading industrial designer Walter Dorwin Teague ( 1883-1960) in the early 1930s are considered among the most innovative American Art Deco glass. Teague’s slender, elegant Art Deco cocktail and wineglasses are comparable in value to the best Lalique pieces.
VERLYS AND CACIQUE-STYLE GLASS
The trademark “Verlys” derives from “Venetic d’Andelys”, a French glassworks (est. 1920) in Les Andelys, Lure, founded by the American Holophane Glass Co. However, from c.1933 until 1955 most decorative Verlys wares were made in the USA, and pieces are often found on the market there today. Verlys ware is growing in popularity in the USA and also has some market in Europe. Typical of the factory’s output arc press-moulded vases and bowls, mostly with symmetrical patterns evocative of Lalique, in deep-bluish Opalescent glass. Smoky-grey, blue, and pink are rare and generally less popular; even the best designs have values comparable only to those of the plainest Lalique. From 1926 the Consolidated Lamp & Glass Co. of
Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, produced an inexpensive range of mould-blown vases and some figural plates in the style of Lalique under the direction of Reuben Haley. Production continued on the same site – trading as the Phoenix Glassworks – until the 1940s, under Reuben’s son, Kenneth Haley.
“RUBA RHOMBIC” AND DEPRESSION GLASS Between 1928 and 1933 the Consolidated Lamp & Glass Co. produced a stylish line of vases and table glass called “Ruba Rhombic”. Examples are highly collectable, although the line was relatively inexpensive when first produced. Liqueur sets and small vases in smoky grey are most common. Collectors focus on vibrant or rare colours such as green, yellow, lavender, and black. It is estimated that fewer than 1,500 pieces exist today.
Ruba Rhombic is the finest of the so-called “Depression” glass that was produced by scores of regional firms, and consisted mostly of heavily moulded kitchen- or tableware in pale monochrome, sometimes in the Art Deco style. Depression glass is collectable in the USA but remains very affordable.
Steuben Glassworks
• FORMS Neo-classical or Chinese-style vases, clear crystal animals,decanters with air-trapped stoppers; Art Deco stemware, vases, and barware by Teague
• ORNAMENT engraved, stylized figures or fauna
• COLLECTING elegant Art Deco cocktail and wineglasses are most valuable
Verlys
• FORMS press-moulded vases and bowls, with Lalique style symmetrical patterns
• COLLECTING becoming increasingly popular; opalescent colours are more desirable than smoky grey, blue, or pink
Phoenix Glassworks
• STYLE some copies of, or attempts to emulate, Lalique are found, but they can be distinguished by their light weight, poor definition, poorly finished rims, sugary frosted texture, and use of matt, pastel staining, sometimes in two colours
• COLLECTING as yet of no significant value

Ruba Rhombic glass
• FORMS angular, heavily moulded vases and tableware, mostly= pale monochrome
• COLLECTING angular “Ruba Rhombic” pieces in vibrant or rare colours such as green, yellow, lavender, and black are most desirable