Posts Tagged ‘scandinavian furniture’

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.

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

After World War I, furniture designers combined luxury and practicality in their products, and created both traditional types of furniture and innovative forms. In France, traditional Art Deco furniture was typified by elegant styles looking back to the 18th or 19th centuries, using inlay and exotic woods. After 1925 French makers started to incorporate the “new” materials
that were part of the Modernist aesthetic, such as chromium, aluminium, and tubular steel — as advocated by the innovative German Bauhaus, whose industrial designers created functional furniture for mass production. In the USA, designers were influenced by both traditional and Modern European Art Deco, using materials such as laminated wood and chromed metal.

In the early 20th century, Dutch, German, and
Scandinavian furniture designers were at the forefront of the Modern movement. Designing specifically for Machine production, they rejected ornament and experimented with the new materials of tubular steel, aluminium, chromium, and preformed plywood, aiming to create standardized, functional furniture accessible to all markets.
THE NETHERLANDS
Among the earliest furniture designs inspired by the new machine aesthetic ere those of Gerrit Rietveld 1888-1964). From c.1918 Rietveld was associated with the Dutch magazine De Stijl (Style), whose contributors, a group of avant-garde architects, painters, designers, and theorists, aimed
to create a new “universal” art based on lines, geometric shapes, primary colours, and black and white. Rietveld’s “Red-Blue” chair, designed in 1918, is one of the best-known expressions of De Stijl ideas. Its straightforward construction meant that it was highly suitable for mass production. Versions made before 1923 are stained, varnished, or limed, reflecting Rietveld’s traditional training in carpentry. Only after this date was the chair painted in red, blue, black, and yellow. From c.1918 Rietveld’s furniture designs were constructed from linear wooden elements; from the mid-1920s they featured flat Wooden planes. Rietveld produced his own furniture until 1924, when he sold his business to his assistant Gerard van der Groenekan. Rights to the designs were sold in 1971 to the Italian furniture company Cassina, which still reproduces them today.
GERMANY
Most of the well-known furniture designers in Germany in the inter-war period were associated with the Bauhaus. Founded in 1919 in Weimar by the architect Walter Gropius (1883– 1969), the Bauhaus was one of the first schools to train artists and craftsmen to design high-quality goods specifically for industrial production. It is particularly renowned for the functional, geometric style of its products and its experimentation with new Materials such as tubular steel and plywood.
The best-known furniture designs associated with the Bauhaus were those produced by the Hungarian-born architect Marcel Breuer (1902-81), head of the school’s carpentry workshop from 1925 to 1928. His earliest designs feature linear wooden components, similar in
style to Rietveld’s furniture. However, by c.1925, Breuer was designing chairs with tubular steel frames, and his “Wassily” chair (1925) was one of the first tubular steel pieces to be produced on a large scale. Designs including the “Wassily” chair and the tubular steel-framed, cantilevered “B32″ chair (1926) were manufactured by such firms as Standard-Mobel Lengyel & Co. in Berlin and Thonet in Vienna. In 1932 Breuer began to design aluminium furniture for the Wohnbedarf furnishings stores in Switzerland; since aluminium is weaker than steel, these designs are more complex in construction than his tubular steel pieces. In 1935 Breuer emigrated to Britain, where he met Jack Pritchard (b. 1899), owner of Isokon (1932-9), which produced furniture in the Modern style and promoted the use of plywood. For Isokon, Breuer designed the “Long Chair”, a sculptural plywood reclining chair that moulded to the position of the body, and lightweight tables and chairs created from single sheets of cut and moulded plywood.
The avant-garde architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969), artistic director of the Bauhaus from 1930 to 1933, designed cantilevered tubular steel furniture for mass production by the firm of Berliner Metallgewerbe
from 1927 to 1931. Many of his other designs, although functional in appearance, were in fact handmade for the luxury market. A notable example is his padded leather and chrome “Barcelona” chair and stool, designed for
the German pavilion at the 1929 International Exhibition in arcelona. With a curved X-frame inspired by Classical furniture, the chair was designed as a “throne” for King Alfonso XIII of Spain for the opening ceremony of the exhibition. Original Berliner Metallgewerbe models are exceptionally rare and valuable today, but since 1947-8 the chair has been mass-produced by the American firm of Knoll, and these reproductions are more accessible to collectors.
SCANDINAVIA
In the 1920s and 1930s, Scandinavia was less industrialized than the rest of Europe or the USA, and
its craft tradition was still highly evident in furniture and interior design. This tradition continued even with the advent of Modernism, Scandinavian designers preferring curving forms and wood to the angular shapes and tubular steel favoured by their German peers. This is well illustrated by the furniture designed by the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto (1898-1976), who from from 1929 experimented with plywood for such items as chairs and trolleys, and in 1933 patented a method of bending wood to make stacking stools. Like other Modernist furniture of the period, Aalto’s designs are simple in construction, with no surface decoration, although they may be painted in bright primary colours. His furniture was produced from 1930 to 1933 by the firm of Otto Korhonen in Turku and from 1935 by his own manufacturing company, Artek, in Helsinki. Aalto’s versatile furniture, especially his stacking stools, proved particularly popular in Britain, where it was imported and distributed by Finmar Ltd (est. 1934-5).

•    COLLECTING original 1920s and 1930s pieces are rarer and more valuable than recent versions; many designs were sold to large furniture companies from the 1940s and have been in continuous production since
Gerrit Rietveld
•    CONSTRUCTION linear elements were typical before the early 1920s; planar designs thereafter
•    COLOURS primary colours, plus black and white; early versions of “Red-Blue” chair are unpainted
Marcel Breuer
MATERIALS tubular steel, aluminium, or bent and
laminated plywood; leather arid cane for seats
•    CONSTRUCTION simple contours
construction; chairs and tables made after 1925 have runners rather than feet; Isokon side-chairs and tables are made from single sheets of cut plywood

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
•    MATERIALS tubular steel combined with padded leather upholstery, raffia, or glass
•    CONSTRUCTION Some chairs are cantilevered; the “Barcelona” chair and stool have a distinctive X-frame; careful hand-finishing is typical
•    COLLECTING on early, handmade “Barcelona” chairs the top rail is in bent chromed steel with lap joints and chrome-headed bolts; on later, mass-produced pieces (after 1947-8) the top rail is of cut and welded stainless steel
Alvar Aalto
•    MATERIALS woods, especially plywood, bent laminated (which may flake), and solid birch
Marks
Some Finnish furniture is marked “Aalto Mobley, Svensk Kvalitet Sprodurt”; most pieces have an applied metal label bearing a model number

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

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

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

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

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