Posts Tagged ‘Sweden’

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

Antique Engraved Glass

Engraving, whereby a decorative pattern is finely cut onto the surface of the glass, dates back to Roman times. The very earliest types of engraving were diamond-point engraving, which involves scratching fine lines into the glass with a sharp instrument (usually a diamond stylus), and wheel engraving, where the design is cut into the glass by means of a rotating
wheel. Stipple engraving, a more sophisticated form of diamond point engraving, where patterns of tiny dots rather than lines at used to create a shaded design, was first used from c.1621 acid etching, which involves burning a design out of the top layer of glass with acid, evolved with the invention
hydrofluoric acid c.1770 and was widely used in Britain.
Although glass was engraved from Roman times, and examples of fine engraving exist on 15th–century Venetian glass, the widespread use of such techniques as diamond-point and stipple engraving dates mainly from the second half of the 16th century. These techniques were introduced to decorators in the Low Countries by itinerant Venetian glassworkers. Wheel engraving was first used in Germany in the late 16th century.
DIAMOND-POINT AND STIPPLE ENGRAVING Diarnond-point engraving, in which the design or decoration is scratched onto the surface of the glass by a sharp diamond stylus, is particularly suited to thin-walled glass too hard to withstand wheel engraving. It was the only engraving technique suitable to
be used on delicate cristallo glass. Diamond-point engraving was therefore quite common on 15th-century Venetian and later facon de Venice (”in the style of Venice”) glass. However, the technique did not reach its apogee until it was taken up in the Low Countries during the 17th century, where it was carried out by both amateur (those who decorated glass as a hobby) and professional glass decorators. Anna Roemers Visscher (1583-1651) was an amateur glass decorator in Amsterdam, where she engraved delicate designs of flowers, fruit, and insects, as well as lines of poetry in calligraphic script, on beakers and Romer (a type of drinking glass). Another distinguished amateur glass decorator, Willem Jacobsz van Heemskerk (1613-92), in Leiden, produced most notably free-flowing calligraphic designs on such wares as bulbous serving bottles and jugs. Among the best-known professional engravers was Willem Mooleyser (active 1685-97), from Rotterdam, who used diamond-point engraving on bowls, flasks, goblets, and Romer.
In stipple engraving, which is a development of diamond-point engraving, a stylus is very gently tapped on the glass to make a design built up of small dots; these dots create areas of light (dense areas of dots) and shade (sparse areas of dots) to create the delicate design. The detail may be so fine that the design will Only be seen clearly when the glass is held to the light. Common designs include portraits and allegorical Subjects. Examples of stipple-engraved glass are rare,
as the technique is slow, extremely difficult, and requires great skill and patience.
As with diamond-point engraving, the most notable designs were produced by glass decorators from the Low Countries. Visscher introduced the technique to The Netherlands c.1621, but perhaps the best-known exponent was Frans Greenwood (1680-1761), an amateur glass decorator in Dordrecht who employed the technique exclusively from c.1722. He incorporated floral and fruit motifs and also copied designs from contemporary mezzotints and paintings. One of his followers was David Wolff (1732-98),
), a painter who
produced his own designs and portraits. Some of Wolff’s pieces are signed and his style inspired other artists towards the end of the century; such pieces are commonly known as “Wolff” glass. Another follower of Greenwood was the painter and engraver Aert Schouman ( 1710-92). Greenwood, Wolff, and Schouman all mainly worked on glass thought to have been made in the factories around Newcastle-upon-Tyne in northern England, which made a soft glass that was better suited to the stippling technique than the more brittle soda glass.
WHEEL ENGRAVING
In wheel engraving, a mechanical wheel fed with an abrasive paste (typically a mix of oil and emery) is used
cut a design onto a glass surface. The technique, which has been used since Roman times, is best suited
thick-walled pieces, because the depth of the cut is an essential part of the design. The modern technique was probably developed between c.1590 and 1605, at the court of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph 11 in Prague, by the gem engraver Caspar Lehman 15-0-1622), who engraved plaques and beakers with portraits and allegorical subjects.
In Bohemia a new type of glass known as “lime” glass, in which chalk lime carbonate was added to the batch to give a strong, colourless crystal suitable for deep engraving, was developed c.1683. At about the same time water power was introduced to drive the wheels, and this also enabled deeper cutting. Especially notable is the work of Dominik Biemann (1800 1857), whose training at the Prague Academy of Drawing is reflected in his fine engraved portraits on beakers and medallions. Of particular note are the Baroque pokals lidded goblets) decorated with Hochschnitt (”high cut”) engraving by the Silesian Friedrich Winter (d.C. 17 12). One of Lehman’s pupils was Georg Schwanhardt the Elder 1601-70), who left Prague for Nuremberg where he established a workshop and founded a dynasty of skilled engravers, including his son Heinrich (1624l
The technique was further developed in the 19th century, as Bohemian craftsmen pioneered a process whereby glass was overlaid with a layer of glass in a different colour and then wheel engraved to show the design in the colour of the first laver. Two lavers of glass were standard, but sophisticated pieces were composed of up to four layers. Such pieces demanded great expertise, as each coloured layer cooled at a different rate, and with each additional colour the risk of cracking increased. Common decoration included forest and hunting scenes, rural views, and castles. However, most sought after are special commissions such as portraits of famous people, battle scenes, and important buildings. Highly skilled Bohemian craftsmen travelled across Europe, so many pieces of this type were produced in various countries.
Towards the end of the 19th century some fine wheel-engraved pieces with Hochschnitt and Tiefschnitt (incised or intaglio) decoration were designed by J. & L. Lobmeyr (est. 1823) in Vienna. The firm produced copies of 18th-century designs and worked in Classical and contemporary styles. Leading engravers who worked for Lobmeyr included Karl Pietsch ( 1826-83), Peter Eisert ( 1828-94), and Franz Ullmann (1846-1921 ).
Engraved glass was also produced in Sweden. In the 20th century some outstanding pieces were made at the Orrefors factory (est. 1898) in Orrefors, in the Sul Aland region. In 1916 Simon Gate ( 1883-1945) was brought in as a chief designer, and he was joined the following year by Edvard Hald (1883-1980). Gate’s designs typically feature elegant Neo-classical figures,
while Hald’s figures are more caricatured and are mostly shallow engraved. Between 1928 and 1941 Vicke Lindstrand ( 1904-83) also worked for Orrefors, producing stylish and elegant designs.
Diamond-point and stipple engraving
• CONDITION diamond-point engraving should be shallow, with ragged, slightly broken lines, minor damage will not greatly affect value of early pieces
• BEWARE copies were decorated by
enthusiastic
amateurs in the I 9th century; when dated there is no Confusion, but undated older glasses can be misleading
Marks
Diamond-point pieces may he signed on the foot or in the design
Wheel engraving
• TYPES OF GLASS 19th-century Bohemian coloured glass Was a popular base; this glass should feel heavy
• DECORATION late 18th-century pieces feature formal designs; heavy, ornate engraving is typical; high-quality pieces have elaborately cut, ornate feet

Easy chairs before 1840
As the Baroque movement swept through Europe during the late 17th century, the design of seat furniture became increasingly luxurious, elaborate, and more importantly comfortable. Caned and leather chairs, which until this time had sufficed, were largely abandoned in favour of richly upholstered easy chairs as stiff upright backs were discarded and were replaced by sloped and subsequently shaped backs. The number of types of chairs also increased enourmously.
ITALY AND FRANCE
It was in Italy, particularly in Venice, Florence, and Rome, during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, that the Baroque style found its clearest expression. The most elaborate open armchairs of this period are usually of either boxwood or giltwood. They are carved with scrolling acanthus, espagnolette masks, and even mythological figures emblematic of the four seasons. Some Venetian examples feature seahorses in deference to the city’s seafaring tradition. Such pieces were usually the work of trained sculptors who had turned their hand to furniture-making; the most celebrated of these was undoubtedly Andreas Brustolon (1662-1732).
In France, under the influence of Cardinal Mazarin, the court of Louis XIV (1643-1715) became increasingly hungry for foreign luxuries and fashions, especially those from Italy. In the mid-17th century French easy chairs became increasingly comfortable and elaborate, owing to their generous proportions, richly turned decoration, and lavish use of velvet upholstery from Genoa or Utrecht.
The Regence period (1715-23) saw significant developments in the design of seat furniture. Although the menuisiers (joiners) were slow to abandon the traditional Louis XIV fauteuil (armchair) form, they were increasingly lavish in their carving. Chairs were decorated with gadroons, shells, and rosettes, and even richly upholstered in velvet or lavish textiles made at the Savonnerie in Paris (est. 1604 in the Louvre for the production of textiles; from 1627 at the Savonnerie). The stretcher became more sinuous, and was abandoned by the 1720s. Further changes in form and design were
dictated by the fashion for wearing hooped dresses, introduced c.1720, which resulted in the arms of easy chairs being set back by a quarter of the length of the side-rail. The introduction of upholstery it    allowed the loose covering to be changed according to the season.
Under Louis XV (1715-74) the fashion
for placing chairs around the sides of the room was abandoned in favour of a more relaxed arrangement that encouraged intimate conversation and gave birth to the fauteuil en cabriolet, with its Rococo form and exuberant carving in the round. Louis XV seat furniture is usually made of either walnut or beech, the latter wood
always either gilded or painted; a
pegged construction was used, and pieces are very often stamped by the menuisier responsible, in accordance with the strict rules of the furniture-
makers’ guild (Corporation des Menuisiers-Ebenistes). During the 1730s numerous styles of informal easy chair emerged, all of them richly carved. The most luxurious was the bergere, which was popular throughout the 18th century and characterized by its deep seat, padded back and sides, and squab cushion. Widely copied throughout Europe, it was to prove inspirational to chair-makers during the Regency period (c.1790-1830) in Britain, and was also much copied in the late 19th and
20th centuries.
BRITAIN AND NORTH AMERICA
The earliest-recorded wing armchairs, known as bergere en confessionnal because the identity of the sitter was hidden by the side wings, are French examples from the early 1670s. Invariably of walnut, this form was rapidly adopted in Britain. The wing armchairs made during the late 17th and very early 18th centuries were usually of walnut or, in more provincial examples, of beech stained to simulate walnut. These armchairs are characterized by the exaggerated scroll of the arms, the high, slanted back flanked by high wings, and the stylized carving of scrolls and foliage on the legs and stretchers.
The most celebrated form of wing armchair was made from the early 18th century until c.1750. Examples are usually of walnut, and are
supported on cabriole legs, which, unlike their 17th-century prototypes, are rarely joined by stretchers. Wing armchairs made in Britain during the reigns of Queen Anne and George I are often carved with trailed husks and scallop shells on the top of the knees and stand on pad feet, although some later examples have hoof or claw-and-ball feet. The most refined wing armchairs of this period were upholstered in gros and petit point needlework, often with figures on the back (but never on the seat) within a flower-strewn border.
Wing armchairs continued to be made throughout the 18th century in mahogany, and were widely copied in walnut in the 19th and 20th centuries. North American early 18th-century wing chairs were generally of walnut or maple, with a high arched crest, and block and vase turned legs joined by a stretcher. During the 1720s short cabriole legs with “Spanish” feet, were used and front stretchers were eliminated. From the mid-18th century mahogany was used. Stretchers continued to be used in New England, while easy chairs made in Philadelphia generally did not have them. In 1760 the serpentine crest design was introduced, modifying the verticality, and it was used along with the rounded profile until the 1780s. Between 1780 and 1800 American chair-makers used George Hepplewhite’s design for a “Saddle Check Chair”, an easy chair with serpentine contoured wings, straight legs, and “H” stretchers, a chair design also associated with Thomas Chippendale (1718-79). There are regional differences in construction and upholstery. Maple was often used for the one-piece rear legs and stiles in New England chairs, stained to match the mahogany of the front legs.

A Library bergere or “Uxbridge” chair
This British armchair is of a style introduced in the early I8th century for use in the library. It has a cane-filled back and sides, and leather-covered cushions, the best examples have reeled or fluted front legs (early 19th century; ht 1.2ml3ft 1 lin; value 1)
Other types of late 18th-century easy chair were based on designs in The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book (1791-1802) by Thomas Sheraton (1751-1806) including “conversation” chairs, with deep upholstered seats and padded toprails on which the sitter, facing backward, could rest his or her arms. In Sheraton’s The Cabinet Dictionary (1803) there is a reference to a “curricle” chair, so-called after a tub-shaped carriage, which was popular in libraries at the time. About 1810 to 1820 bergere-type armchairs with deep, upholstered or leather seats and backs, and cane or upholstered sides, were also widely used in libraries.
SCANDINAVIA
Trade between England and Scandinavia was well established by  the mid-17th century, and some English furniture had been exported to Scandinavia by the end of the century. Craftsmen in these countries produced good copies of English furniture; the joiners (although not the cabinet-makers) were very conservative, with the result that early 18th-century styles continued to be produced until c.1800. Around this time, too, mahogany was introduced; before this, walnut was used for expensive pieces. More commonly employed, however, were native light-coloured woods such as birch, ash, and pine; these were left bare, stained, or painted in colours.
By the late 1730s French designs had become increasingly popular at the Swedish and Danish courts and also with the upper classes in these countries; the middle classes did not generally adopt the new fashions until the end of the century. French styles were particularly influential in Sweden, and from the Rococo period court architects were trained in Paris. One of the most influential Swedish designers of the period was Jean Eric Rehn (1717-93). Danish court architects learned their trade in Germany, but this situation changed after the reign of Louis XVI, when both countries adopted the French Neo-
classical style. In Sweden the cabinetmaker Georg Haupt (1741-84), who had trained in both Paris and London is well known for his work in the Louis XVI style. This style developed into the Neo-classical Gustavian style during the I 770S.

AMERICAN “CHIPPENDALE”
The carvers of the most elaborate American Rococo furniture were immigrants from England, Scotland, and Ireland, who had served their apprenticeship in London before going to North America. The first of them arrived in the 1740s, but the great wave of craftsmen tsmen was in the 1760s. Philadelphia was the city most hospitable to immigrants, and more Rococo furniture was produced there than in other colonies. The major cities in America developed distinctive furniture styles, due to the taste of the gentry, the mix of native born and immigrant craftsmen, and the availability of imported
furniture and English pattern books. It is known that there were copies of Chippendale’s Director in Philadelphia. The Library Company of Philadelphia acquired a copy between 1764 and 1769, and two cabinet-makers Thomas Affleck (1740-95) and Benjamin Randolph, owned copies. In America furniture was mostly made of solid pieces of primary wood, rather than veneers over a seconday wood carcase as in England.

RUSSIA
Throughout the 18th century Russian furniture was inspired by French and to a lesser degree English designs; by c.1815 German influence is also apparent. Generally the timbers used for Russian furniture were indigenous; during the early 18th century, when designs were dictated by early Georgian furniture from Britain, they included oak, beech, and walnut. By the 1720s Russian armchairs had tall curved backs with a vase splat and cabriole legs. By the mid-18th century, the taste for Rococo and Chinese ornament had spread to Russia due to the publication of such influential pattern-books as The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director (1754-62) by the English cabinet-maker Thomas Chippendale (1718-79). English-style chairs with pierced splats and sweeping cabriole legs with claw-and-ball feet, usually made in mahogany, were increasingly popular.
However, from the beginning of the 19th century the clearest influence on Russian furniture manufacture was that of France. Particularly favoured was the Empire style of the cabinet-maker Georges Jacob (1739-1814), who was based in Paris. About this time, light-coloured woods also became popular, anticipating the Biedermeier style in Germany and Scandinavia. From c.1815 chairs were executed in indigenous woods such as Karelian birch, maple, and poplar, decorated with restrained stringing.
HALL CHAIRS
Hall chairs (and also hall benches) were introduced in Britain from the late 17th century. They may have been inspired by similar chairs known as sgabelli, which were popular in the great Italian palaces during the 16th century. Hall chairs were designed to be placed in the entrance hall or passageways used by servants and tradesmen waiting to be called into one of the main rooms. Consequently such chairs were never upholstered, and generally they lacked arms; however, they were increasingly made of mahogany, with solid backs and dished or shaped scats. The designs were bold and simple and were frequently embellished with the painted crest or coat of arms of the family who commissioned them. In some cases they were carved with motifs intended to impress guests and to emphasize the social status of the owner. The importance given to hall chairs is suggested by the fact that there are six designs for such chairs in The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director by Thomas Chippendale, three in The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide (1788-94) by George Hepplewhite (d.1786), and two in The Cabinet Dictionary (1803) by Thomas Sheraton (1751-1806).

THE BIEDERMEIER STYLE
This decorative style was popular in Germany, Austria, and Scandinavia between c.1815 and c.1848. The name was invented by two German poets who wrote under the pseudonym Gottlieb Biedermeier, formed from a combination of bieder (meaning conventional or honest) and Meier, a common German surname. The solid, comfortable appearance of Biedermeier pieces was thought to mirror the unpretentious elegance of the German bourgeoisie. The simple, geometic designs, which eschewed ornate decoration, were inspired by French furniture of the Empire period. Function and comfort were of supreme importance to the Biedermeier craftsmen and to achieve this end they used coil-spring upholstery.

•    UPHOLSTERY gros and petit point arc very rare and greatly contribute to the value of a wing armchair
•    REGILDING well-executed regilding should not dramatically affect the value of an object; French Louis XV beechwood chairs were usually originally gilded or painted and traces are often found in the crevices
•    HALL CHAIRS these arc usually found in sets of four or more, although it is possible to find single chairs; they are often decorated on the back with a cartouche featuring the armorial of the family who commissioned them; they are generally very good value for money
•    COPIES AND FAKES Brustolon-style chairs were widely copied in the 19th century; Biedermeier chairs have been been widely faked in the 20th century, with many side chairs converted into armchairs – this should be obvious if the proportions seem wrong