Antique 18th Century French and English Furniture
Rococo to Neo-Classic
IN 1754, the appraise antiques online year that saw the beilby glass technique appearance in England of Chippendale’s Directory a Frenchman, Cochin, wrote his Supplication to Goldsmiths, Bronze-Chasers and Wood-Carvers, in which he begs the antique jacobian dining room buffet carvers to realize that it is ruinously expensive to out good, straight timber into elaborate, sinuous shapes. His protest was Symptomatic: of the antique steeple clock time. The French were getting rather bored with the antique brass inlaid sofa table Rococo, just at the antique drop leaf table and chairs style identification time when it was at the william iii sideboard height of its popularity in Britain. Even there, Walpole was grumbling.
France
Transitional Period (1755-1770). During the antique bead trade latter years of Louis XV’s reign, there was a gradual shedding of Rococo ornament in favour of ‘Greek’, as it was called. All over Europe there was a renewed interest in classical architecture, stimulated by the antique jewelry denver excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum. At first it was ornament and ornament only that reflected the antique alabaster lamps change. Ormolu mounts took on severe classical forms, in place of the antique clock octagonal shaped 1931 C-scrolls of the antique venetian furniture racially, but the antique car shows florida cabriole leg remained in favour, and was just about the antique blue china flow last Rococo element to go. Cochin’s cri du Coeur went unheeded, so far as wasting timber on curving legs was concerned. But ten years after he had uttered it, carcase shapes, at any rate, had become rectilinear in place of the antique german swords bombe form, so that when Mme de Pompadour died in 1764, the golay leresche blue pocket watch owner transition to a more severe style was almost complete. When her successor, du Barry, furnished the antique spoon holders Chateau de Louveciennes in 1770, it was in the antiques lamb of manchester cabinet style we call Louis XVI, although Louis XV lived for another four years. It is an odd fact that the antique mustang cars styles we call by the imari bowl turquoise names of English monarchs usually outlast their name-sakes, whereas the antique maps with dogs kings of France tended to last longer than the 19th century savona pottery charger manner of decoration named after them.
Louis XVI (1770-1790). These dates are the officer campaign trunk french oak effective ones so far as ’style Louis XVI’ is concerned. In fact, Louis XVI succeeded his grandfather in 1774 and was executed in 1792. He was a good and kind man, middle-class rather than aristocratic in his outlook, with a genuine respect for fine craftsmanship, who
could have earned a decent living as a locksmith. Marie-Antoinette was a pleasure-loving beauty who delighted in beautiful things. Neither of them, unhappily, had the victorian antique furniture strength of character to save their thrones, or their heads, from the mother of pearl inlaid furniture excesses of the antique cast iron book end inevitable revolution but, at least while they lived, the antique lancashire spindle back chair arts and crafts continued to enjoy royal patronage, and the art deco clear glass furniture of this period must be acknowledged to be unsurpassed for perfection of proportion, purity of line, discretion in decoration, functional suitability and quality in execution.
Once it had emerged from the 1925 table and chairs value transitional phase, the antique wine glass barrels style may be said to be based on straight lines rather than curves, and the antique water ski atmosphere it engenders is one of formal grace as distinct from the girandoles designs frivolous elegance of the antique celtic rings preceding reign. Carcase-shapes become rectangular, legs vertical—usually round in section, and delicately tapering towards the 19th century gate leg table toe, the antique meat market scales stem fluted either straight down or spirally. The feet of such pieces as commodes are some-times of square section, but these, too, are tapered. Drawers are often edged with a plain brass moulding, and ormolu mounts are in the long case clock serpentine front form of acanthus leaves, laurel wreaths, human and animal heads, and other classical motifs. Marquetry becomes more restrained, tending to formal, all-over designs, such as ‘marqueterie a la reined’—tiny flowers within a trellis-work—used on pieces made for Marie-Antoinette and, of course, for others too. Parquetry was even more variant, employing small pieces of geometrically out veneers to build up a mosaic which has an uncannily three-dimensional effect.
In some ways, Louis XVI designs recall those of Louis XIV, in that they mark a return to architectural form and classical mannerisms, but the antique button collecting way in which they are employed is essentially different, with emphasis on lightness and grace, as opposed to heaviness and pomposity. Certain techniques of the west palm beach antique furniture earlier period were also revived, such as Boulle-work, which had been out of fashion during the antique hoof foot oak or mahogany writing table Rococo phase. Porcelain plaques from the antique reproduction table Royal Porcelain Factory at Sevres were inset into the antique typewriter price doors of cabinets and the antique tractor cockshutt friezes of tables.
Chairs, in particular, contrast sharply with those of Louis XV period. Gone are the william iii sideboard sinuous curves, and in their place we find pure geometry—back that are square, oval or chastely arched in the 18th c oak corner cupboard case of upholstered items, backs composed of deceptively simple-looking lyre-shapes for the brass hinges antique lighter type of chair. Arms, when present, have their supports set well forward, rising naturally above the antique ebay fruit jar leg, instead of sweeping backwards in a flourishing curve, as they were wont to do at mid-century. Chair- and settee-frames were almost invariably painted or gilded, but some were of solid mahogany. It is worth noting that chair-legs veneered with cross-banded kingwood, which one sometimes sees on furniture of excellent quality, indicate a nineteenth-century origin. This technique was employed on table-legs in the antique porcelain eighteenth Century, but not on chairs and settees.
On the walnut georgian bureau whole, the antique horrocks ibbotson rod Louis Seize period saw a reduction in the thomas chippendale chinese variety of types, which had been tending to multiply alarmingly with every requirement, logical and illogical, being met with a specialized article of furniture. However, most of the marcel goupy terracotta more popular items of the vintage french sterling beaker Louis Quinze period continued to be produced, with modifications in design and decoration to suit the how to find the value of antique book new mode, and some of them were, in form, more typical of the simmons antique furniture later reign. In particular, this is true of the antique staffordshire figurines chiffonier. This term often leads to some confusion. It corners from the colonial bed antique word chiffon—literally, a rag, but used colloquially to mean any small, female garment. A chiffonier (with two N’s) was a rag-picker, and the antique german beer mug feminine form, chiffonier, was that which was first applied to a piece of furniture used as a repository for women’s clothes. (Even today, the antique bird print women’s dress industry is referred to, idiomatically, as ‘the rag trade’, while chiffon has come to mean a particular kind of flimsy textile.) The spelling was modified, both in Britain and France, to chiffonier, but came to mean rather different things. In England, after 1800, it was a small sideboard, with one drawer and a cupboard below, and a shelf fitted above. In France, in the antique anchor lanten late eighteenth Century, it was a tall, narrow chest of drawers, rather like a tallboy but constructed in one piece, not two. The nearest English equivalent is the antique deere john so-called ‘Wellington’ chest of the antique wine glasses nineteenth Century. The number of drawers in a chiffonier varies from six to eight. Seven was a popular average, and the show pictures of georgean antique furniture in australia seven-drawer chiffonier is often called a seminar, as it has one for every day of the antique folding tables week.
Bedside-tables were among the antique music box christmas things on which much care was lavished. They are sometimes known by the antique style engagment ring charming description ‘en caps. ‘Just in case’, they were fitted out, not only as ‘necessary cabinets’, but as supper-tables. All sorts of emergencies might arise in the safes antique mosler middle of the antique bed rail extenders night, and Paris being then, as now, Paris, no doubt they often did. Frenchmen believed in haying just about everything needed for their physical well-being close-to-hand, not omitting a bite to eat. These days, people go to bed with their ulcers, and keep a glass of milk on the antique ebay gas lighting shades bedside table. Just in case.
The desk and Bonheur-du-jour continued as great favourites, the copeland parian date code cylinder-top being developed late in the nine foot queen anne sideboard 102 feet wide Louis XV reign and becoming a popular feature in that of Louis XVI. The best-known example is that begun by Oban and finished by his pupil, Prisoner .
Prisoner seems to have been a singularly fortunate man. He succeeded to his late master’s business, became cabinet-maker to the gilt birmingham coin old king in his place, and married the antique chevron bead Widow Oban. Unlike so many servants of the painted flower palais royal mantle clock royal family, he survived the antique deco vanity table Revolution and died a rich man. Certainly, he was a wonderful craftsman who deserved to succeed.
Franco-German
Indeed, he is regarded by some experts as the antique weight scales greatest of the edwardian sofas eighteenth-century cabinet-makers of France, with David Rontgen a close second. Both of them were German by birth, and perhaps for patriotic reasons, some shrewd Frenchmen give pride of place to cabinet-makers with French names, such as Dubois, Migeon, Blanchard, Meunier, Dupin, Brizard, Tilliard, Sene . . . The list could be extended definitely, as masterpieces signed by ail these and many more survive. The fact remains that several of the 1890 pedestal desk 6 foot really great men—acknowledged geniuses in their own day—among the antique pendant Paris cabinet-makers were German by birth, and the antique napoleonic war chest high peak of ‘French’ furniture owes much to their skill and ingenuity. Oeben, Riesener and Rontgen were appointed cabinet-makers to the antique cupie dolls royal family, and among their fellow countrymen were Weisweiler and Canabas. There were many others who immigrated to France and made their homes there, investing the antique jules jurgensen pocket watch natural grabs of the porcelain artist george speight French product with the antique boats america constructive skill of German ingenuity. Such pieces as toilet-tables, writing-tables, and music-stands with cleverly concealed drawers, adjustable shelves, folding mirrors and other complicated mechanical devices were very often features of this Franco-German work, one Peter Kin zing being the antique powder flasks inventor of many tricks pieces.
In the antique dish japanese last chapter, I mentioned the late art nouveau chair insect importance of the bidjar rug German cabinet-makers, and it may seem I am excessively anxious to stress it. In a way, I am, not because I am more pro-German than pro-French, but because credit should be given where it is due, and it does seem to me that, in this context, the antique tete on tete chair ‘Frankness’ of French furniture is sometimes a little exaggerated. David Rontgen was the gold charm, spherical with tassels son of a famous German cabinet-maker, Abraham Rontgen, whose ivory-raid furniture was highly prized by the bacchus majolica grape mask German nobility. David Rontgen, while he was cabinet-maker to the antique victorian high chairs cane seat Queen of France, from 1780 until the serpentine leg tables Revolution, was also a member of the clifford the big red dog antique Paris guild. In his Paris establishment he kept large stocks of furniture which had actually been manufactured at Neuwied, near Coblenz. From this stock he supplied ail corners, including the karpen furniture company Empress of Russia. When we speak of ‘Louis XVI’ furniture, we are really talking about a cosmopolite tan, pan-European style, centred on Paris but having international ramifications both in regard to its manufacture and its outlet.
Britain
Britain was perhaps more inclined to go its own way than were the antique ball gowns other European countries, but influences passed to and fro across the antique cars ford Channel. Rontgen himself, before surrendering completely to the antique television set Neo-Classic style, imitated Chippendale’s Rococo manner in Germany—a style which the antique truck show English had themselves picked up from French Originals, devised largely by an Italian! The late eighteenth Century is often made out to be a relatively easy period to understand in terms of national differences, but it will be appreciated, from the steel antique clocks foregoing, that the antique dining room table and chairs truth is rather more complex than superficial appearances might suggest.
The version of the antique single beds Rococo evolved by Chippendale and which served as a model for Rontgen, was described in the antique decorative furniture hardware last chapter, together with its curious cousins, ‘Chippendale Gothic’ and ‘Chinese Chippendale’. About 1760, there was a lessening of interest in these more exotic styles, due partly to a general preference for something plainer, and partly to that same admiration for classical design which was inspiring continental craftsmen. This first expressed itself in a reduction of scrolled shapes. Though the antique demitasse cabriole leg was certainly not abandoned, it was replaced, to a very large extent, by a straight, square leg, often relieved only by a chamfer on the hand held antique mirrors inside corner. Chair-legs, in particular, were made in this way, the antique ceramic insulators backs of dining chairs being simplified versions of the antique marbletop table elaborately fretted Rococo types. A comfortable arm-chair of the antique canadian compass road show period was the antique cabinet hoosier selling shop ‘Gainsborough’ or ‘Raeburn’, with padded back, open arms and low seat on square legs.
Sideboards—which, in the faience candlestick portugal carval Director, are simply side-tables with no drawers or cupboards—also have these severe, square legs, with a small bracket, curved and purely ornamental, breaking the gate leg library table right-angle where the antique comics leg joins the meissen pastoral scenes frieze.
Furniture of this transitional period, which has discarded the authentic antique tiffany lamps flourishes of the thomas chippendale pedestal tables Rococo and has not yet adopted the dutch antique tankards mannerisms of the antique cameo necklaces Neo-Classic to any marked extent, makes up a very large class of English work that is of the japanese bronze incense burner greatest interest to the old fashioned black chest with brass corners modest collector. I call it, for the renaissance and kidney shaped desk want of a better name, ‘English Chippendale’—but I must hasten to add that this is not an official designation that you will find elsewhere. I find it a convenient term—in my own mind, rather than in conversation—for the antique brass ceiling fixture light plainer pieces made in the antique bedside cabinets third quarter of the antique center hanover yesteryear eighteenth Century, of which sufficient survive, in varying grades, for them to be available to anyone who can afford to buy anything at all, old or new, worth calling furniture.
For the antique pizzelle irons man with some money to spend, there is the antique chair fiddleback first-class, London-made piece; for those less well-off, the arabesques carpet work of the leonards antique furniture provincial makers, not quite so refined, but still achieving a high standard; for the antique toy shops really hard-up, who would otherwise be mortgaging their earnings for the abrahm rontgen;tripod-table next few years on gimcrack junk bought on the round bottom antique chair hire-purchase System, there is the enclosed stickley bookcase category called ‘country’ or ‘farmhouse’ Chippendale, of honest oak, ash, beech and elm which quaintly emulates the antique shop lamp sophisticated city styles.
Of the chinese pictorial rugs leading London makers, many are known by name, but there is little furniture that can be definitely attributed to this or that maker .Nor do we have much information about them as men. Manwaring, Inca, Mayhew, and Chippendale himself have already been mentioned. Haig, his partner, remains a shadowy figure. William Vile and John Cobb emerge a little more distinctly. They were more highly thought of, in their own day, than was Thomas Chippendale himself, and were appointed cabinet-makers to George III. For this reason, some of their work is fully documented, and their style is sometimes recognizable—especially their magnificent, architecturally conceived bookcases. Of George Hepplewhite we shall speak presently.
Most of these had their headquarters in the victorian pot cupboard vicinity of St Martin’s Lane. I was once shown the desks kidney baltimore premises which Chippendale occupied. Allowing for structural alterations, they didn’t seem very big, and it is quite possible that this address was for prestige purposes as much as anything else. He may have retained other workshops elsewhere—perhaps in Long Acre, which was his address before the antique pedestal tables move to St Martin’s Lane. Doubtless much work of a basic sort, and some of a highly specialized kind, would have been farmed out to lesser lights.
The most favoured wood, prior to the used kneehole dressing table introduction of satin-wood, was mahogany. It was used both in the antique dresser wooden knob and pegs solid and in the sadler teapots antique form of finely figured veneers. Veneering was usually executed on a pine foundation, with oak for drawer-sides and bottoms. Most jointing was of the antique furniture bergen dove-tail or mortise-and-tendon varieties. Chair-frames were jointed up with dowel-joints by French craftsmen at this period, the antique dresser repair set sliver rail usually being joined to the antique hen candy dishes with lid leg with three dowel-pins. This practice began to be widely practised in England in the 1925 tea service mouse signature early nineteenth century, and is still extensively used.
French polishing, so-called, was another technique not yet developed. In the silver toilet box eighteenth century, various recipes for polishing were employed. Many people are shocked when told that Chippendale advocated the metrolina antique show use of varnish to fill the rococo four poster beds grain. This was then rubbed down with powdered pumice or brick-dust. The wood was fed with a little linseed oil, and a fine finish obtained with beeswax, strenuously applied.
Pieces characteristic of this plain, English type of furniture were chests-of-drawers of varying sizes—three feet six inches is the antique auction automobile standard. Anything smaller is rarer, more attractive to look at and easier to utilize in small modem houses, and therefore commands a higher price. A pleasing feature on some of mid-eighteenth-century vintage is a variant of the antique butter churns bracket foot, called an ‘ogee’ foot .This provides an S-shaped curve in the antique ironstone china solid. If you like throwing Latin tags around, you can call it cyma recta. It was suited only to carcases built on a right-angled plan, and was discarded in favour of a splayed.
A. Chippendale chair on Square legs with ladder-back, circa 1760.
B. Hepplewhite chair showing Adam’s influence: on square-tapered
legs with shield-shaped back, employing Prince of Wales’ feathers
as a motif, circa 1780.
C. Sheraton Chair on turned, tapered legs, with rounded seat, the japanning furniture 19th century back
of rectangular outline. This also employs the antique coffins Prince of Wales’
feathers in lighter form. Circa 1795.
D. Hepplewhite sideboard incorporating drawers and cupboards dis-
guised as drawers, with shaped front and square-tapered legs
ending in spade feet, circa 1785.
E. Detail of chest-of-drawers with bracket foot of ‘ogee’ form, circa
1770 to 1790.
F. Detail of bow-fronted chest-of-drawers with splayed foot, circa
1770 to 1820.