Craftsmen benefited from this measure of protection and Dutch furniture in the Neoclassical style reached a high standard. To distinguish Dutch pieces from foreign imports, members of the Amsterdam guild of St Joseph had to mark each piece with the arms of the city and the initials 'J.G.' (Joseph Guild).
The Dutch woodworkers digested styles from abroad, blending them to produce one that was characteristically their own. Armchairs with rectangular backs followed Louis XVI types, but were made in mahogany and carved in the English manner. Carcase pieces such as commodes are mounted on heavy square tapered feet. The typical Dutch commode of the period is rectilinear and has a wooden top, around which runs a low gallery, veneered with alternating pieces of ebony and light coloured wood, set diagonally to produce a striped effect. Satinwood was extensively used in association with oriental lacquer, or with the excellent Dutch imitation of it.
A characteristically Dutch piece of the period was a pieces of non fitted furniture, a low cabinet or commode with a hinged top. When opened, the inside of the lid has shelves which are also hinged and can be made rigid. Set in these shelves is a pewter cistern for water. A pair of extension leaves, hinged to the ends, can be opened out sideways to form a working top and to reveal a pewter bowl in a cut-out space below. The function of this luxurious sink unit was to provide facilities for washing glasses in the drawing-room.
The bombe-based wardrobe continued for a time with fashionable modifications to the decoration but was ultimately replaced with a rectilinear form. The traditional kas, or cupboard, continued to be made, especially in farming areas, with decoration of wither flowers in a polychrome or Neoclassical subjects en grisaille on a pine structure. Pine was also used for oval and other shaped tea tables on tripod bases, again with painted decoration that occasionally reached a very high artistic level.
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