One of the really fascinating aspects of the study of the history of English handmade furniture is the process of rapid evolution that took place. A couple of decades, and sometimes even less, were often enough to see the dramatic winds of change sweeping through , blowing away yesterday's cherished tenets and altering the course of popular taste.
The short period between around 1725 and 1750, spanning the major part of George II's reign (1727 - 1760) is a great example of such a rapid evolution.
These years represent a milestone in the nomenclature of English furniture periods. Previously, phases of furniture design gained their description from reigning monarchs - from the Tudors, through the Stuarts, and ending with Queen Anne. After the latter reign, the picture changes.
We often use terms such as 'mid' or 'late' Georgian, or resort to more specific descriptions, such as George II, III or Regency when referring to pieces of the 18th and early 19th century periods respectively, however, the main movements of England's golden age of furniture come to life for us in the names of cabinet-making commoners, rather than King's or Queen's.
This age was preceded by a short period, the second quarter of the 18th century, which had a profound effect on what was to follow. The most important factor in this transition was the establishment of mahogany as the English cabinet-maker's principal material. Secondly, the period was notable for the contribution of architects such as William Kent, who was probably the first of his profession to make a practice of designing the movable, as well as fixed, furniture of his rooms as part of unified schemes.
American furniture historians have occasionally claimed that the colonies had the distinction of leading the world in the use of mahogany for furniture making. The justification for this is the existence of inventories and other records in the New York and Philadelphia areas referring to the use of the wood between 1690 and 1708, some long time before the 1720s, a period which is generally accepted as the beginning of England's age of mahogany.
Apart, however, from the fact that Elizabeth I is reputed to have been mildly interested in the wood when Sir Walter Raleigh imported some mahogany from the West Indies and used it to repair his ships , it is known that the pioneering use of mahogany in fitted and non fitted furniture occurred in England in the latter half of the 17th century. In fact, Spain, with its strong bonds in the Caribbean area, the home of mahogany, had recourse to the wood much earlier. Records of such occasions were few and fat between, and it was the relaxation of import duties on Jamaican supplies in the third decade of the 18th century that opened the way to the general use of mahogany in Britain. Further lifting of tariff restrictions in 1733 gave the 'new' wood an enormous boost and led to its competing with walnut on a grand scale.
Monday 30 April 2012
Friday 27 April 2012
The Age Of Rococo - Germany, Austria and Switzerland
Baroque palaces built in the late 17th and early 18th centuries in the capitals of Germanic states in imitation of Versailles, helped to preserve that style from the unsettling effects of Rococo. However, by around 1750, thanks largely to the circulation of French, Italian and English designs printed in Nurenburg and Augsburg, Rococo curlicues were attaching themselves to ponderous Baroque forms. Shortly afterwards, carcase shapes were beginning to assume a livelier and more curvaceous appearance. As is often the way with converts, German designers, once having embraced the new faith, carried it to unprecedented extremes.
The cousins Spindler (Johann Friedrich (1726 - 1799) and Heinrich Wilhelm (1738 - 1799), were the sons of two brothers noted for marquetry work at Bayreuth. The younger generation both went to work for Frederick the Great at Sans Souci, producing some magnificent pieces, notably commodes of bombe form with very deep apron-fronts, lavishly decorated with marquetry and mounted in gilt bronze by the Swiss-born Johann Melchior Kambli (1718 - 1773). Kambli, a cabinet-maker in his own right, was inspired by the Louis XV Rococo style but was one of those responsible for creating the distinctive Potsdam style.
At Wurzburg, capital of Mainz, the episcopal residence began as a Baroque palace but was eventually given a Rococo interior of great brilliance, for which Ferdinand Hundt (1704 - 1758) produced some exceptionally well-carved handmade furniture - particularly firescreens and gueridons. Sadly, much of his authenticated work was destroyed in World War II, but enough survives to demonstrate the great delicacy achieved by the finest German craftsmen.
The trend to lightness was encouraged by the work of Francois Cuvillies (1695 - 1768), a Fleming of diminutive size whose first appointment was as Court Dwarf to the Elector Max Emanuel of Bavaria. He studied in Paris and then became Court Architect at Munich, designing furniture fit for a fairy palace, which is what his 'Mirror Room' at Nymphenburg resembles.
A number of other pieces of palace fitted and non fitted furniture can be identified with the men who made them. Unfortunately, furniture made for more modest homes is largely anonymous, for the German guilds did not insist on the signing of pieces and in fact actively discouraged the practice. Thus the handsome oak cupboards of Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle), carved in the Rococo style with a masterly and delicate touch that rivals the best carved armoires of Liege, usually defy the attempts of scholars to link them with particular makers of whom little is known but their names.
J.P. Schotte's name is noted as a maker to the Court at Dresden. He specialized in chairs in the English style in the 1730s. Both French and English fashions were followed in Saxony, French taste becoming dominant by around 1740.
Another important cabinet-maker was Abraham Roentgen (1711 - 1793), born at Muhlheim, he was a Protestant belonging to the strict Moravian sect. He went to England at the age of twenty, and worked their as a cabinet-maker for around seven years before returning to Germany. He then set sail for Carolina as a missionary, but his ship foundered off the Irish coast. He found employment for a time in Galway, then went back to his home country and set up business in Neuwied, near Coblenz, where there was a Moravian colony, in 1750. His workshops were noted for fine marquetry work which is reminiscent of the architectural subjects of Renaissance craftsmen in South Germany.
Roentgen, however, had to some extent been influenced by his years in England, and English craftsmanship commanded sufficient respects in Germany for him to describe himself as an Englischer Kabinettmacher.
Some of his work in the Rococo style may perhaps justify this, in so far as it is more restrained that most German work of the period.
The business he built up in Neuwied was taken over by his son David, who was to become a major figure internationally in the creation of fine furniture during the Neoclassical period.
The cousins Spindler (Johann Friedrich (1726 - 1799) and Heinrich Wilhelm (1738 - 1799), were the sons of two brothers noted for marquetry work at Bayreuth. The younger generation both went to work for Frederick the Great at Sans Souci, producing some magnificent pieces, notably commodes of bombe form with very deep apron-fronts, lavishly decorated with marquetry and mounted in gilt bronze by the Swiss-born Johann Melchior Kambli (1718 - 1773). Kambli, a cabinet-maker in his own right, was inspired by the Louis XV Rococo style but was one of those responsible for creating the distinctive Potsdam style.
At Wurzburg, capital of Mainz, the episcopal residence began as a Baroque palace but was eventually given a Rococo interior of great brilliance, for which Ferdinand Hundt (1704 - 1758) produced some exceptionally well-carved handmade furniture - particularly firescreens and gueridons. Sadly, much of his authenticated work was destroyed in World War II, but enough survives to demonstrate the great delicacy achieved by the finest German craftsmen.
The trend to lightness was encouraged by the work of Francois Cuvillies (1695 - 1768), a Fleming of diminutive size whose first appointment was as Court Dwarf to the Elector Max Emanuel of Bavaria. He studied in Paris and then became Court Architect at Munich, designing furniture fit for a fairy palace, which is what his 'Mirror Room' at Nymphenburg resembles.
A number of other pieces of palace fitted and non fitted furniture can be identified with the men who made them. Unfortunately, furniture made for more modest homes is largely anonymous, for the German guilds did not insist on the signing of pieces and in fact actively discouraged the practice. Thus the handsome oak cupboards of Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle), carved in the Rococo style with a masterly and delicate touch that rivals the best carved armoires of Liege, usually defy the attempts of scholars to link them with particular makers of whom little is known but their names.
J.P. Schotte's name is noted as a maker to the Court at Dresden. He specialized in chairs in the English style in the 1730s. Both French and English fashions were followed in Saxony, French taste becoming dominant by around 1740.
Another important cabinet-maker was Abraham Roentgen (1711 - 1793), born at Muhlheim, he was a Protestant belonging to the strict Moravian sect. He went to England at the age of twenty, and worked their as a cabinet-maker for around seven years before returning to Germany. He then set sail for Carolina as a missionary, but his ship foundered off the Irish coast. He found employment for a time in Galway, then went back to his home country and set up business in Neuwied, near Coblenz, where there was a Moravian colony, in 1750. His workshops were noted for fine marquetry work which is reminiscent of the architectural subjects of Renaissance craftsmen in South Germany.
Roentgen, however, had to some extent been influenced by his years in England, and English craftsmanship commanded sufficient respects in Germany for him to describe himself as an Englischer Kabinettmacher.
Some of his work in the Rococo style may perhaps justify this, in so far as it is more restrained that most German work of the period.
The business he built up in Neuwied was taken over by his son David, who was to become a major figure internationally in the creation of fine furniture during the Neoclassical period.
Wednesday 25 April 2012
The Age Of Rococo - Sweden
Some Anglo-Dutch influence is seen in Swedish handmade furniture, particularly chairs, made in the first half of the 18th century but a Franco-German flavour gradually gained in strength. From the confluence a national style emerged, best seen in cupboards with panelled doors on bombe bases, which were the test pieces that had to be made by all cabinet-makers aspiring to membership of the Stockholm guild.
Without this passport to freedom, the craftsman could not become self-employed unless he chose to isolate himself well away from the centres where the guilds operated.
The cupboards varied in details of design over the years according to the current fashions. In the Rococo period, the base had a vase-shaped projection at the centre, forming a 'break-front'. The panels of the doors were framed with carved and gilded tendrils, the imposing cornice had two opposed curves of the kind called 'swan neck', and between them there is often an elaborate finial in the form of an asymmetrical ornament, also carved and gilded.
A formative influence on the Swedish Rococo style was Christian Precht (1706 - 1779), the son of a German cabinet-maker from Bremen. By trade he was a silversmith but he also designed fitted and non fitted furniture.
Another influential designer, Carl Harleman (1700 - 1753), studied in Paris and became architect to the Swedish court. A master of the Rococo style, his console tables employed opposing C-scrolls, not only to create surface decoration (such was the carving to the panelled door) but also to form organic shapes.
These curving shapes were immediately liked in Sweden, the bombe commode reaching the height of its popularity after 1760 (by which time it was already outmoded in France). The Swedish version was always three drawers deep like the French Regence prototype from the early years of the century.
A peculiarity of the commode was a channel cut into the wood on the rails between the drawers, which was usually guilded or sometimes lined with sheet brass. The gilt metal handles were delicate, and the walnut veneers were carefully matched.
Swedish commodes are often mistakenly thought to be Dutch, but the swell of the curve on Swedish examples is usually higher, and the top is usually of marble, not wood.
Without this passport to freedom, the craftsman could not become self-employed unless he chose to isolate himself well away from the centres where the guilds operated.
The cupboards varied in details of design over the years according to the current fashions. In the Rococo period, the base had a vase-shaped projection at the centre, forming a 'break-front'. The panels of the doors were framed with carved and gilded tendrils, the imposing cornice had two opposed curves of the kind called 'swan neck', and between them there is often an elaborate finial in the form of an asymmetrical ornament, also carved and gilded.
A formative influence on the Swedish Rococo style was Christian Precht (1706 - 1779), the son of a German cabinet-maker from Bremen. By trade he was a silversmith but he also designed fitted and non fitted furniture.
Another influential designer, Carl Harleman (1700 - 1753), studied in Paris and became architect to the Swedish court. A master of the Rococo style, his console tables employed opposing C-scrolls, not only to create surface decoration (such was the carving to the panelled door) but also to form organic shapes.
These curving shapes were immediately liked in Sweden, the bombe commode reaching the height of its popularity after 1760 (by which time it was already outmoded in France). The Swedish version was always three drawers deep like the French Regence prototype from the early years of the century.
A peculiarity of the commode was a channel cut into the wood on the rails between the drawers, which was usually guilded or sometimes lined with sheet brass. The gilt metal handles were delicate, and the walnut veneers were carefully matched.
Swedish commodes are often mistakenly thought to be Dutch, but the swell of the curve on Swedish examples is usually higher, and the top is usually of marble, not wood.
Tuesday 24 April 2012
The Age Of Rococo - Norway and Denmark
English influence is also evident in some Scandinavian handmade furniture in the 18th century. This stemmed partly from the export of timber from Norway to England. Dutch styles, too, were taken up by the middle classes. For political and commercial reasons, both the English and the Dutch took a keen interest in Scandinavian affairs, at a time when Norway was under Danish rule and obliged to support Denmark against Sweden. Copenhagen was the capital from which Norway and Denmark were governed.
It had a guild of chair-makers separate from, and more conservative than that of the cabinet-makers. Chairs with the English type of cabriole legs continued to be made with turned stretchers bracing them long after this precaution had been dispensed with in Britain. The curve of the leg also differs from the English form, the knee being less pronounced. A rather exaggerated Rococo flavour is sometimes imparted by an asymmetrical crest at the centre of the top rail of the back.
Peasant furniture was little affected by these foreign influences. The Norwegian peasantry had a strong tradition of freedom, but serfdom was not ended in Denmark until 1702, and even after this, the obligation of stavnsbaand was revived, providing landowners with free labour by farmers' sons born on their estates.
In spite of the ensuing differences, the old traditions of folk culture persisted both in Norway and Denmark. In Norway, they were symbolized by the dowry chest being carried in procession from the bride's home; it was made of pine, painted with flowers and an inscription, and held personal clothing she would keep for the rest of her life. Other painted fitted and non fitted furniture, including the marriage bed, which sometimes incorporates a cupboard overhead, was borne along with equal ceremony.
A slightly more sophisticated version of this kind of decoration, deriving from peasant roots by affected by the fashion for lacquer in Holland and Germany, was employed on chests-of-drawers with shaped fronts and mounted on cabriole legged stands for the homes of the Danish nobility.
Members of the Copenhagen guild produced more luxurious pieces to special order, but only one member, Mathias Ortmann, is known to have carried large stocks in the mid 18th century. Most of his work shows strong German influence, especially in his treatment of the bombe shape for commodes and bureau-cabinets. His work is better identified than most because of his practice of attaching a trade label to each piece and numbering it.
It had a guild of chair-makers separate from, and more conservative than that of the cabinet-makers. Chairs with the English type of cabriole legs continued to be made with turned stretchers bracing them long after this precaution had been dispensed with in Britain. The curve of the leg also differs from the English form, the knee being less pronounced. A rather exaggerated Rococo flavour is sometimes imparted by an asymmetrical crest at the centre of the top rail of the back.
Peasant furniture was little affected by these foreign influences. The Norwegian peasantry had a strong tradition of freedom, but serfdom was not ended in Denmark until 1702, and even after this, the obligation of stavnsbaand was revived, providing landowners with free labour by farmers' sons born on their estates.
In spite of the ensuing differences, the old traditions of folk culture persisted both in Norway and Denmark. In Norway, they were symbolized by the dowry chest being carried in procession from the bride's home; it was made of pine, painted with flowers and an inscription, and held personal clothing she would keep for the rest of her life. Other painted fitted and non fitted furniture, including the marriage bed, which sometimes incorporates a cupboard overhead, was borne along with equal ceremony.
A slightly more sophisticated version of this kind of decoration, deriving from peasant roots by affected by the fashion for lacquer in Holland and Germany, was employed on chests-of-drawers with shaped fronts and mounted on cabriole legged stands for the homes of the Danish nobility.
Members of the Copenhagen guild produced more luxurious pieces to special order, but only one member, Mathias Ortmann, is known to have carried large stocks in the mid 18th century. Most of his work shows strong German influence, especially in his treatment of the bombe shape for commodes and bureau-cabinets. His work is better identified than most because of his practice of attaching a trade label to each piece and numbering it.
Monday 23 April 2012
The Age Of Rococo - Poland and Russia
The Rococo style reached Poland through Saxony, early in the reign (1733 - 1763) of Augustus III, who was also Elector of Saxony and who entrusted what he found to be the boring business of government to his all powerful minister of state, Count Heinrich von Bruhl. On of Bruhl's responsibilities was the Meissen porcelain factory near Dresden, the capital city of Saxony, and it is probable the Dresden china figures - the perfect expression of the late Baroque and Rococo styles - originated as table ornaments for the banquets von Bruhl delighted in giving.
With such an enthusiast for rich decoration supervising the country, it is hardly surprising that Polish Rococo was both colourful and a little florid in its interpretation of the Louis XV style; the carved motifs on fauteuils and canapes for instance, were sometimes picked out in colour against a gilt ground. By contrast, the handmade furniture of the countryside was often left plain, primitive shapes being employed without even a hint of carved decoration.
In the region of Cracow in the south 'Little Poland' there was a long tradition of making marriage chests painted with a single floral composition. It was general practice in Poland throughout the 18th century for landlords to have large workshops on their estates, where the fitted and non fitted furniture for their own homes was made, often to a very high standard.
A rather similar system obtained in Russia, where most of the furniture was made on country estates by serf craftsmen who were often highly-skilled, especially in the field of wood carving. A lush a vivid version of the Rococo suited to their talents, was developed during the reign (1741 - 1762) of Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great.
It was a promising period for the arts, and saw the fruition of Peter's plans for a Russian university in Moscow, the establishment of the theatre and the encouragement of literature. In this atmosphere, the leading architect of the time, Count Bartolommeo Rastrelli, designed Rococo pieces in carved and gilt wood that display a magnificent self-confidence. The Count, Russian-born but of Italian descent, was responsible for the Peterhof and other great Baroque buildings.
With such an enthusiast for rich decoration supervising the country, it is hardly surprising that Polish Rococo was both colourful and a little florid in its interpretation of the Louis XV style; the carved motifs on fauteuils and canapes for instance, were sometimes picked out in colour against a gilt ground. By contrast, the handmade furniture of the countryside was often left plain, primitive shapes being employed without even a hint of carved decoration.
In the region of Cracow in the south 'Little Poland' there was a long tradition of making marriage chests painted with a single floral composition. It was general practice in Poland throughout the 18th century for landlords to have large workshops on their estates, where the fitted and non fitted furniture for their own homes was made, often to a very high standard.
A rather similar system obtained in Russia, where most of the furniture was made on country estates by serf craftsmen who were often highly-skilled, especially in the field of wood carving. A lush a vivid version of the Rococo suited to their talents, was developed during the reign (1741 - 1762) of Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great.
It was a promising period for the arts, and saw the fruition of Peter's plans for a Russian university in Moscow, the establishment of the theatre and the encouragement of literature. In this atmosphere, the leading architect of the time, Count Bartolommeo Rastrelli, designed Rococo pieces in carved and gilt wood that display a magnificent self-confidence. The Count, Russian-born but of Italian descent, was responsible for the Peterhof and other great Baroque buildings.
Friday 20 April 2012
The Age Of Rococo - The Netherlands
The Netherlands
Holland had made a significant contribution to the development of English handmade furniture in the last years of the 17th century, and in the first half of the 18th century this was reciprocated to such an extent that there is a substantial group of furniture, most of it veneered with burr walnut, that is conveniently described as 'Anglo Dutch'.
The influence of the French Regence style was also marked, especially on armchairs, and many Dutch examples combine the cartouche-shaped, padded back of the French type with cabriole legs having the typically English convex bulge at the junction with the seat rail. Quite often, these legs are joined by shaped stretchers in the Regence manner. This kind of stretcher also appears on chairs with English style claw-and-ball feet and vase-shaped splats in the backs, but decorated in an uncompromisingly Dutch way with floral marquetry.
By around 1750, the Rococo style was well established in the Netherlands. In the south, fine oak armoires were made at Liege, their doors and cornices carved with formal cartouches relieved by delicate, asymmetrically arranged, leafy tendrils and shells. In the north, walnut-veneered commodes of bombe shape with marquetry decoration were produced in the Louis XV manner, usually with wooden rather than marble tops.
The swell of the Dutch bombe form is often low in the belly of the carcase. Another piece, the 'tallboy' or 'highboy', evolved from the bombe commode, using the shape of the latter as the base beneath a two-door clothes press, which was fitted inside with sliding trays and rose to a stepped cornice that provided ledges for Chinese or Delft vases.
While the general tendency was for French influence to increase in the mid 18th century, some tables and lowboys (side tables with several drawers) owe something to English designs of the period. In spite of these foreign fashions, the fitted and non fitted furniture of the Netherlands developed a strong national character which the guilds fought hard to preserve, which maintaining high standards of workmanship. Each large town had its own guild, and the records of some have been preserved, but as relatively few pieces were signed it is difficult to attribute pieces to particular makers.
Holland had made a significant contribution to the development of English handmade furniture in the last years of the 17th century, and in the first half of the 18th century this was reciprocated to such an extent that there is a substantial group of furniture, most of it veneered with burr walnut, that is conveniently described as 'Anglo Dutch'.
The influence of the French Regence style was also marked, especially on armchairs, and many Dutch examples combine the cartouche-shaped, padded back of the French type with cabriole legs having the typically English convex bulge at the junction with the seat rail. Quite often, these legs are joined by shaped stretchers in the Regence manner. This kind of stretcher also appears on chairs with English style claw-and-ball feet and vase-shaped splats in the backs, but decorated in an uncompromisingly Dutch way with floral marquetry.
By around 1750, the Rococo style was well established in the Netherlands. In the south, fine oak armoires were made at Liege, their doors and cornices carved with formal cartouches relieved by delicate, asymmetrically arranged, leafy tendrils and shells. In the north, walnut-veneered commodes of bombe shape with marquetry decoration were produced in the Louis XV manner, usually with wooden rather than marble tops.
The swell of the Dutch bombe form is often low in the belly of the carcase. Another piece, the 'tallboy' or 'highboy', evolved from the bombe commode, using the shape of the latter as the base beneath a two-door clothes press, which was fitted inside with sliding trays and rose to a stepped cornice that provided ledges for Chinese or Delft vases.
While the general tendency was for French influence to increase in the mid 18th century, some tables and lowboys (side tables with several drawers) owe something to English designs of the period. In spite of these foreign fashions, the fitted and non fitted furniture of the Netherlands developed a strong national character which the guilds fought hard to preserve, which maintaining high standards of workmanship. Each large town had its own guild, and the records of some have been preserved, but as relatively few pieces were signed it is difficult to attribute pieces to particular makers.
Thursday 19 April 2012
The Age Of Rococo - Spain, Portugal and Latin America - 2
As in Spain, a more truly English flavour is found in many Portuguese chairs on cabriole legs with shaped and sometimes fretted splats in the backs. The legs are usually united by turned stretchers - a feature eliminated on fashionable English cabriole-legged chairs quite early in the 18th century. The old preference for high-backed chairs in Portugal also asserts itself, the back legs as well as the front are often of cabriole shape, and the continental Rococo love of asymmetrical motifs in carved decoration is inclined to be marked on pieces that might otherwise pass as English. In some armchairs with padded backs, both English Chippendale, Louis XV Rococo and traditional Portuguese proportions combine to produce dignity, luxury and the perfection of Portuguese carving at its best.
The Portuguese commode is usually four drawers in depth, making it rather high, and is serpentine-fronted with a distinct central bulge. Corners are canted and carved with foliage. The top is normally of the same wood as the carcase and seldom made of marble. A distinctive type of gaming table was made in the 1750s with a basically circular top but with a wavy edge, and was fitted with reversible panels inlaid for chess and other games. The frieze is fitted with drawers and has four cabriole legs.
The Portuguese were among the most adventurous designers of beds in the mid 18th century, discarding the tester and posts entirely and creating a panelled headboard in a carved Rococo frame. In place of the traditional posts, the foot has cabriole legs with reverse cabrioles pointing upwards.
In Brazil, many of the characteristics of Portuguese handmade furniture in the mid 18th century were taken up by local craftsmen to create - often a generation later - an authentic colonial style with occasional flourishes of exaggerated Rococo. The style was introduced to Peru by the Spanish viceroy, Don Manuel Afat, and was given an extra sparkle by the use of silver for decorative purposes, instead of the bronze or gilded carving that would have sufficed in Europe.
Silver was employed in this was in Mexico, too, but the most interesting pieces of Mexican fitted and non fitted furniture are a curious combination of Renaissance shapes with a blend of Baroque and Rococo ornament. Into this remarkable mixture, a distinct element of native culture was often added, with masks carved on the knees of cabriole legs as they often were in Europe, but here they are more reminiscent of the old Indian gods than of Mannerist satyrs.
The Portuguese commode is usually four drawers in depth, making it rather high, and is serpentine-fronted with a distinct central bulge. Corners are canted and carved with foliage. The top is normally of the same wood as the carcase and seldom made of marble. A distinctive type of gaming table was made in the 1750s with a basically circular top but with a wavy edge, and was fitted with reversible panels inlaid for chess and other games. The frieze is fitted with drawers and has four cabriole legs.
The Portuguese were among the most adventurous designers of beds in the mid 18th century, discarding the tester and posts entirely and creating a panelled headboard in a carved Rococo frame. In place of the traditional posts, the foot has cabriole legs with reverse cabrioles pointing upwards.
In Brazil, many of the characteristics of Portuguese handmade furniture in the mid 18th century were taken up by local craftsmen to create - often a generation later - an authentic colonial style with occasional flourishes of exaggerated Rococo. The style was introduced to Peru by the Spanish viceroy, Don Manuel Afat, and was given an extra sparkle by the use of silver for decorative purposes, instead of the bronze or gilded carving that would have sufficed in Europe.
Silver was employed in this was in Mexico, too, but the most interesting pieces of Mexican fitted and non fitted furniture are a curious combination of Renaissance shapes with a blend of Baroque and Rococo ornament. Into this remarkable mixture, a distinct element of native culture was often added, with masks carved on the knees of cabriole legs as they often were in Europe, but here they are more reminiscent of the old Indian gods than of Mannerist satyrs.
Wednesday 18 April 2012
The Age Of Rococo - Spain, Portugal and Latin America - 1
Spain was torn by the wars of the Spanish Succession from 1700 - 1713. Philip V was a Bourbon, married first to Maria Louisa of Savoy then, following her death in 1714, to Isabella Farnese, daughter of the Duke of Parma. Isabella was a very strong-minded woman who encouraged her husband to break his ties with France. In spite of this, it was the French version of Rococo that influenced Spain most during the first half of the 18th century. A good example of this is La Granja Palace at Segovia, which Philip began to build in 1721, to remind him of versailles.
Armchairs were based on the Louis XV fauteuil, but with an interesting difference. An example is a suite of chairs and settees designed for the Royal Palace at Madrid by a Neapolitan, Gasparini, which are veneered in rosewood with ebony inlay, whereas French seat furniture of the period was hardly ever veneered. Other chairs display English influence. Considerable quantities of English handmade furniture were imported into Spain and Portugal in the first half of the 18th century, and Spanish craftsmen copied the Queen Anne and early Georgian versions of the cabriole leg and the mid Georgian 'ribbon' back. A wholly Spanish flavour was often provided however, by painting these chairs black and picking out the carving in gold.
Gilding was also used lavishly on ornate console tables and the frames of the mirrors above them, the glass for which was produced in a factory at San Iidefonso set up by the king in 1736. at around the same time, commodes resembling French Provincial ones came to be made. Early examples were not veneered or mounted in gilt bronze, but made in the solid and decorated with carving, which was picked out in gilt - presumably to create the effect of bronze mounts. In France they would have been regarded as rustic but in Spain they represented sophisticated taste. Truly rustic pieces were based on much earlier models of chairs, chests and tables, and were made colourful with a coat of paint in imitation of Italian lacca.
Portugal was strongly under English influence during the first half of the 18th century, following the signing of the Treaty of Methuen in 1703 which, in return for preferential rates of duty on Portuguese wines exported to England, the Portuguese undertook to import quantities of goods of English manufacture - woollens in particular.
During the reign of John V (1706 - 1750), many pieces of fitted and non fitted furniture found their way from London to Lisbon. Bureau-cabinets decorated in red japanning were a particular favourite. The Portuguese themselves were good at imitating the oriental lacquer which their East India Company imported. They also had a warehouse in Paris where they sold oriental, Portuguese and probably English lacquer too, with ver confusing results for the modern furniture historian to unravel. The main influence however, was oriental rather than English.
Armchairs were based on the Louis XV fauteuil, but with an interesting difference. An example is a suite of chairs and settees designed for the Royal Palace at Madrid by a Neapolitan, Gasparini, which are veneered in rosewood with ebony inlay, whereas French seat furniture of the period was hardly ever veneered. Other chairs display English influence. Considerable quantities of English handmade furniture were imported into Spain and Portugal in the first half of the 18th century, and Spanish craftsmen copied the Queen Anne and early Georgian versions of the cabriole leg and the mid Georgian 'ribbon' back. A wholly Spanish flavour was often provided however, by painting these chairs black and picking out the carving in gold.
Gilding was also used lavishly on ornate console tables and the frames of the mirrors above them, the glass for which was produced in a factory at San Iidefonso set up by the king in 1736. at around the same time, commodes resembling French Provincial ones came to be made. Early examples were not veneered or mounted in gilt bronze, but made in the solid and decorated with carving, which was picked out in gilt - presumably to create the effect of bronze mounts. In France they would have been regarded as rustic but in Spain they represented sophisticated taste. Truly rustic pieces were based on much earlier models of chairs, chests and tables, and were made colourful with a coat of paint in imitation of Italian lacca.
Portugal was strongly under English influence during the first half of the 18th century, following the signing of the Treaty of Methuen in 1703 which, in return for preferential rates of duty on Portuguese wines exported to England, the Portuguese undertook to import quantities of goods of English manufacture - woollens in particular.
During the reign of John V (1706 - 1750), many pieces of fitted and non fitted furniture found their way from London to Lisbon. Bureau-cabinets decorated in red japanning were a particular favourite. The Portuguese themselves were good at imitating the oriental lacquer which their East India Company imported. They also had a warehouse in Paris where they sold oriental, Portuguese and probably English lacquer too, with ver confusing results for the modern furniture historian to unravel. The main influence however, was oriental rather than English.
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