18th Century Furniture - Rococo Interior

The elaborate design of this sumptuous hunting pavilion displays the splendour of German Rococo interior style at its very best.
By the second quarter of the 18th century, modern French manners, and with them the delicate, playful design of the Rococo, were the height of fashion. The aristocracy and the upper middle classes, aspired to status and a refined lifestyle, inspired by the Court of Louis XIV.

A Home Fit For A King
It was against this backdrop that Max Emanuel, the Elector of Bavaria, redesigned his Munich Residenz and extended his summer palace at Nymphenburg. He employed Joseph Effner, who became the chief Court architect and handmade furniture designer, and the French-educated architect Francois Cuvillies. Both were influential in introducing the light, intimate Rococo style to the Elector's estates. Their designs cast aside the formality of Baroque architecture in favour of  a freer, more intimate feel.
In 1735, Cuvillies started work on the Amalienburg pavilion in the palace gardens at Nymphenburg.
Built as a hunting lodge for Electoress Amelia, the interior became the epitome of Bavarian Rococo.
The magnificent centrepiece of the Amalienburg , the mirror room, is ringed by ornately framed silver-gilt mirrors and lit by elaborate chandeliers. The pale bluish-green walls enhance the feeling of delicacy and light and provide a perfect backdrop to extensive silver stucco decoration. A closer look at the applied design work reveals an array of Rococo motifs and scenes - naturalistic birds fly above asymmetrical floral swags hanging from borders of cherubs, lyres, and scrolling leaves. Expansive panelled mirrors, framed by shells and S-curved, reflect and multiply the overall effect of movement and vivacity. This room would have been used for entertaining, including banqueting and lavish celebrations.

Regional Variations

Interpretations of Rococo varied greatly from one region of Germany to another. The furniture, including fitted furniture, produced to compliment fashionable interiors was particularly diverse. Although many pieces were fairly conservative in form, as a result of the influence of the guilds, decoration was elaborate, and typically included naturalistic motifs and scrolling lines.

Furniture from Munich, now reproduction furniture, was often heavily carved and gilded. Although inspired by a French movement and diverse in style, Rococo furniture at the highest end of the market, and the interiors of the Amalienburg, Wurzburg and other fine palaces, are distinctly German in their elaborate nature and grand scale.

Giltwood Louis XV Fauteuil

A very exhuberant 18th century giltwood Louis XV fauteuil with exaggerated curved seat rails, cabriole legs with scrolled feet, channel molded framework, all in what appears to be the original gilded surface. South German, or Italian 18th century, circa 1760. Now covered in Scalamandre fabric.