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.