The Age Of Rococo - England - Part 4

We have seen how Kent as an architect pioneered the practice  of designing the movable as well as the fixed handmade furniture of his room settings. There was yet another role played by him which illustrates the importance in transitional terms of the second quarter of the 18th century. He took part in a development - the growing use of the printed word, accompanied by designs - which was to herald the age of furniture dictionaries and drawing books.
Before that time, much of what cabinet-makers learned and put into practice depended on word of mouth. The propagation of design books to a receptive, large and often distant (for example, transatlantic) readership was soon to revolutionise the way furniture styles affected populations.

As early as 1727, Kent had published two folio volumes which illustrated works of Inigo Jones, several by the Earl of Burlington, and some of his own room sections and chimney pieces; inevitably a few designs by Palladio were included. In 1744 he published another work containing examples from the designs of former masters and some of his own.
In the meantime (1739) there had been significant circulation in limited but influential quarters of a treatise by William Jones, the Gentleman's or Builder's Companion. It contained twenty designs of side tables and pier glasses (large mirrors fixed to the pier or wall between two windows), representative of furniture designed for Georgian homes by architects.

Prior to these publications there had rarely been any literature on interior decoration available for study, copy or adaptation. Such literature speeded fitted and non fitted furniture evolution to such an extent that within twenty or thirty years, the ponderous lines of Kent's day, epitomised by massive and ornamental chimney pieces as well as furniture, were superseded by designs in light and fanciful proportions that were eventually to be the inspiration for masters like Thomas Chippendale.

An innovation which lent itself admirably to widespread employment as 'architects' furniture' was gesso, from the Italian word for plaster or chalk. It was a mixture of whiting and parchment size, and was applied layer after layer as each coat dried. Thus a form was built up from which the background could be carved away to produce a pattern in relief. The next stage was burnishing followed by the application of of gold leaf.

Gesso provided a convenient medium for the florid Baroque ornamentation beloved of William Kent and his architectural contemporaries. No less fitting was the opportunity it offered for gilding. Gesso had appeared before 1700, but the years upto around 1740 saw it in high and fashionable demand, particularly on chairs, certain types of tables, and the lavishly decorated mirrors which were to become characteristic of the period. Although the carvers sometimes resorted to softwood to create their Baroque extravaganzas, gesso with its remarkable plasticity was used universally together with walnut and the all-conquering mahogany.

...to be continued tomorrow.