French and English furniture : $b distinctive styles and periods described and illustratedSingleton, Esther
History
French and English furniture : $b distinctive styles and periods described and illustrated
Singleton, Esther
Furniture -- England; Furniture -- France
6 green dishes.
The above inventory deserves most careful study, since it reveals so
minutely the character of the objects that were to be found in the house
of a noble lady who moved in the highest court circles during the reign
of Queen Anne. The list of pictures that she left to her grandson has
not been reproduced here; they were principally family portraits, and
other pictures by the celebrated French painters of the early part of
the reign of Louis XIV. These pictures, of course, had been brought over
to England when the Marquise was exiled. Considering, however, that she
had lived for thirty years in London till her death in 1722, the great
bulk of the furniture in the above inventory must have been “Queen
Anne.”
A study of the items, however, shows that some of them, especially those
marked very old, were purely Louis XIV. Others, especially the chairs
that matched the beds, were probably of the Marot school.
The Oriental goods are particularly noticeable, especially the lacquer
screens and Indian stuffs. The china also shows that the Marquise
followed the prevailing taste. It is to be noted that there is no
mention of mahogany, and the wood that appears to be most in favour is
the Calembour. This is otherwise known as eagle wood, a sweet-scented
species of aloes that comes from the East.
The Dutch influence that prevailed during this period naturally resulted
in marquetry coming into very high favour. The ordinary cabinet woods
were inlaid in geometrical, floral and animal patterns with the warmer
and more beautiful tints of the exotic woods. Complete pictures were
often formed on broad surfaces, such as table tops, and narrower
surfaces were also decorated in this manner. Plate XXIII., No. 7, shows
a small chest-of-drawers, or dressing-table, of this period, with inlaid
floral ornamentation on the legs. This dates from about the beginning of
the Queen Anne period. Typical objects of this class, dating between
1690 and 1710, are described as follows:
[Illustration: PLATE XXIII]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account