Antique Chest Of Drawers

WALNUT OCCASIONAL TABLE, ANTIQUE BOW-FRONT CHEST, GILT-METAL MOUNTED TABLE, ANTIQUE WARDROBE

A WALNUT OCCASIONAL TABLE, Victorian, with circular top and triform galleried undertier, cm. high

A SET OF TWELVE BEECHWOOD CHAIRS, Louis XVI style, with oval button upholstered backs and bowed seats, on fluted turned legs

AN ANTIQUE EXTENDING DINING TABLE, Regency, comprising: two D-shaped ends and a leaf insertion, on ring-turned legs, cm. wide. by cm. long fully extended

A BOW-FRONT CHEST, George III, with two short and three long graduated drawers, on bracket feet, cm. high by cm. wide.

A PAIR OF WALNUT DINING CHAIRS, George I, with vase-shaped splats and drop-in seats, on cabriole legs

AN ANTIQUE BOW-FRONT CHEST, early 19th Century and 18th Century, the inlaid top above an arrangement of five drawers, on bracket feet, cm. wide.

AN ANTIQUE AND PARCEL-
GILT WALL MIRROR, George III style,
the bevelled glass within a fretwork frame
surmounted by a carved eagle, cm.
high

A WALNUT BUREAU, Queen Anne style, the fall above three inverted serpentine drawers, on shell carved cabriole legs, cm. wide.

A WALNUTX-FRAME STOOL, Victorian, with a needlepoint cover, the supports joined by a jewelled stretcher and with dolphins head feet

A ROSEWOOD WORK-TABLE, mid-19th Century and 18th Century, with a serpentine hinged top and cabriole legs, cm. wide.

AN ANTIQUE WARDROBE, Victorian, the lower central chest with two short and three long drawers, flanked by a pair of cupboards, on a plinth base, with reel mouldings throughout,

cm. high by cm. wide.

A KINGWOOD AND GILT-METAL
MOUNTED VITRINE, Louis XV style, with
Vernis Martin decorated panels on cabriole
legs, cm. high by cm. wide.

AN ANTIQUE CHEST, George III, with two short and three long drawer, on bracket feet, cm. wide.

ANAMBOYNA AND CROSSBANDED COMMODE, Louis XVI style, modern, with a serpentine alabaster top and gilt-metal mounts, on fluted turned feet, cm. wide.

A PAIR OF CARVED AND PAINTED FAUTEUILS, Louis XVI style, with pierced ribbon crestings and claret damask upholstery, on fluted legs

A PAIR OF CARVED BEECHWOOD FAUTEUILS, Louis XVI style, with floral crestings and striped damask upholstery, on fluted turned legs

A GILT-METAL MOUNTED TABLE, Louis XVI style, with a tulipwood and amboyna veneered top, cm diam.

A MARQUETRY COMMODE,
Louis XV style, with a green marble top and
gilt-metal mounts, cm. wide.

A KINGWOOD PARQUETRY CABINET, Louis XV style, with a green marble top above a door enclosing a mirrored interior, cm. wide.

A BURR-VENEERED TABLE OUVRAGE, Louis XV style, with gilt-metal mounts and cabriole legs, cm. wide.

FRENCH CHESTS AND CHESTS OF DRAWERS About 1675-1760
Polychrome bootie commode, about 1700.
Lidded chests continue to be made, but mainly in rural areas; regional variations become firmly established.
Chests of drawers in mid-17thC styles also made in provinces until well after 1700, but in major centres, panelled ends give way to flush surfaces, applied mouldings disappear from drawer-fronts, veneering, parquetry and marquetry are widely practised. Chests on stands with turned legs in the Netherlands. Rectilinear carcases until after 1700.
France is leader of fashion under Louis XIV, for whom a pair of curved chests of drawers – commodes en tombeau– were made by Boulle in 1708-9, derived from Roman sarcophagus shape already re-created for Italian Renaissance cassoni. During the transitional baroque/rococo period (Regence, 1715-30, covering childhood of Louis XV), serpentine-fronted and bombe (blown up) three-drawer commodes are made, until the Louis XV rococo form, with only two drawers, raised on cabriole legs, is created by Cressent. In the 1730s the full bombe shape, with gently undulating curves from top to bottom and side to side, has become popular throughout most of Europe, but provincial types often have curve on one plane only. In some centres, curves are exaggerated, e.g. ‘high-bosomed’ in Venice, ‘low-bellied’ in Holland.
Local timbers for country types, exotic woods for veneers, e.g. varieties of Dalbergia – rosewood, kingwood (’prince wood’), palisander (purpleheart). Pine or oak as foundation for veneering and with chestnut and poplar, as drawer-linings. Marble in various colours was used for tops of commodes, ormolu for handles and mounts.
1675-1720: Flush ends made with rub joints (glueing boards edge to edge, rubbing them together until surplus glue is expunged, clamping until set). Rails between drawers tenoned into ends. Drawers dovetailed, not always very finely; fronts extended to overlap rails; side-runners abandoned in favour of runners on bottoms of drawers.
Cross-section of drawer-fronts of bombe commode, extended to Conceal rail.
1720-1760: Serpentine and bombe shapes built up (see NEW WORLD, TABLES 1790-1840, p. 323). By about 1750, drawer-fronts in fine examples overlap rails sufficiently to conceal them and present a virtually uninterrupted surface for decoration.
Marquetry: Inlaying veneered surface with a figurative design composed of other veneers. The usual material was wood, sometimes tinted with coloured stains; but other materials were used, e.g. ivory, while Boulle per-Ormolu: Cast bronze, chiselled, gilded and burnished, used for handles and mounts. Commodes made by the Spindlers for Frederick the Great were loaded with ormolu mounts made by the Swiss-born Kambli.
Carving: In some areas, e.g. Scandinavia, carved and gilt mounts substituted for ormolu. Carved scrolls, flowers, foliage decorate fine French provincial commodes.
Marquetry was brought to a brilliant colourful finish by sanding down and coating with varnish before waxing. Coloured varnishes patented by the brothers Martin (vernis Martin) were used for special effects on fronts and ends of commodes, e.g. imitating oriental lacquer (see also EUROPEAN CUPBOARDS AND CABINETS, p. 213). Venetians used their own varnish – lacca– to paint vivid flowers on coloured grounds. A cheaper- version, lacca povera, was executed by glueing prints to surfaces before colouring and varnishing. The interiors of Venetian commodes – even the best – are often very poorly finished.
A first-class signed French commode is a millionaire’s status symbol, but many lesser items made in the provinces or in other parts of Europe sell at much more modest prices and can be every bit as agreeable.
MAKERS’ STAMPS
From 1743 every piece made in Paris was supposed to be stamped with the maker’s name and, after vetting by a member of the guild’s jury, with their stamp – J.M.E.’ Uure des Menuisiers et Ebnistes). If the marble top is lifted off, these marks are frequently found stamped in the woodwork of a commode made between 1743 and 1791, but their absence is not necessarily damning (see GUIDE TO PERIODS AND STYLES, ROCOCO, P. 193) the technique of inlaying arabesques of engraved metal (brass, pewter) into a turtleshell veneer backed with coloured mica.
The pieces of shell were fitted into the spaces left after cutting out the brass, and vice versa, to produce pairs of commodes with the decoration of one the reverse of that of the other. The Spindler family and Muller of Bayreuth were among the many German craftsmen who made bombe commodes with fine marquetry.
Parquetry: Small diamond-shaped pieces of contrasting veneer laid in juxtaposition to create intriguing illusions of three-dimensional perspectives.
CHESTS AND CHESTS OF DRAWERS About 1760-1800
First stage of neo-classicism brings discipline to design of sophisticated commodes. Bombe shape unfashionable in Paris during reign of Louis XVI but survives in Germany and Holland, often in modified form (with curve from top to bottom only) into 1770s. Full bombe shape is continued in Sweden with gilt channels in rails between drawers.
Many country-made lidded chests and provincial chests of drawers – especially in Denmark – interpret new style in naive ways, sometimes showing English influence in crisp, economical shapes.
Mainly as in previous period: mahogany added to French repertoire in 1780s.
Full bombe shape (curved on two planes) difficult for all but best craftsmen to manage – only a few made drawer-sides with curves following line of ends – so its abandonment in favour of rectilinear shapes, or of bowed or serpentine fronts (curved on one plane only, from side to side) results in more attention to sound construction. Even basic features, e.g. dovetailed joint, show improvement. The cabriole leg is retained during the transitional Louis XV/XVI period but is eventually discarded and a variety of straight, tapered legs, square or turned, is adopted. Some commodes more like cabinets, with doors concealing drawers.
Marquetry: From about 1760 to 1780, still lavish but with growing tendency to restriction within defined areas, e.g. an oval or octagon at centre of commode front by Maggiolini of Milan inlaid with figures from classical mythology. David Roentgen of Neuwied, supplier to French and Russian royal families and supreme practitioner of marquetry, is quick to jettison it when plain mahogany becomes fashionable in 1780s, shortly before French Revolution.
Carving: Delicately carved commodes on slim legs produced in Rhineland, richly carved flowers on angles of serpentine-fronted commodes in Portugal.
Ormolu: Handles and mounts first features to exchange asymmetrical rococo squirts for neatly balanced, neo-classical masks, acanthus leaves and wreaths, but high quality maintained.
Bronze workers had own guilds guarding demarcation lines until disbandment of all guilds in 1791.
Below poicelainplaqu.
Painting: Delicate trellis patterns painted with coloured varnishes in France, panels painted with Pompeiian figures in Spain.
Pietre dure: Florentine mosaic panels in coloured hardstones — often cannibalized from earlier cabinets — used to decorate Louis XVI commodes (see CUPBOARDS AND CABINETS, p. 211).
Folk art: Country-made chests of drawers in many areas (e.g. Switzerland, the Tyrol, Denmark) painted in bright colours with flowers, landscapes, formally arranged, in keeping with the neo-classical style.
Highly-decorated Louis XVI commodes almost as expensive as Louis XV types; plainer ones much less so and easier to live with, whether French or of another nationality in the French-dominated style.
Above, a plain mahogany commode With ormolu mounts and secielaire drainer, about 1790-1800,
FRENCH COMMODES
In French commodes of the Louis XV/XVI periods, it is usual, though not essential, for the top edges of drawer-sides to be slightly rounded. This is not a guarantee of authenticity, nor is it conclusive evidence of French nationality (the same feature is found on many of the best 18thC English chests of drawers), but it is a favourable sign when present in French commodes, as it is not usually evident on 19thC copies.
North Italian marquetry commode, 1790-1800.

CHESTS: DRAWING-ROOM COMMODES
About 1750-1800
Fine quality drawing-room commode in French style, about 17 75.
Valuable and prestigious objects made for the main rooms of fine houses. Probably seldom used in a practical sense; principally valued for their fine decoration. Usually made in pairs to stand at either end of a room or against the window piers. Gradually replaced by simpler cabinets during the Regency period.
Differently proportioned to bedroom chests; usually longer in relation to height.
Two, three or four drawers, sometimes en-, closed by doors (occasionally interior shelves instead). At first in French rococo style, or bomb shape (i.e. with swelling serpentine sides), keeled corners and splayed feet
with ormolu (gilt bronze) or gilt brass mounts with matched handles. Marble or wooden tops.
Ormolu, mounted on keeled front edges of serpentine commode.
Ousted from fashion about 1770 by straight-sided semi-circular shape with straight, tapering, later turned, legs.
Fine quality woods, particularly mahogany, satinwood. Tulipwood, kingwood, harewood (green-stained sycamore), chestnut, fruit and many other woods used for marquetry and inlay. Oak when japanned. Oak and pine for carcases. Marble or scagliola (a plaster-based material imitating rare marbles) was sometimes used for tops. The latter can be plain or patterned.
Generally standard methods were employed. Mostly veneered. Bombe sections coopered or laminated beneath veneer. On mid-century examples dustboards between drawers (not a feature of French commodes until late in the century).
Many have variously arranged mahogany veneers; often geometric patterns. Before about 1770 the finest have marquetry of floral patterns, musical instruments, trophies, birds. Neo-classical inlay from about 1770
onwards of urns, shells, husks, bell flowers, acanthus leaves, sometimes shaded with scorching or overlaid with pen and ink. Oval and fan shapes were popular.
Painted decoration (not all over) included ovals containing classical figures, borders of flowers, ribbons, garlands etc. Occasionally low-relief Wedgwood plaques incorporated, with gilt brass framing.
Chinoiserie decoration (especially for bedrooms and dressing-rooms) sometimes japanned, occasionally partly composed of genuine Oriental lacquer taken from broken-up imported screens.
Polish, japanning, paint.
VALUES
A specialist market, prices in four, five or even six figures. Not objects to be purchased without expert advice.