ANTIQUE 18TH CENTURY FURNITURE CABINET MAKERS AND ANTIQUE CABBET MAKERS AND FURNITURE BOOKS AND DRAWINGS

There are several references to painted furniture at Strawberry Hill which must, however, have met with the approval of the owner. In the inventory one reads of Welsh armed chairs, painted blue and white “… ” chairs, settees, and long stools on black and gold frames ” . . . ” chairs of Aubusson tapestry, the frames green and gold ” . . . ” six elbow chairs with white and gold frames,” and so on.
Many books were published about this time with the object of giving instructions for lacquering, and it may be mentioned that the craft is described also as ” vernishing ” and japanning. But the recrudescence of enterest in a pleasant and agreeable occupation for ladies had little in common with the painted furniture like that at Strawberry Hill, which was a distinct development of classic taste inaugurated by the Adam brothers.
In the main, collectors will find that the most useful point to remember in distinguishing this work is the character of the ornament, which was not Oriental but distinctly Western. Robert Adam brought from abroad Italian artists to paint the interior decorations of his buildings and to decorate the furniture he designed. The best known of these artists were Angelica Kaufrmann, Cipriani, Columbani, Zuchhi, and Pergolesi. A familiar form in which they exercised their most delightful art was in the decoration of painted plaques where classical figure subjects, groups of cupids, and pastoral scenes gave an intimate touch which had not hitherto been seen in furniture. Such medallions are usually oval or round and are seen on semi-circular satinwood commodes and cabinets designed by the Adam brothers or their imitators. Perhaps the finest existing specimen of this class of work is in the Victoria and Albert Museum. It is a toilet table of beautiful proportions designed by Sheraton and painted by Angelica Kaufrmann.
It is very unlikely, however, that the collector will find an unknown piece of this class of work, for it was not executed in the ordinary way of business, but specially commissioned for wealthy patrons. What is far more likely is that chairs, settees, Pembroke tables, card tables, bookcases, toilet glasses, bureaux and other pieces of furniture of the Heppelwhite or Sheraton school will be found here and probably in a damaged condition painted by journeymen in response to the fashion created by the brothers Adam and their Italian assistants. But the designs in all probability will not reflect the Italian taste of the day as much as the French, and instead of the figure plaques it will be found that the decoration consists more frequently of prettily executed wreaths of roses, festoons, twisted ribbon work, baskets of flowers, and attenuated acanthus ornament.
I Satinwood was the favourite material for pieces of furniture so decorated, but in many cases the wood does not show at all, being enamelled white all over, the painted decoration being applied over that. Coverings to chairs and settees of this kind were also painted, and those who have an opportunity of securing an example in which time and ill treatment have not destroyed the delicacy of the work may congratulate themselves on a very lucky find. Frequent cases are to be met with where a chair or settee, formerly enamelled and painted, has been cleaned entirely of its decoration, and renovated as a plain piece of furniture. Although this is, of course, regrettable, it is difficult to see what can be done with badly chipped enamel and half obliterated painted detail. They simply make the piece look a wreck, and no amount of restoration will ever bring it back to its original condition.
One must expect, however, ail old painted furniture to show signs of wear. It should also look mellow and soft. There should be no sharp edges and crudely contrasting colours. If the satinwood shows, there should be a distinct relationship between pattern and
background, difficult to describe but easily recognised after a few pieces have been examined. The patina should run right over the surface and the ornamentation
should suggest a sunken appearance. Old wood, particularly mahogany and satinwood, looks dull but transparent and deep in quality, like water in the shadows of a rocky pool. It was Sheraton whose painted furniture was executed with the satinwood shewing as a background, but Pergolesi resorted principally to treating the whole surface with enamel first.
In a chapter on English painted furniture reference should be made to the inventors of the varnish known as Vernis-Martin,” the most celebrated preparation of the eighteenth century for the execution of this class of work. It was a French discovery, and was known before 1730 when Simon Etienne Martin obtained from the French Government a monopoly of its use for twenty years. About 1750 there were several factories in Paris turning out Vernis-Martin. After that time the designs, which had at first followed Oriental models, became more purely French, and as English designers at this time were so largely influenced by Louis XV. decoration, it was natural that painted furniture should reflect the common source of inspiration.
Vernis-Martin, indeed, was a method which had its imitators ail over Europe. The King of Prussia had one of the Martin family to work for him, and an immense amount of work was done for Versailles, particularly in the redecoration of the apartments of the Dauphin. Madame de Pompadour was also a considerable employer of the factories of the Martin family, paying in one year (1752) as much as 58,000 livres for work done.   Much English painted furniture
recalls far more vividly this extraordinarily popular French taste than the purely classical work of the brothers Adam and their Italian assistants, which had very little floral detail, being composed mostly of vases, husk swags, the anthemion, and attenuated scroll work after the manner of Pompeian decoration. It had its base on architecture, whereas the designs of Martin and his English imitators were evolved from a fanciful treatment of flowers and foliage.
It is evident that the interest of painted furniture depends entirely upon the quality of its execution. Painted furniture has no particular value as such, for after all it was a very easy Substitute for carving, and could be rapidly executed in a slipshod manner by a comparative novice. To some extent this is a safe-guard to the collector, for poor painted furniture by which no particular store was set in the first instance has had no chance to live. Most of that which comes into the auction room now is well preserved and worth buying.
On the other hand what was easy to the professional or amateur in the third quarter of the eighteenth Century is equally easy to the faker of to-day, who does not scruple to take a Sheraton or Heppelwhite chair or table and transform its appearance by lavish brush work. The only reliable way of detecting such frauds is by cultivating a close acquaintance with genuine specimens which will reveal subtle qualities of grace and dexterity never to be seen in new work.
Late Heppelwhite and Sheraton sideboards, chairs, settees, and tables decorated with painted enrichment will be the most likely articles to come the way of the collector in out-of-the-way places. Heppelwhite’s productions or those of the many cabinet-makers working from about 1785 to the end of the century were specially designed and ornamented in response to the fashion. a Miss Constance Simon refers in her book on ” English Furniture Designers of the Eighteenth Century ” to the following recipe culled from Knight’s Penny Cyclopaedia, which may well have described the simple means taken for painting furniture at this period. I A good deal of common wood painting is called japanning which differs from the more ordinary painters’ work, by using turps instead of oil to mix the colours with, bedsteads, wash-handstands, bedroom chairs and similar articles of furniture are done in this way.” The ground upon which the designs were painted was principally black or white, the details being put in afterwards in gold or colours. Heppel-white furniture was frequently used in Adam houses, and it is very likely that in some instances the Italian artists employed by architects were resorted to for the decoration of cabinet-makers’ productions turned out in the ordinary course of business.
The practice commenced by the Adam brothers of painting furniture to tone with the decoration of rooms was followed by their less famous contemporaries in cases where the work was commissioned for
special purposes. The Heppelwhites themselves make the following reference to this branch of their business: ” For chairs a new and very elegant fashion has arisen within these few years of finishing them with painted or japanned work, which gives a hch and splendid appearance to the minute parts of the ornaments which are generally thrown in by the painter.” White woods of quality very inferior to satinwood were often used for this treatment, but on the other hand there are mahogany pieces in existence which were so treated.
Three-back and four-back settees were often black japanned and decorated with gold, and as the fashion for this class of work lasted for a generation many pieces will be found reminiscent of the debased Sheraton work, tinged by Empire, which developed itself at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Some fine examples of Sheraton chairs, dated about 1800, are in the Victoria and Albert Museum.   They indicate very clearly this tendency towards the Empire style, but are not as yet debased.   Made of beech, they are painted and gilt, have the delicate open backs of the period, and cane seats, one of them having an oval cane panel in the back.   A feature typical of many late eighteenth century lacquered and painted chairs  and settees  are  the  round legs curved and splaying out at the bottom.   These legs are ringed in places and are often seen with touches of gold on their black japanned surfaces suggesting the coachmakers’ work.   The best period of English painted furniture is
from 1770 to 1780, but by far the greater number of examples which come the way of the collector will have been made after 1790, when Heppelwhite’s and Sheraton’s books had been published, and the work of the brothers Adam had time to influence not only fashionable furnishing but the work of ordinary cabinet-makers and upholsterers |throughout the country.
A photograph is given of a beautiful knife box of painted satinwood, an example whose vase-like form should be recollected by the collector, for plain specimens are occasionally to be met with. As a rule, however, these satinwood boxes, which flanked late eighteenth century sideboards, have a sloping hinged lid and moulded front. They are often veneered on oak. Examination of the painted detail on this box will shew the ribbons, roses, swags of drapery, and pictorial plaques characteristic of the style.
As time goes on it may appreciate a little in value if the present interest in old furniture persists, but it can never compete with the fine specimens which at the date of their making were exceptional.   Eighteenth-century chairs, perfectly genuine, are to be bought quite easily every day at comparatively small prices. Oak and mahogany tables, chests of drawers, long case clocks, bureaux, bookcases, secretaires, dressers, corner cupboards, settles, settees and sofas, they are ail to be had in the simple forms ordinary household furnishing of the Georgian era.  They are worth buying because they have old associations and are pleasant and comfortable in use. In the eighteenth Century such furniture was made for middle-class houses by the cabinet-maker in the ordinary way of business.  It was not thought in its day of more exceptional interest than we should think the commercial products of the modern furniture shop.   It had qualifies which were appreciated, the principal one   undoubtedly  being   its  soundness   of   construction, for people bought their possessions then with a view to durability, and makers had not yet learnt all those clever ways of producing the cheap and shoddy which have resulted in so much showy furniture of our own time.   Advertisements of sales of household effects in the eighteenth Century help to give a picture of the kind of furniture.
‘ All the genuine Household Furniture, comprising bedsteads with marine and other furniture, fine goose feather beds, blankets, etc., mahogany wardrobes, chest of drawers, ditto dressing tables, mahogany press, bedsteads with green check furniture ; mahogany escritoire ; ditto writing table with drawers ; ditto dining and Pembroke tables ;   library table with steps ; mahogany and other chairs ; pier glasses and girondoles, in carved and gilt frames ; a neat sofa ; an exceeding good eight day clock ; Wilton and other carpets ; register and bath Stoves ; kitchen range ; smoke-jack and other useful kitchen furniture ; two large brewing coppers, exceeding good brewing Utensils, and other effects.”

Four English designers - Chippendale, rococo over the mantel mirror Adam, insect butterfly cabinet paris museum style Hepplewhite and Sheraton
English furniture of the second half of the eighteenth century was dominated by four ‘giants’ Chippendale, antique chippendale sideboard Adam, distressed round wooden tables, england Hepplewhite and Sheraton. In a resume of this size a brief look at the work of these men should be enough to show the very great heights to which English furniture rose in the period. But any further study must include examination and appreciation of the work of other extremely fine designers and craftsmen of the time, rectangular drop leaf dining table such as Kent, antique 3 drawer commode Vile, steinzeug pottery Cobb, cupboard neoclassical Ince, round mahogany antique dining table los angeles Mayhew and Linnell, antique drum table restoring leather inlay not to mention the creative work of a number of gifted and imaginative architects.
Thomas Chippendale was born in Yorkshire in 1718. By 1748 he was in London in business as a cabinet-maker, 20th century hepplewhite style sideboard and five years later he moved to a house in St Martin’s Lane, seventeenth century english wood carving which he occupied until his death in 1779. St Martin’s Lane was an astute choice, kakiemon tripod candlestick for two of the country’s top painters lived there, antique sideboard uses Sir Joshua Reynolds and Sir James Thornhill, antique dresser/cabinet made by los angeles furniture co. the patron of Hogarth. In 1754 Chippendale produced a book of furniture
designs called The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker’s Director.
It was not the first work to contain designs for furniture, j.w.benson carrage clocks as de Vries and Ducerceau (see pages 27 and 30) among others had produced design books, antique military chest of drawers but it was the first to consist entirely of drawings of furniture by a furniture-maker, antique buffets identifying and it was an instant success. It was reprinted the next year and again in a larger edition from 1759 to 1762, frederick james halnon and it had a decisive effect on English styles for at least a decade.
At this time English furniture-makers were dabbling with Rococo designs and also with Chinese and Gothic styles. Chippendale adopted all three and modelled them in a sharply individual manner. He adorned his
furniture with exquisite fretwork in the Chinese taste, steel cabinet cabriole legs employing it for the edges of tables, mahogany desks edwardian doors of cabinets, louis 14 ceramic inlaid boudoir tables canopies of beds. He also designed Chippendale four-poster bed in the Chinese style, verlys with pagoda top, italian cupboards now at Badminton House, lamp manufacturers, f in hexigon, deco era Gloucestershire. This style of furniture was popular in the mid 18th century and sometimes executed chairs in the Gothic taste, kidney-shaped over the chair tray tables with ecclesiastical-type splat-backs and top rails. He decorated some pieces after the French manner with Rococo motifs, rouenpottery combining shell ornaments with his own ideas. Principal pieces in his Rococo style were chests of drawers, calamander brass inlay sofas, plinth bronze bust china
cabinets, carved medieval lion mask writing tables, friezes cupboard dressing tables and bureau-bookcases. They were made chiefly of mahogany of the best grain and figure, georgian pie crust pedestal end tables which looked marvellous after waxing and polishing. The styles he devised were often
such that the ordinary country carpenter could emulate with little difficulty, 1920s reproduction settee set even if without the exquisite refinement of the master craftsman. This is why there is so much furniture today which is described in sales and shops alike as Country Chippendale. It was copied in his time and it has also been ever since.
Chippendale himself appears to have made very little furniture, barley twist antique chairs 1700’s and only a few pieces can safely be ascribed to his hand, 5 legged gateleg table through bills made out by him to purchasers. The Chippendale armchair in the Gothic taste
owner of Nostell Priory was billed by Chippendale for a table for 72 10s. Chippendale ceased to hold the centre of the stage after the advent of Adam in the decade 1760 to 1770, origins of the chicken coop chair but, antique oak and bamboo settee quick to see which way the wind was blowing, antique chaise lounge styles scrolling head and foot rest he accepted commissions from Adam to make furniture in the Neoclassical style, directoire breakfront which Adam was pioneering in architecture and furniture.
Robert Adam was born in Scotland in 1728, dressing table chairs old brass the son of an architect. He and his three brothers studied under their father at Edinburgh. Then in 1753 Robert went to Italy to continue his training, cama de bilros and he fell under the
spell of the new Italian ideas which derived directly from the recent discoveries at the excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum. He got to know Piranesi who by his etchings had done so much to popularize the Classical Revival. Adam grasped the importance of relating interiors to exteriors of buildings, rene lalique porcelain lamps with nude women and when he returned to Britain in 1758 he had already formulated a whole series of new ideas of architecture and schemes of interior decoration. We are not concerned here with his architectural ideas (see Architecture in the all-colour paperbacks series), dining chair with wide center splat but in decoration he based his modes on ancient Roman motifs, antique campaign box such as strings of flowers, antique round split pedestal dining table formal shell ornaments, empire sideboards palm leaves and disciplined scrolls of foliage. He produced a vast number of drawings, victoria s roll desk many of which are now in the Sir John Soane’s Museum, beau mercier watch lady’s baumatic London. They included a whole range of items of furniture, antique corner hutch pine which were only part of the whole interior of a house.
Adam was commissioned both to design and build new houses and decorate them, antique claw foot double pedestal table and to redecorate existing ones. Among his important works were remodelling Harewood House and Nostell Priory in Yorkshire and Syon House and Osterley Park in Middlesex. At Osterley he commissioned Linnell to make furniture, baloon back chairs round cane seat including a pair of bow-front commodes in the Neo-classical style. Occasionally, 1630 english gothic hall chairs Adam furniture was painted to fit into the general colour schemes of his rooms, identifying 19th century cane chair types some of which were executed by such distinguished artists as Angelica Kauffmann and Cipriani.
Adam chairs had new forms, robert rutland spoons straight tapered turned legs, claw leg cherrywood dressers fluted, antique english windsor chairs reeded or plain. Backs were often oval within a plain wood frame, french stile chair legs the wood being mahogany or beechwood. The
influence of French ideas was here and there evident, antique drop leaf oak table with trestle footed although nothing displaced the predominance of Adam’s own individuality. One of the finest emulators of his ideas was George Hepplewhite.
Hepplewhite is something of a mystery. His beginnings are unknown and his date of birth unrecorded. He learned the trade of cabinet-making in Lancashire and set up in business in London. He was active from about 1775 to his death in 1786. Two years after his death his widow published a book of his drawings of furniture styles called The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide, ballon back chairs and it was this which made him famous. It was the first book of its kind since Chippendale’s Director. It had nearly 300 illustrations, antique german cupboards a great many of which reveal the influence of Adam. Much of the furniture is designed to be made of mahogany, 1920 dining sets with satinwood inlay, antique oak tallboy dresser or marquetry in the French manner.
Many of Hepplewhite’s designs were not unlike those of Chippendale’s later years. These were less classical than Adam styles, pull sides antique expanding table and curves abounded, half moon pedestal desk-biedermeier especially in chests of drawers’ fronts and feet, what are a set of six silver apostle spoon worth cabinets, antique royal worcester potpourri jar h and chair
backs. It is for chair backs in fact that Hepplewhite is best known, bronzes de m.bouval although
Tnis bow-fronted satinwood commode, antique qashqai rug one of a pair made in the Adam manner by Linnell in about 1770, antique french art deco club chair is at Osterley Park, biedermeier sofa Middlesex
Two designs for chairs with shield-backs, antique table with roman engraving on wood below glass top from The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide, china cabinet, 1930s, danish, blonde wood, weight published by Hepplewhite’s widow in 1788
Armchair designed in the Adam style for the drawing room at Saltram House, antique bail oval handle Devonshire, style buffet fluted legs in about 1770. The ornament beneath the front seat rail is an unusual form of English decoration
he might well have wished otherwise, antique, buffet, doors for his solid piece are very beautiful indeed. Many different chair backs figure in the book, breakfront bookcase and bar the most popular being the shield-back with < variety of splats inside. One favourite
inside pattern rang( incorporated Prince of Wales ostrich feathers. The chair: have square or turned legs, escritoire antique oak the former sometimes with spade feet.
The variety of Hepplewhite pieces was extensive: ward. robes, antique bottles with gold leaf decoration with or without oval door panels of satinwood, georgian mahogony sloped front bureau bookcase with or without three or four drawers underneath; chests of drawers sideboards in many shapes and sizes, antique red dutch table
bow-fronted, victorian washstand straight or serpentine; sofas with upholstered backs and sides, south carolina stoneware jug decorated of with backs formed by three or four splat-backs joined in a row; card tables with fine inlay or marquetry; Pembroke tables, rococo england chippendale s-curve with rectilinear flaps with rounded ends or serpentine edged flaps, george 11 carved mahogany side table inlaid or banded in satinwood. Not one piece of furniture, 2 pedestal antique 1800 century however, antique furniture book exists that can be ascribed definitely tc Hepplewhite as the maker, mahogeny wood drop leaf dining room table and in his own time he enjoyed no fame. And yet, myott son & co shakespeare if comparisons are permissible, antique dresser / carved leaf handles Hepplewhite furniture is finer and more graceful than Chippendale.
The last of the giants was Thomas Sheraton, bronze archer figure a man of violent opinions and with little tolerance of other mortals, small box hasps who lost his reason in the last years of his life. He was born at Stockton-on-Tees in 1751. He studied as a draughtsman-designer and journeyman cabinet-maker. For a while he made a precarious living, maghogany pie crust shelf two-tier claw supplying designs to other cabinet-makers. He does not appear to have had either shop or workshop in London, curly maple antique chest of drawers nor is there any furniture that can be attributed to him.
Between 1791 and 1794 Sheraton published a book of furniture designs, period furniture company italian chest in sections. It was full of advice and also of criticism. He considered that Chippendale styles were antiquated and that Hepplewhite styles had
‘caught the decline.’ There is no doubt, early oak coffer 1725 however, antique game tables from 1930s about the very high quality of his own designs, english walnut stool which were in many respects more original. This is abundantly evident from the many pieces of furniture that were made
according to his designs in his time and afterwards. Sheraton preferred delicate furniture, tambour desk for sale which was light in colour, old victorian 8 drawer mahogany dresser including painted pieces, antique french renaissance style trunk for linens and valuables-oak late 1700 and he specified that many items were best made in satinwood or other light tropical woods. His designs are straighter than Hepplewhite’s
and so closer to Adam. They had a strong influence on furniture at the end of the century, silver toilet set not only in England but also abroad.
Sheraton designed a number of intricate pieces, antique german blue white pitcher 1700’s some of them for women, small antique half table such as small graceful cylinder-top desks, louis xiv style dining room 1880 oak dressing tables, south carolina stoneware jug decorated work tables and games tables. The mahogany used was often brought into relief by light inlay or banding in satinwood. In particular, antique cedar chest value july 25th 1929 his chairs were favoured in most large houses. The backs were straight rather than curved, antique curule chair square rather than oval, large modern dining tables from france and often in-filled with classical motifs. A series of six designs illustrates this theme.
One piece of furniture with which Sheraton is associated, kashan trefoil but which he did not invent, splayed reeded leg was the Carlton House table. It is an unusual and very fine article, blue cut glass pair lustres especially if made in satinwood.
Sheraton spent the last years of his life writing about furniture, oak dining room chairs 1800 not overlooking opportunities of criticizing both predecessors and contemporaries alike, small chest made from ivory with sustained impatience. The increasing instability of mind which in the end rendered him insane is reflected in his last works. Despite his very great skill and originality and his high reputation he died impoverished in 1806. And with him died the last major individual influence in English furniture history.
Serpentine-fronted Hepplewhite style sideboard of the late 18th century