Antique 17th C William & Mary Oyster Veneered Lace Box

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Antique 17th C William & Mary Oyster Veneered Lace Box

About the Item

This is a fabulous antique William & Mary burr walnut and olive wood oyster veneered lace box, inlaid with boxwood and circa 1680 in date. This amazing box has a lidded top which opens to reveal a lined interior which was used for storing lace but can be use for storing small items, letters or jewellery. This is a highly decorative piece which will make a statement once placed on any period desk. Condition: Original and untouched - please refer to pictures. Dimensions in cm: Height 12 x Width 50 x Depth 37 Dimensions in inches: Height 4.7 x Width 19.7 x Depth 14.6 William and Mary style - style of decorative arts named during the reign (1689–1702) of William III and Mary II of England. When William came to the English throne from the house of Orange, he encouraged many Dutch artisans to follow him. In addition to these craftsmen , Huguenot refugees from France worked in the cabinetmakers’ and designers’ shops of London during this time. Their influence was strongly felt under William, who was partial to the florid effects of French style. The excesses of the heavy English Restoration mode, nonetheless, were tempered by a plainer fashion in decoration. A new, intimate style of life that created smaller rooms demanded a more modest scale of furniture. Comfort became important too, as attested by the upholstered needlepoint chair seats of the day. Although the underlying contours of William and Mary furniture are quite simple—emphasizing the vertical line rather than the more horizontal line typical of earlier domestic furnishing—they are embellished with delicate ornament. Marquetry in coloured woods or metal inlay frequently is found in arabesque patterns resembling seaweed and spiders’ webs. Highboys and lowboys are major pieces for the period, and serpentine stretchers and spiral turnings are typical. Walnut superseded the use of oak as the basic wood of English cabinetry during this period, and a number of exotic woods such as acacia and olive, which reached the country via new East–West trade routes, were put to use as veneer and inlays. Japanning, the popular Asian lacquerwork, also remained in vogue. Characteristic of William and Mary style are the scallop shell, C- and S-scrolls, and the acanthus leaf of classical tradition. Daniel Marot, a Huguenot, was designer general to the royal couple; but his work is overshadowed by the skillful inventions of Gerrit Jensen, the most fashionable furniture designer of his day, whose inspiration seems to have been mainly French. Walnut The Walnut woods are probably the most recognisable and popular of all the exotic woods, having been used in furniture making for many centuries. Walnut veneer was highly priced and the cost would reflect the ‘fanciness’ of the veneer – the more decorative, then the more expensive and desirable. Oystering or oyster veneer is a decorative form of veneering, a type of parquetry. This technique is using thin slices of wood branches or roots cut in cross-section, usually from small branches of walnut, olive, kingwood and less commonly laburnum, yew and cocus. The resulting circular or oval pieces of veneer are laid side by side in furniture to produce various decorative patterns. Because the shape formed resembles an oyster shell the technique acquired the name of oyster veneering. This technique is likely to have been developed by English cabinet-makers in the 1660s, immediately after the Restoration of the monarchy, first being used on furniture such as the cocus wood cabinet on stand which bears the cipher of Queen Henrietta Maria, constructed in c.1661- 65, and now at Windsor Castle. Early oyster veneered cabinets were invariably in cocus or kingwood. Contemporary longcase clock cases were similarly veneered. The fashion for such furniture becoming widespread and also spreading to Holland by around the mid-1670s. Oyster veneering fell out of fashion from c.1710.

Dimensions:
Height: 4.73 in (12 cm)Width: 19.69 in (50 cm)Depth: 14.57 in (37 cm)
Place of Origin:
United Kingdom
Period:
1680-1689
Date of Manufacture:
c.1680
Condition:
Seller Location:
London, GB
Reference Number:
Seller: 061191stDibs: LU95061417352