Antique French Empire Music Cabinet with Ormolu Mounts, circa 1830

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About the Item

This is a beautiful antique French flame mahogany and ormolu mounted music cabinet in the French Empire circa 1830. The cabinet is decorated with fabulous ormolu mounts and the door has a mount of Hippocampus - the mythological sea horse. The lower section has an arrangement of Canterbury divisions, ideal for your sheet music, and the cabinet stands on a plinth base with bun feet. It has a lovely Verde Antico marble top which complements the cabinet beautifully. Add a touch of unparalleled style to your home with this beautiful piece. Condition: In excellent condition having been beautifully restored in our workshops, please see photos for confirmation. Dimensions in cm: Height 100 x Width 71 x Depth 37 Dimensions in inches: Height 3 feet, 3 inches x Width 2 feet, 4 inches x Depth 1 foot, 3 inches Flame Mahogan y Thomas Sheraton - 18th century furniture designer, once characterized mahogany as "best suited to furniture where strength is demanded as well as a wood that works up easily, has a beautiful figure and polishes so well that it is an ornament to any room in which it may be placed." Matching his words to his work, Sheraton designed much mahogany furniture. The qualities that impressed Sheraton are particularly evident in a distinctive pattern of wood called "flame mahogany." The flame figure in the wood is revealed by slicing through the face of the branch at the point where it joins another element of the tree. Ormolu (from French 'or moulu', signifying ground or pounded gold) is an 18th-century English term for applying finely ground, high-carat gold in a mercury amalgam to an object of bronze.The mercury is driven off in a kiln leaving behind a gold-coloured veneer known as 'gilt bronze'. The manufacture of true ormolu employs a process known as mercury-gilding or fire-gilding, in which a solution of nitrate of mercury is applied to a piece of copper, brass, or bronze, followed by the application of an amalgam of gold and mercury. The item was then exposed to extreme heat until the mercury burned off and the gold remained, adhered to the metal object. No true ormolu was produced in France after around 1830 because legislation had outlawed the use of mercury. Therefore, other techniques were used instead but nothing surpasses the original mercury-firing ormolu method for sheer beauty and richness of colour. Electroplating is the most common modern technique. Ormolu techniques are essentially the same as those used on silver, to produce silver-gilt (also known as vermeil). The Hippocampus is commonly seen in ancient Greek art and is a mythical creature associated with the Greek god of the ocean - Poseidon (or Neptune in Roman myth). The Hippocampus has the top half of a horse including head neck and forelegs and the lower part of a fish, a dolphin or in some rare cases a serpent. Therefore the Hippocampus is literally a sea-horse. The name comes from the Greek ‘hippos’ meaning horse and ‘kampos’ meaning sea monster. Poseidon was the god of horses as well as the god of the sea and earthquakes. Many Hippocampi were needed to draw the chariot of the sea of Poseidon. Homer describes Poseidon as driving a chariot pulled by brazen-hoofed horses across the sea. The Hippocampus appears frequently in bronzeware, silverware and paintings of the ancient Greeks and the Etruscans but also feature in the artworks of India and Mesopotamia. According to one tale when the city of Helike was submerged by an earthquake the Hippocampi swam free above the city and pulled on the lines of fisherman's rods. Empire style, is an early-19th-century design movement in architecture, furniture, other decorative arts, and the visual arts followed in Europe and America until around 1830. The style originated in and takes its name from the rule of Napoleon I in the First French Empire, where it was intended to idealize Napoleon's leadership and the French state. The style corresponds to the Biedermeier style in the German-speaking lands, Federal style in the United States and to the Regency style in Britain. The previous style was called Louis XVI style, in France. The Empire style was based on aspects of the Roman Empire. It is the second phase of neoclassicism which is also called "Directoire", after a government system. Furniture typically had symbols and ornaments borrowed from the glorious ancient Greek and Roman empires. The furniture was made from heavy woods such as mahogany and ebony, imported from the colonies, with dark finishes often with decorative bronze mounts. Marble tops were popular as were Egyptian motifs like sphinxes, griffins, urns and eagles and the Napoleonic symbols, the eagle, the bee, the initials "I" and a large "N." Gilded bronze (ormolu) details displayed a high level of craftsmanship. Our reference: 06406

Dimensions:
Height: 39.38 in (100 cm)Width: 27.96 in (71 cm)Depth: 14.57 in (37 cm)
Place of Origin:
France
Period:
Mid-19th Century
Date of Manufacture:
circa 1830
Condition:
Seller Location:
London, GB
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU95062577682