19th Century French Marquetry Sideboard Marble Top

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19th Century French Marquetry Sideboard Marble Top

About the Item

This stunning antique French side cabinet is in the French Louis XV transitional style and dates from the late 19th century. It was crafted from the most beautiful kingwood and rosewood, has wonderful ormolu mounts with exquisite floral marquetry decoration. It is surmounted with a beautiful variegated marble top that has an elegant moulded edge. The frieze with banded decoration is fitted with a central drawer with a smaller dummy drawer on each side. It has three spacious cupboards below, each with a central shelf. The central panels each with a marquetry of flowers and foliage in a vase, flanked by bow panels with geometric inlaid decoration. The alluring contrast between the Kingwood and the marble is offset by the gilded bronze handles and mounts. An exquisite marble top serves as the proverbial cherry to this masterpiece, accentuating the majestic aura surrounding this magnificent item. With working locks and keys and standing on squat tapering legs that terminate in ormolu sabots. This delicious piece of craftsmanship could serve any purpose. A truly gorgeous piece, this commode deserves pride of place in any furniture collection. Condition: In excellent condition, please see photos for confirmation. Dimensions in cm: Height 102 x width 124 x depth 46. Dimensions in inches: Height 3 feet, 4 inches x width 4 feet, 1 inch x depth 1 foot, 6 inches. Kingwood is a classic furniture wood, almost exclusively used for inlays on very fine furniture. Occasionally it is used in the solid for small items and turned work, including parts of billiard cues, e.g., those made by John Parris. It is brownish-purple with many fine darker stripes and occasional irregular swirls. Occasionally it contains pale streaks of a similar colour to sapwood. The wood is very dense and hard and can be brought to a spectacular finish. it turns well but due to its density and hardness can be difficult to work with hand tools. It also has a tendency to blunt the tools due to its abrasive properties. Marquetry is decorative artistry where pieces of material (such as wood, mother of pearl, pewter, brass silver or shell) of different colours are inserted into surface wood veneer to form intricate patterns such as scrolls or flowers. The technique of veneered marquetry had its inspiration in 16th century Florence. Marquetry elaborated upon Florentine techniques of inlaying solid marble slabs with designs formed of fitted marbles, jaspers and semi-precious stones. This work, called opere di commessi, has medieval parallels in Central Italian "Cosmati"-work of inlaid marble floors, altars and columns. The technique is known in English as pietra dura, for the "hardstones" used: onyx, jasper, cornelian, lapis lazuli and colored marbles. In Florence, the Chapel of the Medici at San Lorenzo is completely covered in a colored marble facing using this demanding jig-sawn technique. Techniques of wood marquetry were developed in Antwerp and other Flemish centers of luxury cabinet-making during the early 16th century. The craft was imported full-blown to France after the mid-seventeenth century, to create furniture of unprecedented luxury being made at the royal manufactory of the Gobelins, charged with providing furnishings to decorate Versailles and the other royal residences of Louis XIV. Early masters of French marquetry were the Fleming Pierre Golle and his son-in-law, André-Charles Boulle, who founded a dynasty of royal and Parisian cabinet-makers (ébénistes) and gave his name to a technique of marquetry employing shell and brass with pewter in arabesque or intricately foliate designs. 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 circa 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 color. 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).

Dimensions:
Height: 40.16 in (102 cm)Width: 48.82 in (124 cm)Depth: 18.12 in (46 cm)
Style:
Louis XV (In the Style Of)
Materials and Techniques:
Kingwood,Marble,Ormolu,Rosewood,Marquetry
Place of Origin:
France
Period:
1880-1889
Date of Manufacture:
circa 1880
Condition:
Seller Location:
London, GB
Reference Number:
Seller: 075451stDibs: LU95065285013