Antique Dutch Marquetry Mahogany Secretaire Cabinet, circa 1800

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Antique Dutch Marquetry Mahogany Secretaire Cabinet, circa 1800

About the Item

This is a fabulous antique Dutch Secretaire a Abbatant, circa 1800 in date. It is made of fabulous flame mahogany with an incredibly complex satinwood floral marquetry decoration with ribbons, garlands, birds and seaweed marquetry. This piece is of the highest quality with a beautifully fitted fall front secretaire interior with a full width frieze drawer above it. This impressive secretaire features a useful bank of pigeon holes and a shelf above six small drawers and a central cupboard. The fall front marquetry writing surface is fitted with an inset burgundy leather and the interior of the secretaire is also smothered in exquisite floral marquetry decoration. There are three useful drawers below the secretaire and they are fitted with their original brass handles and escutcheons. The secretaire rests on a decorative plinth base raised on elegant tapering legs. Fitted with the original working locks and keys. A lot of skilled work went in to making this incredibly decorative item. Condition: In excellent condition having been beautifully restored in our workshops, please see photos for confirmation. Dimensions in cm: Height 163 x width 104 x depth 46. Dimensions in inches: Height 5 feet, 4 inches x width 3 feet, 5 inches x depth 1 foot, 6 inches. Flame Mahogany 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. Satinwood is a hard and durable wood with a satinlike sheen, much used in cabinetmaking, especially in marquetry. It comes from two tropical trees of the family Rutaceae (rue family). East Indian or Ceylon satinwood is the yellowish or dark-brown heartwood of Chloroxylon swietenia. The lustrous, fine-grained, usually figured wood is used for furniture, cabinetwork, veneers, and backs of brushes. West Indian satinwood, sometimes called yellow wood, is considered superior. It is the golden yellow, lustrous, even-grained wood found in the Florida Keys and the West Indies. It has long been valued for furniture. It is also used for musical instruments, veneers, and other purposes. Satinwood is classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Sapindales, family Rutaceae. 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 centres 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.

Dimensions:
Height: 64.18 in (163 cm)Width: 40.95 in (104 cm)Depth: 18.12 in (46 cm)
Materials and Techniques:
Mahogany,Satinwood,Marquetry
Place of Origin:
Netherlands
Period:
1800-1809
Date of Manufacture:
circa 1800
Condition:
Seller Location:
London, GB
Reference Number:
Seller: 071631stDibs: LU95066097453