English 1680-1700

English 1680-1700

Table of walnut, with veneers and floral marquetry in various woods.

The top is covered with marquetry designs of tulips, carnations and other flowers, and birds, with an inner oval frame, and mitred border of fleshy acanthus. The top contains a single large drawer with two cast brass baluster pulls, the front decorated with two rounded panels of flowers and leaves. Four spiral legs(single bine), with a baluster above the spiral, are joined by a flat X-shape stretcher with a central, oval floral marquetry panel, on bun feet. Around the drawer, on three sides is a border of shaded leaf (marquetry), and with a single marquetry flower on the front of the block above each leg. The sides of the drawer compartment are plain.

The form of the drawer pulls dated c1690-1720

The top and stretcher of oak, veneered. The drawer compartment in softwood, dovetailed. The drawer in oak (with softwood front), of dovetailed construction, the bottom with four boards of oak, grained front to back, which are nailed up into rebates in the front, back and sides.

Modifications
A reinforcing plate of wood has been glued under the central panel of the stretcher, and a biscuit insert fitted to the panel.

Bought (£85) from Cecil Millar, 150 Brompton road, London SW7 'stretchers restored', on 8 October 1910
RF 1910/5157, 1910/4081

Displayed in gallery 56 until 1994

Tables of this form with a single drawer and X-form stretcher, dating 1670-1700, were usually made en suite with a mirror and pair of candle-stands, a furnishing idea that probably originated in France and reached England from about 1660. The 'triad' would often be placed against a pier between windows, serving in the grandest rooms as a formal element without specific practical use, but in more modest domestic contexts as a dressing table, with the table often covered with a cloth. Various combinations of different veneers and marquetry are found, sometimes also japanning, and with silver mounts. Conspicuous, twist-turned legs were widely used. Similar tables survive in relatively large numbers and varied quality, while far fewer stands have survived. A broadly similar floral marquetry table (of particularly fine quality, with inlay also in the round),and with partly ebonised legs was installed at Ham House between 1679-83.

It is generally considered that brightly coloured and naturalistic floral marquetry was produced in England by about 1670, following developments by Parisian cabinet-makers from about 1661. John Evelyn’s second edition of Silva (1670) describes the use of hot sand shading in ‘Flower-works’ by ‘Our Inlayers’, perhaps implying that it was practiced by English specialists, not (only) Netherlandish or French immigrants. Bowett suggests that the high cost of marquetry may have encouraged the use of small oval or quadrant panels (produced by specialist workshops and supplied to other cabinet-makers) during the period c1670-85, but that ‘all-over’ floral marquetry was available to those willing to pay for it.

The technique of floral marquetry
The design was drawn on paper, pricked and transferred to a working paper using a ‘pounce pad’ with fine bitumen powder, or graphite or coloured chalk. The design was cut into its individual elements and each glued to its respective veneer, with reinforcing paper on the other side. Several veneers (for the same design) would be clamped into a packet and sawn out using a marqueteur’s ‘donkey’ or jigsaw. After cutting, individual elements could be shaded using hot sand. The ground veneer would be sawn out in a similar way by assembling and glueing the pre-cut elements into the floral design on top, allowing for small variations in the whole design. Once the floral marquetry and the ground veneers were cut, the whole design would be assembled (face down) on paper, glued to the wooden substrate (paper uppermost), and dried under pressure.

John Evelyn describes the use of coloured native woods such as “Berbery for yellow and Holly for White”, alongside others imported from Asia and the Americas: “Fustic [Chlorophora tinctoria], Locust, or Acacia; Brasile [Caesalpinia], Prince [Dalbergia cearensis] and Rosewood for Yellow and Reds, with severall others brought from both the Indies”. Marqueteurs also used dyes on receptive native woods such as pear, sycamore or holly to achieve varied tones of a wide range of bright but fugitive colours including black, blue, green, yellow and red.

See Adam Bowett, English Furniture 1660-1714, (Woodbridge, 2002), chapter 2, Case Furniture 1660-89

Tables of this form with a single drawer and X-form stretcher were usually made en suite with a mirror (hung above) and pair of flanking candle-stands. This furnishing idea probably originated in France and reached England from about 1660. The group would often be placed against a pier between windows, serving in the grandest rooms as a formal element without specific practical use, but in more modest domestic contexts as a dressing table, with the rich decoration of the table top often protected with a cloth.

Brightly coloured and naturalistic floral marquetry was produced in England by about 1670, following developments by Parisian cabinet-makers from about 1661. John Evelyn (in his book Silva, 1670) describes the use of coloured native woods such as “Berbery for yellow and Holly for White”, alongside others imported from Asia and the Americas: “Fustic [Chlorophora tinctoria], Locust, or Acacia; Brasile [Caesalpinia], Prince [Dalbergia cearensis] and Rosewood for Yellow and Reds, with severall others brought from both the Indies”. Marqueteurs also used dyes on receptive native woods such as pear, sycamore or holly to achieve varied tones of a wide range of bright but fugitive colours including black, blue, green, yellow and red.

This object is on loan to Sewerby Hall.

W.86:1, 2-1910