Leather panel with a central, shaped cartouche including a plinth below a fan-shaped motif flanked by birds, the whole decorated with varnished foild set against a dark brown ground (within the cartouche) and a grey-white ground (outside the cartouche), the details highlighted in polychrome varnishes, Southern Netherlands, ca. 1700-25.

A rectangular panel of leather, decorated with moulded relief, highlighted in varnished foil, imitating gilding, against a background of dark brown paint within a central cartouche, grey- white outside it. The relief areas are further decorated with polychrome paint over the foiling. The panel centres on a cartouche with in-curved borders, outlined with cross-reeded banding and enclosing a trellised plinth supporting a fan-shaped motif, between two birds, with naturalistic flowers below the plinth and bunches of grapes to either side of the plinth, below the birds. Outside the central cartouche, the long sides who framing elements from a second cartouche and the corners are decorated with shield-shaped motifs, running out from the main cartouche frame.

Given by Murray Marks

This is probably the most popular pattern ever made: five almost identical, but different versions exist (some of them in a mirrored version), even as two others, which are slightly different.

Wall hanging in the country house Gronsöo (Sweden); country house Vemmetofte (Denmark); kasteel Rhoon (Neth.); country house Rosenholm (Sweden); Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem (Neth.) Panels in the V&A, museum no. 476-1869; Kunstgewerbemuseum, Dresden, inventory number 9800; Deutsches Ledermuseum, Offenbach am Main, inventory number 3799; Bijloke Museum, Gent, inventory number unknown; Museo Albert Sampaio, Guimaraes (Port.) See for the 19th-century version: museum numbers 3692-1856, 3692A-1856, 3692B-1856, 3693-1856 and 3694-1856.

Another version of this pattern, dated to the early 18th century, is in the collections at Schloss Weesenstein, Saxony, Germany, illustrated in Jean-Pierre Fournet, Cuirs Dorées, "Cuirs de Cordoue", un Art Européen (Château de Saint-Remy-en-l'Eau: Editions Monelle Hayot, 2019), p. 158, fig. 215. Two other versions, from the Glass Tielker Collection, D-Hückelhaveare illustrated on p. 177, figs. 242a&b, with a note that very similar panels were made by the workshop of Carolous Jacobs in Malines, notably for the Hôtel de Ville at Furnes (Veurnes) in Belgium, where it can still be seen in the Albertzaal.

Mass-produced panels of leather, with embossed designs, became popular in many areas of Europe during the 17th century. By 1700 they were produced in very large numbers, particularly in the Netherlands.

The patterns were created by carved wooden moulds, into which the dampened panel of leather was pressed. When dry, the raised areas were decorated with silver-coloured metal foil, varnished to give the effect of gilding. The ground areas were coloured with paints or varnishes, which might also be used to add highlights to the foiled areas. Such panels are usually referred to as 'gilt leather' although no gold leaf was used. They were particularly popular for dining rooms, where they did not trap food smells as textile hangings would do.

This pattern must have been highly popular. Several versions are known, with different coloured finishes, both in museum collections and surviving in houses and public buildings as far apart as Brussels and Denmark.

477-1869