Panel of stamped, foiled and polychromed leather, formal design with shaped central cartouche in Louis XIV Revival style, Jacques Michel Dulud, Paris, ca. 1855

A rectangular leather panel, moulded and decorated with varnished foil, imitating gilding, and with polychrome paints and varnishes. The panel is composed of two skins, joined horizontally approximately 13 cm above the lower edge. The design centres on a central cartouche with in-curved corners, outlined with cross-reeded gilt banding and enclosing a trellised plinth supporting a fan-shaped motif, between two birds, with naturalistic flowers below the plinth. Outside the central cartouche, the long sides show framing elements from a secondary cartouche and the corners are decorated with tightly rolled scrolls of formal foliage. The ground outside the central cartouche is painted dark brown; inside, the lower part is painted dark green and the upper part turquoise. The raised elements of the design are foiled and varnished to appear gilded, with additional colouring of details in browns and greens. The top of the panel has been cut on a slight diagonal but the dimensions remain close to those recorded in 1856.

Acquired directly by the Museum at the Exposition Universelle, Paris 1855. See: Third Report of Department of Science and Art for 1855', pages 67, 80.

Purchased for 12 shillings.

Identical to V&A Museum numbers 3692-1856 to B-1856 and 3693-1856. Identical panels can also be found in the Deutsches Tapetenmuseum, Kassel, inv.no. 5/5, and as part of the wall hanging in the house Keizer Karelstraat 75, Gent, Belgium (1992). This is the 19th-century version of V&A Museum numbers 476-1869, 477-1869. Another version of the design, in Schloss Weesenstein, Saxony, Germany, is 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, that version dated to the beginning of the eighteenth century. 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.


Transferred 01/09/1965 from Bethnal Green Department to the Woodwork Department (RP 65/2340)

Maker recorded in early published acquisition lists of the Museum. Made at the 'Cuirs Dulud' workshop, 14 rue Vivienne, Paris.

This leather panel was one of a set of four which the Museum bought from the Paris International Exhibition in 1855.The four panels show different stages of production, or different varieties of decoration, from the first moulded design, with no colour, to the finished state, with the stamped decoration covered partly in metal foil which is varnished to give the effect of gold leaf, and partly with colourful paints and varnishes.

'Gilt leather' as it is generally called, was first produced in the 17th century but was fashionable again in the 1850s. This design is based on those first produced in France during the reign of Louis XIV (1643-1715). The firm of Jacques Michel Dulud, who made these panels, exhibited at several international exhibitions, including the Great Exhibition of 1851. They were best known for making panels in Gothic or Renaissance styles, but clearly they could also produce good imitations of 17th and 18th century styles.

3694-1856