This is a beautiful antique French ormolu-mounted Louis Revival walnut display cabinet, circa 1870 in date.
This beautiful cabinet has an abundance of exquisite ormolu mounts as well as intricate inlaid parquetry and marquetry decoration.
It has shaped glass to the front and sides, stands on elegant, slender cabriole legs and has three shelves to display your collectables.
It is surmounted with an exquisite ''Rosso Carpazzi'' marble top and will add a touch of unparalleled style to your home. It is perfect for displaying your collection of silver or porcelain.
Complete with working lock and key.
Condition:
In excellent condition, having been beautifully cleaned, polished, waxed and the interior relined in our workshops, please see photos for confirmation.
Dimensions in cm:
Height 160 cm x Width 90 cm x Depth 38 cm
Dimensions in inches:
Height 5 foot, 3 inches x Width 2 foot, 11 inches x Depth 1 foot, 3 inches
Marquetry
is decorative artistry where pi
...eces of material of different colours are inserted into the 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 brass with pewter in arabesque or intricately foliate designs.
Parquetry is a geometric mosaic of wood pieces used for decorative effect. The two main uses of parquetry are as veneer patterns on furniture and block patterns for flooring. Parquetry patterns are entirely geometrical and angular—squares, triangles, lozenges.
The word derives from the Old French parchet, literally meaning ''a small enclosed space''. Large diagonal squares known as parquet de Versailles were introduced in 1684 as parquet de menuiserie to replace the marble flooring that required constant washing, which tended to rot the joists beneath the floors.
Such parquets en lozange were noted by the Swedish architect Daniel Cronström at Versailles and at the Grand Trianon in 1693. Timber contrasting in color and grain, such as oak, walnut, cherry, lime, pine, maple etc. are sometimes employed; and in the more expensive kinds, the tropical hardwoods are also used.
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
Internal Reference: 07854x
Antique ID Number (AIDN): SA1209217
Dateline of this antique is 1870
Height is 160cm (63.0inches)Width is 90cm (35.4inches)Depth is 38cm (15.0inches)
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