Antique Edwardian Marquetry Inlaid Library Bookcase / Display Cabinet C1900

A fine quality Edwardian fiddleback mahogany, satinwood, zebra wood and marquetry break bowfront library bookcase, Circa 1900 in date.

The cavetto moulded and floral scroll marquetry cornice sits comfortably over a central pair of five panel oval astragal glazed doors, enclosing two shelves to each section. This sits over a satinwood banded base with five drawers each with oval gilt brass handles, and three superbly decorated marquetry doors with ribbon tied pendant husks and floral swags, musical trophies and bat wing paterae. The bookcase is raised on six square tapered legs,

This cabinet is of the very highest quality and made of fiddleback mahogany, satinwood and zebra wood.

Add a touch of unparalleled elegance to your home.

Condition:

This cabinet is in excellent original untouched condition having only been beautifully cleaned, polished and waxed in our workshops, and is ready to grace your home.

Dimensions in cm:

Height 225 x Width 186 x Depth 61

Dimensions in inches:

Height 7 foot, 5 inches x Width 6 feet, 1 inch x Depth 2 foot

Marquetry

is decorative artistry where pieces of material 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 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.

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.

Our reference: A2969