[MR] Book of Antique Furniture

[rmhowe]

> RE: [MedEnc] Chests w/ dovetails
> Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 12:01:23 +0200
> From: "Barclay, Peter C. MAJ" <barclayp at eucom.mil>
>   To: <MedievalEncampments at yahoogroups.com>
> Colin,
>         Some cassone were constructed with dovetails.   I have several (not
> very good) pictures of some in a museum in Milan at
> http://www.greydragon.org/trips/Italy/milan.html.     
> 
> One photo is specifically of the dovetails on one of the cassone.  It is
> particularly interesting because this particular cassone is not painted, but
> is carved instead.   Most cassone (but not all) were painted and any relief
> was done with raised/carved gesso.  
> respectfully,  Terafan
> 
> Master Rhys Terafan Greydragon           barclayp at eucom.mil

Master Terafan,
  Your ivory chest [identified as Byzantine 12th Century Ivory] and a 
reasonable number of period furniture illustrations from ancient to 
modern are in:

Rousseau, Francis: The Book of Antique Furniture - An International
Style 
Guide from the 16th through the 20th Century;  This Edition (2000) 
translated by Lisa Davidson, Copyright Studio, Paris, France 1999 
from Le Grand Livre des Meubles.
	Published in America by Chartwell Books, a Division of Book 
Sales Inc., 118 Northfield Avenue, Edison, N.J., U.S.A. 88837.  
Hardback, color dust jacket and nearly all pictures inside.  224 pages, 
hundreds of illustrations. Written from the French Point of View as 
opposed to the American or Anglo-centric. ISBN 078581227X 
[$20/ $10 currently on discount sale at Barnes and Noble].
http://www.bn.com/

There are some chests, tables, chairs and beds in it.
Most are identified as to location and date/reign style.

One particularly nice looking folding Savonarolla Chair with an
attractively carved wooden back is in it. The actual book
starts with ancient furniture from Egypt and the near East.

One of the tables is a very nicely pierced and carved
High Gothic table with an octagonal top that is supposed
to be able to be taken apart from the Musee de Cluny, Paris.
Also a Chest with Venetian Maquetry, Italy 12th C. - Musee de Cluny.

There are several more very nice chests in it. A wrought iron
8 candle chandelier with leaf decorations. Tables with fold in half
tops or pullable extensions under the tops. Canopied beds,
huge carved armoires or cupboards. Highly carved tables of
later periods. A very fine Spanish Philip II Vargueno with inlay.
(Spanish Desk Box on stand with separate column for supporting
the fold down desk top.). A photograph of the Nuremberg Goldsmith's
shop with a fancy Renaissance Anvil, a double ended crannequined
wire/molding draw bench with 38 draw plates, an X in O framed
table.  A Nuremberg Iron-bound Chest with a high number of
draw bolts in the locking system. And a number of other applicable
pictures. 

Not of too much use for early period personas though. Nothing 
Viking/Anglo-Saxon/Frankish/Early German at all. Most stuff is 
1475 onwards with a couple of dozen possibly earlier items.

Generally the book has two facing pages on some style specific
periods (like Henri II of France, or Elizabeth in England) that
have 3/5 illustrations of each periods furniture. In the back
of the book after the modern section are a few more period
pieces. It has a very interesting timeline with some apt comments
on how or when types of furniture evolved, what woods were used
and some comments on finishes. Comments are on each page and
also in specific timeline tables.

Considering that I pay $8 or more U.S. for American/European 
magazines with a few furniture pictures in them that may be 
Medieval or Gothic or Renaissance, or even Gothic Revival,
paying $10 for the colorful well photographed book at Barnes 
and Noble in the Bargain section currently was quite reasonable.

Magnus Malleus, OL, Atlantia, GDH