Furniture Design Ideas

O nly recently, through the researches of Luns – ingh Scheurleer. have we come to know of Pierre Gole. certainly the most important ebeniste during the first half of Louis XIV’s reign. He was born in Bergen near Alkmaar in Holland in about 1620 and settled at a young age in Paris. In about 1643 […]

Pierre

I n the eighteenth century ordinary furniture was sold directly by the ebenistes, whereas luxury furniture was sold increasingly through the dealers, then called the ‘marchands-mcrciers’. The fashion begun by Boulle of decorating furniture with rich gilt – bronze mounts made its production very expensive. The <5b£nistes, who were always short of capital, gradually lost […]

I n the seventeenth century the furniture trade was divided be­tween the ebenistes. the tapissiers (upholsterers) and the mar – chands-merciers. The marchands-merciers included furniture under the same general heading of curiosites’ as shells. Chinese por­celain and scientific instruments. The curiosity’ trade was located on the lie de la Cite near the Palais, and in […]

U ntil the middle of the eighteenth century, auction cata­logues did not categorize furniture as such. Only paintings, drawings, works of sculpture and intaglios were deemed worthy of coverage in a printed catalogue. In dispersals by execu­tors. second-hand furniture, which was judged to be of little value, was sold by auction without a catalogue, or […]

T he received notion that furniture was very expensive in the eighteenth century needs to be seriously reconsidered. First, new and second-hand furniture (called ’de hazard’ in the language of the time) should be distinguished. Second-hand fur­niture was considerably cheaper, except for collectors’ items such as Boulle furniture. At a time when the cost of […]

he supremacy of French furniture in our period was gener­ lesser extent in Italy and England. The Faubourg Saint – Antoine exported some of its finest furniture, and advertisements by ebenistes are to be found in contemporary almanacs offering to make ‘deliveries to the country and abroad’. Some furniture found today in Britain. Russia and […]

T he factors that made Paris the capital of commerce for lux­ury goods in the eighteenth century are well known. France was then the richest country in Europe, with the highest population, and its capital was a great city with a love of ostentation and novelty. The numerous contemporary descriptions of Paris bear witness to […]

D uring the seventeenth century and even more so during the eighteenth, the trades involved in the making of articles of wood in France, the m£tiers du bois. were strictly regulated by the guilds. Originally craftsmen in wood were grouped together in one single guild, that of the menuisiers, which had broken away from the […]

The title of this work calls for preliminary comment. A good third of the French ebenistes of the seventeenth and eight­eenth centuries were first or second generation immigrants. A glance at the contents list of this book will bear this out. Ebenistes of the century of Louis XIV came from the Flemish Netherlands or from […]