Saturday, December 12, 2009

Rococo Bed

The Rococo bed, which is an exclusive 18 century French bed is an excelent example of elegance and sophistication brougth to us from the French culture. The bed is custom painted in either white or turquoise and comes in king and queen sizes.

The wood frames of the bed are in extreme detail and elaborated as no other bed could be. The bed includes a night stand with three drawers for storage in your bedroom.
This excludingly elegant bed is great in your bedroom and brings brightness to your room. The details and white color bring a modern black and white feeling of a night ball filled with glamour, elegance, sophistication, and the French romanticism.

The Rococo bed is a must have if you are someone who likes to have the most glamorous, elegant, sophisticated, and romantic pieces of furniture to make your home more upscale and show people the class of elegance that you have.




Saturday, December 05, 2009

Writing Table

WRITING TABLE





A writing table (French bureau plat) has a series of drawers directly under the surface of the table, to contain writing implements, so that it may serve as a desk. Antique versions have the usual divisions for the inkpot, the blotter and the sand or powder tray in one of the drawers, and a surface covered with leather or some other material less hostile to the quil or the fountain pen than simple hard wood.


Writing table (Bureau plat), about 1750, Gaspard Feilt (designer and maker), France V&A Museum no. 1052:1 to 5-1882


In form, a writing table is a pedestal desk without the pedestals, having legs instead to hold it up. This is why such tables are sometimes called leg desks.

The writing table is often called a "Bureau plat" when it is done in a French style such as Louis XVI, art nouveau, etc. When a writing table is supported by two legs instead of four, it is usually called a trestle desk.


The writing table is also sometimes called a library table, because it was often placed in a rich individual's library. This was the room in a house where a gentleman would keep literature and also do his business transactions. The library often housed, in addition, a round desk called a rent table and sometimes a drawing table. The term library table is sometimes applied indiscriminately to a wide variety of desk forms, in addition to being used for writing tables. Let the scholar or the buyer be wary.


Friday, November 20, 2009

Fireplace mantels

FIRE MANTEL


In the early Renaissance style, the chimneypiece of the Palais de Justice at Bruges is a magnificent example; the upper portion, carved in oak, extends the whole width of the room, with nearly life-size statues of Charles V. and others of the royal family of Spain. The most prolific modern designer of chimneypieces was G. B. Piranesi, who in 1765 published a large series, on which at a later date the Empire style in France was based. In France, the finest work of the early Renaissance period is to be found in the chimneypieces, which are of infinite variety of design.


The English chimneypieces of the early seventeenth century, when the purer Italian style was introduced by Inigo Jones, were extremely simple in design, sometimes consisting only of the ordinary mantel piece, with classic architraves and shelf, the upper part of the chimney breast being paneled like the rest of the room. In the latter part of the century the classic architrave was abandoned in favor of a much bolder and more effective molding, as in the chimneypieces at Hampton Court, and the shelf was omitted.

In the eighteenth century, the architects returned to the Inigo Jones classic type, but influenced by the French work of Louis XIV. and XV. Figure sculpture, generally represented by graceful figures on each side, which assisted to carry the shelf, was introduced, and the over-mantel developed into an elaborate frame for the family portrait over the chimneypiece. Towards the close of the eighteenth century the designs of the Adam Brothers superseded all others, and a century later they came again into fashion. The Adam mantels are in wood enriched with ornament, cast in molds, sometimes copied from the carved wood decoration of old times.
Modern wooden fireplace mantel in a suburban American home.Mantels or fireplace mantels can be the focus of custom interior decoration. A mantel traditionally offers a unique opportunity for the architect/designer to create a personal statement unique to the room they are creating. Historically the mantel defines the architectural style of the interior decor, whether it be traditional i.e. Classic, Renaissance, Italian, French, American, Victorian, Gothic etc.
The choice of material for the mantel includes such rich materials as marble, limestone, granite, or fine woods. Certainly the most luxurious of materials is marble. In the past only the finest of rare colored and white marbles were used. Today many of those fine materials are no longer available, however many other beautiful materials can be found world wide. The defining element of a great mantel is the design and workmanship.
A mantel offers a unique opportunity in its design for a sculptor/artisan to demonstrate their skill in carving each of the fine decorative elements. Elements such as capitals, moldings, brackets, figures, animals, fruits and vegetation are commonly used to decorate a mantel. One might say that a mantel can be an encyclopedia of sculpture. More than the material, it is the quality of the carving that defines the quality of the mantel piece thus highlighting the magnificence of the room.
In 1834 Gideon Algernon Mantell (1790 - 1852), was given a sandstone block containing Iguanodon bones. This was nicknamed the 'Mantell-Piece'.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Queen Anne style furniture

1702 - 1714
Queen Anne (1665 - 1714) was the last monarch of the House of Stuarts. The Queen Anne style is a refinement of the William and Mary style. The single most important decoration of Queen Anne furniture was the carved cockle or scallop shell. Cabinetmakers replaced the straight, turned legs with more graceful, curving ones . Feet were likely to be the simple pad or Dutch foot, occasionally he drake foot, which was carved with three toes. Walnut became the preferred wood in both England and America, along with cherry and maple. Imported mahogany began to be favoured. Regardless of the wood, a small amount of Queen Anne furniture was painted white. Card and the collapsible bridge table or gaming tables were another Queen Anne innovation










ICR 010 QUEEN ANNE DINNER
58Wx56Dx108H  Cm
Please visit our website at www.intactantique.net to see our complete range.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Early Upholsterers - Did you know?

Textiles did not come into use of furniture coverings until the early seventeenth century. Prior to then, the upholsterer, or "upholder," as he was called, was something of an interior designer / master craftsman, who not only installed but also hand-crafted all of the decorative treatments in the home that utilize textiles. 
An exclusively male domain, the job of the early upholsterer was considered extremely prestigious. Upholsterers did not dress in workman's attire but in gentleman's finery. One of the early London guilds, which was granted its coat of arms in 1465, bore the telling name The Worshipful company of Upholders. Even when the onset of the seventeenth century meant that the job of upholsterer expanded to include what's now considered its primary focus., covering furniture, the extreme costliness of textiles meant that their use on furnitures was restricted to royalty or the very rich. Commissioning an upholsterer to cover furnishings carried many of the same connotations then as hiring an interior designer does today, though fewer homeowners could afford the services.

---the book of upholstery by Candace Ord Manroe---