Antique 19th Century French, Italian and German Chairs
CHAIRS About 1815-1860
Above, an Austrian Biedermeier sofa, about 1820,
french Charles X mahogany ,armchair, about 1825.
Biedermeier (post-Empire) style in Austria, Germany, Scandinavia, 1815-35. Chairs – mostly without arms – have square-section legs, straight or slightly splayed, and low backs with top rails projecting at sides beyond uprights, enclosing lyre, vase, dolphin or triple reed motifs, or simple horizontal rails. Balloon-back chairs, 1835-50. Armchairs ousted by settees, mainly Empire in style with sabre or cornucopia-shaped feet; turned feet after 1830. One type has compartments in arms for magazines. Highly original designs with serpentine supports by Danhauser of Vienna.
In 1830, Thonet of Boppard, Prussia, begins experiments that lead to factory in Vienna producing bentwood chairs, rocking-chairs, stools, settees, at first Biedermeier in style but developing unique curvilinear character by 1850 – still in production. In Poland, Above, French Louis Philippe rosewood sofa with neo-classical marquetry decoration.
`Simmler’ style (named after Warsaw family firm founded in 18thC) influenced by Biedermeier, French and English styles). In Russia, upholstery embroidered with flowers.
France retains many Empire elements following restoration of monarchy in 1815 (Restauration) e.g. la meridienne – couch with scrolled ends, one lower than the other; fauteuil a gondole – armchair with rounded
Russian Karelian birch chair in Biedermeier style, about 1820.
prow-like back. Gothic revival about 1840 adopts chair-backs with pointed arches, cluster columns in troubadour style, otherwise known as cathedrals when applied to prie dieuxwith low sloping seat. Rococo chairs and settees in Louis XV style reproduced.
Italy continues Empire style, toys with Gothic revival; burgeoning nationalism favours Dantesque chairs and stools on X-supports, echoing Italian Renaissance.
Spain follows semi-classical ‘Fernandino’ phase at mid-century with full-blooded revival of baroque (’Isabellino’ style).
Pale woods (bois clairs) — cherry, bird’s eye maple — fashionable until return about 1840 to mahogany, ebony, oak, walnut. Wide range of upholstery fabrics.
Steam-driven machinery makes for cheaper production, but mainly confined to sawing boards and veneers. Most joints still cut by hand, except in large factories. Thonet’s patented method of steaming birch rods into curved shapes makes mortise-and-tenon joints obsolete for his chairs; e.g. No. 14 in his range is composed of six sections screwed together; components exported for assembly at destination.
Biedermeier: Carving of swans, dolphins. Ebonised classical columns applied to fronts of settees.
Restauration: Marquetry in dark woods on light grounds. Fewer ormolu mounts.
Troubadour (Cathedrals): Carving and piercing of Gothic motifs.
Dantesque: Carving in Renaissance style. Rococo revival: Carving in Louis XV style.
Biedermeier: Polished, never stained. Restauration: French polishing. Some
legs of seat furniture veneered. Troubadour: Oak left natural or waxed. Dantesque: Walnut sometimes ‘antiqued’ with black stain.
Rococo revival: Painted and/or gilded.
Sets of Biedermeier chairs expensive but odd ones often very reasonably priced. Anything in bois clairs is now appreciably dearer than the mahogany equivalent.
Chair-seats may be either ’stuffed over’, the upholstery being fixed to the frame of the chair with small tacks, or ‘drop-in’, the seat fitting within, but not fixed to, the frame. If, as often happens, a drop-in seat is re-upholstered without removing the existing cover, the fit is usually too tight; this may result in loosening of mortiseand-tenon joints, leading to splits.
A Napoleon 111 mahogany side-chair in Gothic style.
19thC Alpine walnut chair, the back in the form of grotesque mask.
CHAIRS About 1850-1890
Below, rococo revival sofa with elaborate carving, about 1860.
Le confidant, legs normally covered by deep fringe.
crapaud’ (vernacular name for fully-upholstered armchair). All heavily stuffed, deep-buttoned and with long fringes hiding their turned feet.
Rococo revival fauteuil With cartouche-shaped back and cabriole legs.
Revivals of historic styles abounded, but were often interpreted in new ways, so despite all the slavish copying that went on, most seat furniture of this period can hardly be mistaken for any other.
Rococo revival chairs combine cabriole legs with baroque twists, while chaises longues and sofas have backs with curves bolder than anything known in 18thC.
From 1850s, Napoleon III (Second Empire) side chairs have tapered legs derived from Louis XVI types, but turnings are more pronounced and ringed with gilt metal headings. A suite comprises sofa, two armchairs, four or six side-chairs with exposed frames, often ebonised, the legs with gilt flutes. Balloon backs, familiar since 1830s, remain popular.
napoleon III chair with turned, tapered and fluted legs.
New types include le confident (S-shaped sofa — occupants whisper to each other while facing in opposite directions); le canape capitonne (prototype of modern settee, with sausage-shaped arms); le pouf (circular stool): la chauffeuse capitonne tonne a roulettes (low, armless chair on wheels for drawing up to fire); Ve
‘Sociable” used at centre of salon, about 1860.
Mahogany, walnut, beech for side chairs and armchairs with exposed woodwork, beech for frames of fully upholstered types. Horsehair and flock for stuffing. Steel for spiral springs. Bamboo for chairs in oriental styles. Rich upholstery fabrics, especially plush (wool velvet as distinct from silk).
Apart from mass-produced, screwed-together Thonet products (see CHAIRS about 1815 to 1860, p. 227), traditional methods assisted by machinery are employed for seats with exposed woodwork. For frames of fully upholstered types, dowels increasingly used in place of mortise-and-tenon joints, and towards end of century for chairs with show-wood (exposed) frames. Most important development is spiral springing, first invented in Germany, patented in Britain in 1828 but not in general use until about 1850.
Revivals: Carving, sometimes rather coarse, of motifs more or less appropriate to the style imitated.
Contemporary: Turning, carving, fluting of legs, marquetry on top rails. Main decorative feature is rich upholstery and fancy trimmings, especially fringes.
Much exposed woodwork ebonised, otherwise French polished.
Taste swings periodically for and against ebonised furniture. If Napoleon III types are bought in a bear market, complete or part salon suites in need of re-upholstery can be picked up at bargain prices.
EBONISED SEATS
The fashion for ebonised seats spread to Britain in the 1860s and it is often difficult to be sure about the country of origin. A useful but not infallible guide is that most Continental (especially French and
Italian) examples have small leather-covered wheels; English have brown or white porcelain castors. English castors, however, were imported in bulk by furniture manufacturers in Germany. It is fairly safe to conclude that chairs of this period with porcelain castors are not French, and that ones with leather wheels are not English – unless, of course, they have been replaced.
Tags: armchair, armchairs, bentwood chairs, CHAIRS, danhauser, Empire, empire style, french louis, gothic revival, italian renaissance, Napoleon, Renaissance, rosewood, upholstery