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Originally Posted by Missileer I can't really lump all pieces from one period as a favorite. |
I can understand why Shaker furniture would appeal to a maker.
Fine antique furniture is my game, or has been for nearly 50 years, now my hobby. Not as a maker, you understand. but as a searcher, a discoverer, a turner- up , a researcher, of the best. i have been involved with a lot of restoration , but usually i had staff. We did all our own. I used to have shops in Camden Passage and Kings Road, London, as well as in my home town. Only antique, of course, the periods you mention.
In the Louvre, The Musee D'orsay, Paris is a the most wonderful 19th century library table I have seen. It is Paris, with fabulous signed marquetry by the greatest 19th century marqueteur, Joseph Cremer. It is often on display, and is represented as the best of marquetry in the best reference books. I discovered the table, unrecognised until then, and no expert authority knew who Cremer was at the time. Difficult research required, and in doing so I realised that this table established the fact that Cremer made the finest of marquetry panels etc for the great New York furniture makers to incorporate into their pieces.
Some years later I did it again with an overlooked and rejected rare cabinet which to my eye was fabulous. Although the cabinet was New York, I recognised the marquetry decoration as Cremer, and it ended up in the Houston museum, to the best of my knowledge. This also is represented in reference books as the best of its genre.
Marquetry, Italian furniture, & the great American and English makers were part of my speciality, and only last week i was at the museums on advanced and detailed research into an item by George Bullock , the most innovative British cabinet-maker and designer of the 19th century . Quality second to none, he was given the job by Britain of producing the complete furnishings of the new home for the exiled Napoleon on St Helena. This involves, of course, the Regency period, maple with brilliant ebony marquetry , and superb cabinet-making. Duncan Phyffe (spelling?)is another of my favourites, as well as the great American 18thc. makers of Boston, Charleston, Newport etc.etc. I also loved the QA periods, English and American, including the 19th c. revivals in fantastic burr-walnut veneers. Sets of 8 and 10, fabulous elbow and open armchairs, wing-back armchairs ; oh Yes! Double-dome top Bookcases! I have seen the museums of Washington and Charleston, and scanned through the plantations to familiarise myself. Love it. And few people would know where one of the best collections of 18th c. furniture in America is held. I do not think I am at liberty to say, but TI may well know.
England used to be an absolute treasure chest of great things, because in the 19th century we were great finders and importers of antigues from all over.
Keep up the good work, so brilliant to be a maker.
