Object Description
This is a stunning antique Edwardian Breakfront Flame Mahogany & Floral Marquetry Inlaid Wardrobe by the famous London retailer S & H Jewell, Circa 1910 in date.
It has been accomplished in the very finest quality flame mahogany with inlaid floral marquetry decoration of the highest quality.
The wardrobe features a triple swan neck pediment cornice with cornucopia and floral inlay, above four shaped panelled doors finely inlaid with flowing vases. The pair of central doors enclosing five sliding trays, above a pair of half-width drawers over a pair of full-width drawers. These are flanked by conforming full-length twin panel doors enclosing brass hanging rails with a lidded shoe cupboard at the bottom of each. The wardrobe is raised on a plinth base.
The wardrobe is fitted with the original brass oval handles and escutcheons and is complete with working locks and the original key. One of the drawers bears the oval brass label of S & H Jewell.
There is plenty of space in the hanging areas and lots of drawer space for storage.
The wardrobe breaks down into six pieces for ease of moving.
This piece is truly unique and is guaranteed to bring beauty and charm to your home for many years to come
Condition:
In really excellent condition having been beautifully cleaned, polished and waxed in our workshops, please see photos for confirmation.
Dimensions in cm:
Height 248 cm x Width 258 cm x Depth 60 cm
Dimensions in inches:
Height 8 foot, 2 inches x Width 8 foot, 6 inches x Depth 2 feet
S & H Jewell,
were fine quality cabinet makers that were established in 1830. They were a family business and they worked from their premises at 29-31 Little Queen Street, Holborn, in London, and then later to Parker Street, LONDON. W.C.2. They are recorded as having sold furniture to the Arts and Craft home Standen House, East Grinsted, and the receipt dated 1st May 1894 states that the company was founded in 1830. They also restored early pieces of antique furniture and sold them in their London showrooms.
A set of Regency-style chairs made and retailed by S. & H. Jewell are in the Great Parlour, Chequers, Buckinghamshire (the country residence of British Prime Ministers). These were purchased by Lord & Lady Lee of Fareham, who owned the house from 1909 and in 1917, gifted the estate to the Nation.
Marquetry
is decorative artistry where pieces of material of different colours are inserted into surface wood veneer to form intricate patterns such as scrolls or flowers.
The technique of veneered marquetry had its inspiration in 16th century Florence. Marquetry elaborated upon Florentine techniques of inlaying solid marble slabs with designs formed of fitted marbles, jaspers and semi-precious stones. This work, called opere di commessi, has medieval parallels in Central Italian “Cosmati”-work of inlaid marble floors, altars and columns. The technique is known in English as pietra dura, for the “hardstones” used: onyx, jasper, cornelian, lapis lazuli and colored marbles. In Florence, the Chapel of the Medici at San Lorenzo is completely covered in a colored marble facing using this demanding jig-sawn technique.
Techniques of wood marquetry were developed in Antwerp and other Flemish centers of luxury cabinet-making during the early 16th century. The craft was imported full-blown to France after the mid-seventeenth century, to create furniture of unprecedented luxury being made at the royal manufactory of the Gobelins, charged with providing furnishings to decorate Versailles and the other royal residences of Louis XIV. Early masters of French marquetry were the Fleming Pierre Golle and his son-in-law, André-Charles Boulle, who founded a dynasty of royal and Parisian cabinet-makers (ébénistes) and gave his name to a technique of marquetry employing brass with pewter in arabesque or intricately foliate designs.
Flame Mahogany
Thomas Sheraton – 18th-century furniture designer, once characterized mahogany as “best suited to furniture where strength is demanded as well as a wood that works up easily, has a beautiful figure and polishes so well that it is an ornament to any room in which it may be placed.” Matching his words to his work, Sheraton designed much mahogany furniture. The qualities that impressed Sheraton are particularly evident in a distinctive pattern of wood called “flame mahogany.”
The flame figure in the wood is revealed by slicing through the face of the branch at the point where it joins another element of the tree.
Our reference: A4733