Object Description
This is an elegant Antique French Empire Flame Mahogany dressing table, circa 1870 in date.
The shaped rectangular mirror is flanked by cylindrical columns and adorned with gilded bronze mounts.
The flame mahogany tabletop has a small drawer on each side.
It features a frieze drawer and is raised on ormolu-mounted cylindrical columns united by a shaped under-tier shelf.
There is no mistaking its superb quality and fantastic design, which alone is certain to make this a talking point in your home and become a treasured addition to the furniture in your bedroom.
Condition:
In really excellent condition, having been beautifully cleaned, polished and waxed in our workshops, please see photos for confirmation.
Dimensions in cm:
Height 143 cm x Width 92 cm x Depth 44 cm
Dimensions in inches:
Height 4 foot, 8 inches x Width 3 foot x Depth 1 foot, 5 inches
Empire style
is an early-19th-century design movement in architecture, furniture, other decorative arts, and the visual arts, followed in Europe and America until around 1830.
The style originated in and takes its name from the rule of Napoleon I in the First French Empire, where it was intended to idealize Napoleon’s leadership and the French state. The style corresponds to the Biedermeier style in the German-speaking lands, the Federal style in the United States, and to the Regency style in Britain. The previous style was called the Louis XVI style in France.
The Empire style was based on aspects of the Roman Empire. It is the second phase of neoclassicism, which is also called “Directoire”, after a government system.
Furniture typically had symbols and ornaments borrowed from the glorious ancient Greek and Roman empires.
The furniture was made from heavy woods such as ebony, imported from the colonies, with dark finishes, often with decorative bronze mounts. Marble tops were popular, as were Egyptian motifs like sphinxes, griffins, urns and eagles and the Napoleonic symbols, the eagle, the bee, the initials “I” and a large “N.”
Gilded bronze (ormolu) details displayed a high level of craftsmanship.
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: A5085