A pair of mahogany and ormolu mounted commodes a vantaux in the Russian style, early 19th century, remounted after 1993 in the manner of Friedrich Gambs, each having a stepped, crossbanded top with canted angles, above an ormolu dentil frieze and pair of panelled doors centred with a sunburst patera and reeds on a shaped star and fluted ground, within a beaded frame, the keyholes with bearded mask escutcheons, enclosing drawers to one commode and shelves to the other, the canted corner angles with triglyphs and panels of fluting above a flowerhead, the tapering conforming legs with cast sabots. Each with firebrand marks TT below a crown, one with inventory mark in pencil St.E 15549, for Schloss St Emmeram, Regensburg the other with L170 for Schloss Leitomeisehl, Bohemia.. provenance: Sotheby's, Sammlung Thurn & Taxis sale, 12-15 October 1993, Regensburg, lot 33. John Hobbs, 107A Pimlico Road, London, 2006. Bonhams, The Owston Collection, Day 2, 26 June 2010, lot 1226, acquired from the above. Other Notes: originally part of the contents of Schloss St Emmeram in Regensburg, Germany, (an opulent palace that was one of the seats of the Princely Thurn und Taxis family), these commodes were sold in the massive Sotheby's auction of the collection in 1993. Between the sale date and their re-appearance on the market in London in the early 2000s they underwent an ' extreme makeover' that transformed them from a polite pair of Viennese cabinets to a knockout pair of 'Russian' commodes a vantaux, that is with doors hiding the three long drawers within. Richly mounted with ormolu stars and mouldings in the manner of the celebrated maker Heinrich Gambs they were sold to a noted Australian collector for a purported six figure pounds sterling amount. Resurfacing in the Owston collection auction in Sydney in 2010 where they were acquired by the current vendor, the Thurn und Taxis collection stamp was discovered and the mystery was unravelled.
- Patera - A small decorative device, used as ornament in Neo-classical style furniture. Patera (or paterae) are usually round or oval, in the form of stylized rosettes. In the best pieces they are carved directly into the timber, otherwise they applied to the surface. Sometimes painted or inlaid motifs in the style are referred to as patera. Also known as a boss or a rosette.
- Panels - Timber pieces, usually of well-figured wood either recessed or applied over the frames of doors and as decoration elsewhere in the carcase of cabinet furniture. The panels may take a variety of shapes rectangular, square, shield shape, oval, half-round or in the form of Egyptian pylons.
- Frieze - An architectural term denoting the flat, shaped or convex horizontal surface of furniture, between the architrave and the cornice, usually found on a cabinet or bookcase, or on desks and tables where it may include drawers, the area between the top and the legs. In ceramics, the term refers to the banding, of usually a repeating pattern, on the rims of plates and vases.
- Dentil Moulding - An architectural ornamental feature found on furniture, usually directly beneath the upper mouldings on a cornice. The timber is cut in a series of deep rectangular sections, alternatively raised and flat, like the crenellation on a castle battlement. In appearance not unlike a row of small teeth. From the latin "dens", teeth. Most commonly seen on bookcases, chests and cabinets, and less frequently on desks and wardrobes.
- Provenance - A term used to describe the provable history of an antique or work of art, and thus an additional aid to verifying its authenticity. Provenance can have an inflating effect on the price of an item, particularly if the provenance relates to the early settlement of Australia, a famous person, or royalty. Less significant are previous sales of the item through an auction house or dealer.
- Escutcheons - An escutcheon is a plate, made of brass, wood, ivory or ebony, which fits into or over the h keyhole, to protect the edge of the timber keyhole from damage by continual insertions of the key. As a general rule you would expect these escutcheons to be sympathetic in design to the handles of the piece. From the early 19th century escutcheons were sometimes made from ivory, ebony, bone or contrasting wood, often cut in a diamond or shield shape and inlaid into the front. Ivory, in particular, will tend to discolour with age, and certainly should not show up as brilliantly white.
- Mahogany - Mahogany is a dense, close grained red-coloured timber from the West Indies and Central America. It was first imported into Europe in the the early 18th century and its use continued through the 19th century. It was popular for furniture making because of its strength, the wide boards available, the distinctive grain on some boards, termed flame mahogany and the rich warm colour of the timber when it was polished.. The "flame" was produced where a limb grew out from the trunk of the tree, and this timber was usually sliced into veneers for feature panels on doors, backs and cornices.
Some terms used to describe mahogany relate to the country from which it originally came, such as "Cuban" mahogany, "Honduras" mahogany etc. However unless the wood has been tested the names assigned are more a selling feature, rather than a true indication of the timber's origin.
- Manner of .... / Style of ..... - A cataloguing term where the item, in the opinion of the cataloguer is a work in the style of the artist, craftsman or designer, possibly of a later period.
- Mouldings - Decorative strips, deriving from architectural features, that may be either applied separately to a piece of furniture or worked directly on to the carcase. Mouldings are found on cornices or pediments, around the edges of panels and drawer fronts, and around both the tops and bottoms of chests, bookcases and other cabinet furniture. Until the late 19th century mouldings were worked by hand, using a shaped moulding plane. Latterly, they have been shaped by machine.
- Fluting - A form of decoration found on many pieces of furniture, as well as ceramics, silver and clocks, in which round-bottomed grooves, of varying width and depth, are let into columns, pilasters, legs. As a general rule, flutes are cut in the vertical, though they may follow a turned leg in a spiral pattern. In cross-section, they may be described as a series of 'U' shapes, rising and narrowing at each end of the groove. Fluting is the opposite of reeding, with which fluting is often associated.
- Commode - The word "commode" when used to describe an item of furniture, has three usuages:
1. As used to describe an item of English furniture, it refers to what is euphemistically called a 'night table', that is a small cabinet concealing a chamber pot.
2. In its 18th century French usuage it describes a low and highly decorated chest of drawers for salons and reception rooms. A bombe commode is a commode with rounded sides and front, giving the chest a somewhat swollen look.
3. It is also used to denote a half round or serpentine shaped cabinet, with panelled doors, standing on legs. They were pieces on which the cabinetmaker lavished his most accomplished art, with rich veneers, marquetry inlays, gilt mounts and other ornamentation.
- Crossbanding - Crossbanding is a decorative technique used in furniture-making, where thin strips of wood, known as crossbands, are applied to the surface of a piece of furniture to create a decorative border or inlay. The crossbands are typically made of a different type of wood or a different color than the main piece of furniture, and are applied in a geometric pattern, such as a checkerboard or herringbone design.
Crossbanding was a popular decorative technique in furniture-making from the 17th to the 19th centuries, particularly in the Baroque, Rococo, and Chippendale styles. It was often used to create intricate patterns and designs on the surfaces of tables, desks, cabinets, and other pieces of furniture. The crossbands were often made of exotic woods, such as ebony or rosewood, which were imported from other parts of the world and were highly prized for their rich colors and patterns.
- Ormolu - Ormolu was popular with French craftsmen in the 18th and 19th century for ornamental fittings for furniture, clocks and other decorative items. True ormolu is gilt bronze, that is bronze that has been coated with gold using a mercury amalgam. Due to the health risks associated with using mercury, this method of creating ormolu was discontinued in France in the 1830s. A substitute was developed consisting of about 75% copper and 25% zinc, however it was inferior to the bronze version. It was often lacquered to prevent it tarnishing.
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