80 
House & Garden 
..... 
OBJECTS OF ART 
ENGLISH PERIOD, FURNITURE 
OLD ENGLISH INTERIORS 
TAPESTRIES 
London—27-29 Brook Street W. 
CHARLES of LONDON 
718 FIFTH AVENUE 
NEW YORK 
Old Carved Chippendale Chairs 
Satinover Galleries 
FLEMISH SCHOOL, 17 th CENTURY 
IMPORTERS OF 
SELECTED OLD MASTERS 
Illustrated Catalogue Sent on Request 
No. 3 West Fifty-S ixtk Street 
lllllllllllllllll 
NEW YORK 
Painted and 
decorated gilt 
bedstead in the 
Empire mode. 
C. 1800. Traver 
Spanish Wall Furniture of the 18th Century 
(Continued from page 78) 
ing Portuguese influence and possibly of 
Portuguese workmanship. The papelera 
was a favorite piece of Iberian small 
furniture and the contemplation of one 
of them always prompts one to ask why 
more use is not made of the idea today. 
In the Rococo Mode 
The next stylistic influence to domi¬ 
nate furniture design was the Rococo 
which, to a certain extent, may be re¬ 
garded as a diluted, weakened and flip¬ 
pant evolution from the Baroque without 
any residue of its dignity, albeit that 
dignity was sometimes heavy and dull. 
Rococo was very much like the little girl 
with the curl. When it was good, it was 
very, very good. The French designers 
and artisans knew how to handle it and 
when they did a good Rococo job it was 
instinct with grace and delicacy. But 
very few of the Spanish craftsmen knew 
how to treat Rococo and when they es¬ 
sayed anything in this fashion it was apt 
to be bad and, again like the little girl, 
when it was bad it was horrid. Spanish 
Rococo, for the most part, was vulgar 
and splurgy and often ran to excesses of 
tawdry, repulsive bedizenment. Gilt, 
glitter and flashy color, without much 
consideration for design, seem to have 
been its dominant characteristic. There 
were, however, instances when gleams of 
intelligence and taste pierced the dark 
cloud of banality and produced a few 
objects worthy of consideration. 
An example of such sanity is the 
trunk-line chest with arched top, gilded 
mounts and a cover of green velvet 
strained over the 
wood. The cor¬ 
ners, edges and 
top are embel¬ 
lished with a 
studding of 
brass - headed 
nails and the 
chest is mounted 
on a low gilt 
wooden stand 
with boldly 
carved scroll feet 
whose shape is 
peculiarly characteristic of this period. 
Another example of Rococo illustrated 
is the carved and gilt firescreen, a piece 
made by skilled craftsmen and intended 
for an elegantly appointed room. 
During the latter third of the 18th 
Century in Spain, as elsewhere in 
Europe, the return 'to purer and classic 
influences of design produced furniture 
deserving of the highest commendation. 
One notable example of the design and 
workmanship of this era is seen in the 
mahogany and rosewood veneered chest 
of drawers with a most refined and deli¬ 
cate inlay in light wood. Contour and 
workmanship alike display the greatest 
elegance and the piece may be compared 
favorably with anything that was pro¬ 
duced in England at the same time. 
This particular piece is a product of the 
Island of Majorca where a great deal of 
furniture of peculiar excellence was 
fabricated. Another specimen from this 
same period is the small marbled and 
gilt Bilboa mirror, strongly reminiscent 
of Adam inspiration in more ways than 
one. Other contemporary pieces coin¬ 
cided in character and evidenced the 
Spanish workman’s genius for consum¬ 
mate refinement as well as for gorgeous 
display. 
From the foregoing discussion it will 
be seen that 18th Century Spanish furni¬ 
ture was subject to much the same fluct¬ 
uations experienced in other countries 
and likewise that the Spanish cabinet 
makers had full control of all the deco¬ 
rative devices and processes employed 
elsewhere and that they used them 
to the full extent 
of their suscepti¬ 
bilities. It may 
also be seen that 
through the 
whole period the 
Spanish work¬ 
man was wont to 
impart to the ob¬ 
jects upon which 
he labored his 
own national in¬ 
terpretation. 
Green velvet covered chest. 
Gilt stand. C. 1745. Courte¬ 
sy of Ginsburg & Levy 
Mahogany and rosewood veneered chest of draw¬ 
ers from Island of Majorca. C. 1780. Traver 
