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Norwegian architectural and furniture design partnership formed in 1922 by Gudolf Blakstad (b Gjerpen, 19 May 1893; d Oslo, 1986) and Herman Munthe-Kaas (b Christiania [now Oslo], 25 May 1890; d Oslo, 5 March 1970). Blakstad was awarded his diploma as an architect at the Norwegian Institute of Technology in Trondheim in 1916. He collaborated with Jens Dunker on the New Theatre, Oslo, from 1919 to 1929. After a preliminary training in Christiania, Munthe-Kaas finished his education at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm in 1919.

From the beginning of their careers Blakstad and Munthe-Kaas played a leading role in Norwegian architecture. After studying in Italy in the early 1920s, they advocated Neo-classicism in architectural projects, furniture designs and writings. In 1922 they won the competition for the new Town Hall in Haugesund (1924–31), a major work of 20th-century Norwegian Neo-classicism. Above a powerfully rusticated basement, the long office wing with its regular fenestration contrasts with the higher City Council Hall, accentuated by pairs of monumental, free-standing columns. In general the effect is of robust strength and an exciting interplay of horizontals and verticals....

(b London, 1756; d London, Jan 7, 1811).

English painter and art collector of Swiss descent. Born to a family of Swiss watchmakers in London, Bourgeois was apprenticed as a boy to P. J. de Loutherbourg. The latter heavily influenced his art, which was to elevate him to membership of the Royal Academy in 1793. Bourgeois specialized in landscape and genre scenes and achieved recognition in his own day with works such as Tiger Hunt and William Tell (both c. 1790; London, Dulwich Pict. Gal.), but his works are no longer regarded as of any note.

Bourgeois was linked from an early age with Noël Desenfans, who in effect adopted him when his father left London for Switzerland. Desenfans promoted Bourgeois’s reputation as an artist and involved him in his own activities as a picture dealer. Bourgeois became passionately interested in buying paintings, and in the last 15 years of his life bought considerable numbers, sometimes creating financial problems for the partnership. His taste was characteristic of the traditional Grand Manner of his time, concentrating on the great names of the 16th and 17th centuries, particularly academic works and paintings of the Netherlandish schools....

(b Edinburgh, 1749; d Leith, Sept 5, 1787).

Scottish draughtsman and printmaker. He was the son of a goldsmith and watchmaker, and studied at the Trustees’ Academy, Edinburgh, before moving to Rome in 1769 to join his friend Alexander Runciman. He produced small-scale or miniature works, using pencil, pen and wash. For his Scottish employers, William Townley and Sir William Young, he drew antiquities, landscapes and archaeological ruins in Italy and Sicily, such as the Basilica of Constantine and Maxentius (c. 1774–6; Edinburgh, N.G.). Among the more personal works that survive from his 11 years in Italy are a number of strange little genre scenes, such as Two Men in Conversation (c. 1775–80; U. London, Courtauld Inst. Gals), which clearly show the influence of another friend, Henry Fuseli. Brown’s reputation rests principally on his great skill as a portrait draughtsman. He returned to Scotland in 1780, and spent his later years executing fine pencil and pen portraits of various dignitaries, such as ...

(b c. 1706; d 1753).

English engraver, designer of trade cards and furniture designer. In 1746 he published A New Book of Ornaments, and subsequently collaborated with Matthias Lock on a second edition (1752). The New Book contains designs for side-tables, torchères, clocks, frames, pier-glasses and fireplaces, very much in the Rococo idiom but also including such chinoiserie motifs as ho-ho birds and oriental figures. Copland also provided plates for the ...

(b Stockholm, April 25, 1709; d Stockholm, Nov 9, 1777).

Swedish architect, administrator, designer and collector. Considered the most technically orientated of 18th-century Swedish architects, he studied mechanics under the engineer Christoffer Polhem (1661–1751) and architecture and drawing with Carl Hårleman and continued his studies in Paris and Rome, while recruiting artisans for work on the Royal Palace, Stockholm. He became Hårleman’s assistant during the construction of the palace and succeeded him as Superintendent of Works (1753–68). He used the Baroque style in his refurbishment of the interior of the church of St Mary, Stockholm (1760). He was also responsible for the Rococo interiors of the royal palaces of Drottningholm and Stockholm and designed several country houses, such as Svenneby in Östergötland and Myrö in Närke (both 1770). As an urban planner he is best known for his designs for bridges. He also invented (1767) a type of tiled stove that remained a typical feature of Swedish interiors (...

(b Linz, Oct 15, 1889; d Vienna, March 27, 1957).

Austrian architect, furniture designer and teacher. He trained first in Linz and from 1909 at the Technische Hochschule, Vienna, under the Neo-classicist Karl König (1841–1915). He completed a year in Josef Hoffmann’s studio at the Wagnerschule in 1913–14, and after World War I he returned to work with Hoffmann, rising to be his senior assistant and helping with the development of the Wiener Werkstätte. In 1926 he left to work in Clemens Holzmeister’s studio, teaching with him at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Vienna. Active in the Österreichischer Werkbund during the 1920s and 1930s, Fellerer built two houses (1932) for the Werkbundsiedlung in Vienna. In 1934 he was appointed Director of the Kunstgewerbeschule and succeeded Hoffmann as head of its architectural section until he was dismissed by the Nazis in 1938. From 1934 he was also in private practice with Eugen Wörle (b 1909) and won a Grand Prix at the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne in Paris in ...

(fl 1715; d Munich, 1738).

French landscape designer and engineer, active in Germany. He trained under André Le Nôtre at Versailles, from where he was seconded by Louis XIV to serve Maximilian II Emanuel, the exiled Elector of Bavaria, who was then building the château of Saint-Cloud. On being restored to power, Maximilian II Emanuel took Girard back with him to Munich to oversee the landscaping of his estates; Girard was appointed Fountain Engineer and Inspector of Works in 1715. His principal work for the Elector was at Schloss Nymphenburg, where he and Charles Carbonet (fl 1700–15; also a pupil of Le Nôtre) replanned and enlarged the park, laying down a series of formal gardens, pavilions and spectacular fountains about the central axis of the Würm canal. Girard and Carbonet also worked for Maximilian II Emanuel at Schleissheim, Schloss. The Neues Schloss (1701–27) and gardens were designed together to enhance each other. The project was intended to supersede Schloss Nymphenburg as a symbol of princely ambition, but it was never completed. In ...

(b Blois, May 5, 1661; d London, Jan 18, 1733).

French engraver, active in England. He was a Huguenot from a family of engravers and watchmakers. By 1681 he had moved to London and was admitted to the Clockmakers Company in 1686, possibly because of work he did for them engraving watchcases. He engraved other silver objects such as salvers and snuff boxes (e.g. a silver-gilt comfit box, c. 1690; London, V&A). He published two books of prints intended as pattern books for his fellow craftsmen—A Book of Severall Ornaments (London, 1682; O’Connell, no. 1) and A Book of Ornaments Usefull to Jewellers Watchmakers and All Other Artists (London, 1697; o’c 2). These were derived from the work of earlier French designers, including Jean Berain I and Jean Vaquer (1621–1686). In 1707 Gribelin was the first engraver to reproduce the Raphael Cartoons (o’c 7), then on display at Hampton Court (British Royal Col., on loan to London, V&A). These prints had a significant influence on the development of printmaking in England. In response to them a group of noblemen brought ...

(d London, ?June 1786).

English furniture designer. Though a household name in the context of late 18th-century furniture, he remains a shadowy figure. Lowndes’s London Directory of 1786 records his business at Redcross Street, Cripplegate, London, and after his death the administration was granted to his widow, Alice, on 27 June 1786. The Public Ledger of 10 October 1786 announced an auction of his stock-in-trade and household furniture. In 1788 his widow published the Cabinet-maker and Upholsterer’s Guide. Its aim was ‘to follow the latest and most prevailing fashion’ and to adhere ‘to such articles only as are of general use’. The intended public included both the cabinetmaker or upholsterer and the client (the ‘mechanic and gentleman’, as Alice Hepplewhite put it). There followed a slightly revised edition in 1789 and an ‘improved’ one in 1794, with an extra plate and revised chair designs. Six engravings bearing Hepplewhite’s name appeared in Thomas Shearer’s Cabinet-makers’ London Book of Prices...

(b Venice, May 14, 1783; d Venice, May 8, 1852).

Italian architect, engineer and landscape designer. He was a prominent Neo-classical architect but was also a noted eclectic, much admired, for example, by Pietro Selvatico, and he introduced the taste for the romantic garden to Italy. He attended courses in architecture and figure drawing at the Accademia Clementina, Bologna (1789–9). This school, which was in the forefront of theatre design and technique, provided a stimulating and enlightened cultural environment; his teachers included Angelo Venturoli (1749–1821) and Francesco Tadolini (1723–1805). After obtaining his diploma in 1800, he moved to Padua, and in 1803 he entered the studio of Giovanni Valle, a mapmaker, where he became a qualified surveyor. He collaborated with the engineer Paolo Artico between 1804 and 1806 on defence works on the River Piave, and in 1807, with the architect Daniele Danieletti (1756–1822), he restored the old prison in Carrara Castle. The same year he was also appointed as an engineer in the Regio Corpo di Acque e Strade in the Brenta region. His works of this period included decorating the town hall (...

(bapt London, Jan 13, 1714; d c. 1778).

English furniture designer and carver. Nothing is known of his apprenticeship or early work, but he published Twelve Gerandoles in 1755, styling himself ‘Thomas Johnson, Carver, at the Corner of Queen Street, near the Seven Dials, Soho’. Between 1756 and 1757 he issued some 52 sheets of designs for Glass, Picture, and Table Frames; Chimney Pieces, Gerandoles, Candle-stands, Clock-cases, Brackets, and other Ornaments in the Chinese, Gothick, and Rural Taste, publishing the collection as a complete volume in 1758 from a new address in Grafton Street. His designs were marked by a bold use of Rococo, chinoiserie and Rustic motifs, incorporating rocaille and animals. In 1761 he brought out another edition entitled One Hundred and Fifty New Designs. It was dedicated to Lord Blakeney, President of the Antigallican Association, a group hostile to new-fangled French fashions and keen to better them. His slight New Book of Ornaments, published in 1760...

(fl c. 1790–c. 1839).

English furniture designer. In the mid-1830s he described himself as ‘an upholsterer of fourty five years experience’. He produced a series of pattern books containing designs for furniture and upholstery that was widely used by commercial cabinetmakers. The Modern Style of Cabinet Work Exemplified (1829) was reprinted in an improved version in 1835 and was still in demand in the trade as late as 1862, when it was reissued unaltered. King claimed that ‘as far as possible the English style is carefully blended with Parisian taste’ in the 227 designs, but he also included Grecian and Gothic furniture. King’s interpretation of the prevailing French taste is a typically confused mixture of bold Baroque scrolls and lighter Rococo curves. His Designs for Carving and Gilding (1830) contains both Greek and Rococo Revival designs, as does Modern Designs for Household Furniture (n.d.). In 1833 King published a book of full-size designs for makers of cabinets, chairs and sofas, turners and carvers entitled ...

(b Seyssel-en-Bugey, Sept 23, 1723; d Lyon, Feb 23, 1804/5).

French silk designer, manufacturer, merchant and mechanical engineer. Little is known of his education and training before 1744. He was apparently a pupil of Pierre Sarrabat (b 1701), a painter and designer at the silk factory in Lyon. It is possible that Lasalle may have trained in Paris and may well have been in contact with the Savonnerie and Gobelins factories, where he could have acquired his penchant for depicting flowers. In July 1744 he began a five-year apprenticeship with Jean Mazamieu. He qualified as a master craftsman in August 1749 and then went into business on his own. His compositions were characterized by a spacious and well-balanced style, and his fabric designs, admired for their elegance and purity of form, were enlivened with birds, insects, small figures and landscapes. He rendered flowers to perfection, as seen in those he depicted as a frame for the woven portraits in which he specialized from ...

(b Paris, March 19, 1715; d St Petersburg, March 24, 1759).

French painter, furniture designer, architect and engraver. He studied with Jacques Dumont and won the Grand Prix de Peinture in 1739. He remained for eight years in Rome, where his architectural designs for the temporary centrepiece of the annual Chinea festival (1745, 1746 and 1747) are early examples of Neo-classicism, displaying a simple architectonic use of the orders that indicates his association with Giovanni Battista Piranesi in the circle of students of the Académie de France in Rome, who were highly influential in French architecture from the 1760s onwards. On his return to Paris in 1747, Le Lorrain enjoyed the patronage of the Comte de Caylus, for whom he executed engravings of ancient paintings and revived the technique of encaustic. Through de Caylus he obtained a commission from Count Carl Gustav Tessin to design quadratura representations of columns and niches for the dining-room walls of his country house at Åkerö, Sweden, in ...

[Mathias]

(b London, c. 1710; bur London, Dec 22, 1765).

English furniture designer and carver. The earliest record of Matthias Lock is his apprenticeship in London to his father, Matthias, joiner, and to Richard Goldsaddle, carver, in 1724. As the usual age to begin an apprenticeship was 14, he was presumably born c. 1710. He married Mary Lee at St Paul’s, Covent Garden, London, in July 1734. Between 1742 and 1744 he executed work for the 2nd Earl Poulett of Hinton House, Somerset; annotated sketches in his own hand survive from this commission, which include a side-table, pier-glass and candle stands. A pier-glass and table from the Tapestry Room of Hinton House are now at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, which also owns a large collection of Lock’s drawings.

Lock is most famous for designing pieces in the Rococo style, with a fluency and grace not hitherto achieved in England. In 1744 he published Six Sconces. There followed Six Tables...

(b Cologne, 1731; d Oxford, Dec 12, 1812).

English painter and printmaker of German birth. The son of a watchmaker, he moved to England c. 1754 and taught music and drawing in London, Lewes and Bristol before settling in Oxford as a drawing-master and leader of the band at the city’s Music Room. In 1763 he published 12 etchings of views near Oxford; further sets of etchings followed in 1771 and 1772. His only Royal Academy exhibit was a watercolour landscape, shown in 1773 when he was listed as an honorary exhibitor. There is no evidence that he sold his work. Nearly 500 drawings by Malchair are in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; these include unpretentious cottage subjects and panoramic views of the city (e.g. Oxford in Flood Time, from Shotover Hill, 1791) characterized by an atmospheric haziness achieved through blurred pencil lines and grey or pastel wash. Visits to north Wales in 1789, 1791 and 1795 encouraged him to use bolder grey washes, strong pencil lines and vertiginous mountain compositions as, for example, in ...

(fl London, 1760–c. 1770).

English furniture designer and cabinetmaker. He was recorded as working in the Haymarket, London, from 1760 until 1766, but no furniture documented or labelled from his workshop has been identified. In 1760 he contributed 50 designs to Houshold Furniture in Genteel Taste, sponsored by a Society of Upholsterers and Cabinetmakers, and in the same year he published the Carpenter’s Compleat Guide to the Whole System of Gothic Railing, which consisted of 14 plates. There followed the Cabinet and Chair-maker’s Real Friend and Companion in 1765, with designs for 100 chairs in Gothic, chinoiserie, Rococo and Rustic styles. A second edition, virtually unaltered, appeared in 1775. In 1766 he brought out the Chair-maker’s Guide, containing ‘upwards of Two Hundered New and Genteel Designs … for Gothic, Chinese, Ribbon and other chairs’; it includes two plates from William Ince and John Mayhew’s Universal System of Household Furniture and at least six from ...

(b Nancy, Sept 18, 1728; d Paris, July 9, 1794).

French architect, designer and engineer. He was a son of Simon Mique (d 1763), an architect and builder related to the Mieg family from Alsace. He studied in Paris under Jacques-François Blondel, and on his return to Lorraine he was appointed Architecte-Ingénieur to Stanislav Leszczyński, Grand Duke of Lorraine and former King of Poland, for whom Simon Mique had rebuilt a wing at the château of Lunéville. Richard Mique’s schemes in Nancy include the Porte St Stanislas and the Porte Ste Catherine (1761), built as Doric triumphal arches in the style of Blondel. On the death of Emmanuel Héré (1763) he was appointed Directeur Général des Bâtiments.

On the death of Stanislav I in 1766 and the reversion of Lorraine to France, Mique was called to Versailles by Maria Leszczyńska, daughter of Stanislav and queen of Louis XV, to design a convent and school for the Ursulines (now the Lycée Hoche). The layout comprises a courtyard flanked by visiting-rooms (...

(b ?Stockton-upon-Tees, Co. Durham; bur London, Oct 27, 1806).

English furniture designer. In his obituary he was described as ‘a native of Stockton-upon-Tees, and for many years a journeyman cabinetmaker, but who since about the year 1793, has supported himself, a wife and two children, by his exertions as an author’. In his first pattern-book of 1791–3 he described himself as a cabinetmaker, but a trade card of about 1796 (London, BM) indicates that he was a professional furniture designer and drawing-master rather than the owner of a workshop. He is first recorded as being in London in 1791 but he returned to Co. Durham c. 1800–02, where he was ordained as a Baptist minister. His remaining four years were spent in London, and he was buried at St James’s, Piccadilly. In 1804 he was described by Adam Black, a publisher, as ‘a Man of Talents, and, I believe, of genuine piety. He understands the cabinet business—I believe was bred to it, he has been, and perhaps at present is, a preacher; he is a scholar, writes well; draws, in my opinion masterly; is an author, bookseller, stationer and teacher’....

(fl c. London, 1786–1828).

English furniture designer. He published in three parts his influential A Collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, with 158 plates dating from 1804 to 1807, issued in one volume in 1808. It was available plain or for a guinea extra ‘elegantly coloured’ and was the most comprehensive pattern book of Regency furniture designs. Most of the designs are based on ancient Greek or Roman forms and display the influence of Thomas Hope, whose house in Duchess Street, London, was open to the public from 1804. Smith also included a few Egyptian, Gothic and Chinese designs. On the title-page of the book Smith is described as ‘Upholder Extraordinary to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales’, but little is known of his cabinetmaking activities, and no furniture by him has been identified. Smith contributed furniture designs to Rudolf Ackermann’s Repository of Arts, and in 1812 he published A Collection of Ornamental Designs after the Manner of the Antique...