Search Results

(b Aberdeen, 1740; d Philadelphia, PA, March 5, 1795).

American cabinetmaker of Scottish birth. He trained as a cabinetmaker in Edinburgh and London. In 1763 he arrived in Philadelphia on the same boat as John Penn, the new Governor of Pennsylvania and a future client, to join Quaker friends. He opened a shop on Union Street and eventually moved to Second Street in the Society Hill area. He made stylish mahogany furniture (sold 1788; e.g. Philadelphia, PA, Cliveden Mus.; armchair, Winterthur, DE, Mus. & Gdns) for the governor’s mansion at Lansdowne, PA, and many of the most prominent families in the city owned his work, including the Mifflins, the Whartons, and the Chew family at Cliveden. The parlour suite he made for John Cadwalader carved by James Reynolds and the firm of Bernard and Jugiez in 1770–71 was among the most elaborate ever produced in the colonies (pole screen, Philadelphia, PA, Mus. A.).

A Quaker and Loyalist, Affleck refused to participate in the Revolution (...

American family of joiners and cabinetmakers, active in Hadfield, MA. The brothers John Allis (1642–91) and Samuel Allis (1647–91), whose maternal great-uncle was Nicholas Disbrowe, were both joiners, as was John’s son Ichabod (1675–1747). The firm was managed by John Allis the elder, and employed his brother and sons; John the elder’s partner was ...

(b 1756; d 1833).

American chair-maker, active in Philadelphia, specializing in Windsor chairs, which were painted or gilded. His relatives (possibly sons) John and Peter Allwine were apprenticed to him. The first family workshop opened on South Front Street in 1791, and the last, on Sassafras Street (now Race Street), closed in 1809, when Lawrence and John migrated to Zanesville, in Muskingum County, OH, they continued to make chairs, and also ran a tavern. Lawrence Allwine is the eponym of the varnish known as ‘Allwine Gloss’....

(fl c. 1766; d Lisbon, 1814).

Portuguese wood-carver and cabinetmaker. From 1766 he worked uninterruptedly on commissions from the royal family or under their patronage, even after the court had gone into exile in Brazil in 1807. His name is recorded from 1803 in the book of those receiving communion in Rua S Roque in the Encarnação parish where he, like many other wood-carvers, lived or had his workshop. He was licensed as a wood-carver of the Casa do Infantado and later of the royal palaces (1805). When he applied for the latter qualification, he made a list (possibly chronological) of his works prefaced by the statement: ‘As I show here, I have been serving the royal household for thirty-three years’. This key document in Ângelo’s own hand allows a fuller survey of his work than has previously been feasible (Correira Guedes, 1971). Ângelo worked principally in executing the designs of architects of the royal household or the Casa do Infantado, sometimes on his own with complete freedom and responsibility, as in the construction of the tower for fireworks on the occasion of the inauguration (...

Term used, mainly in France, to describe painted ornament in the late 18th century incorporating grotesques, Strapwork and the foliate scrollwork enriched with grotesque figures. Contemporaries referred to the style, which was in evidence from 1775 and developed until the collapse of the ancien régime, as ‘goût étrusque’ (see Etruscan style) or ‘genre arabesque’, or sometimes used the double appellation ‘goût arabesque et étrusque’. It derives in part from surviving examples of the grotesque in Rome (see Grotesque) and is characterized by naturalistically shaped ornamental motifs, which pivot on a central axis to form a mirror image (see Arabesque). The principle of composition of the style lies in the curvilinear Acanthus scroll, symmetrically aligned on an axis and rolling up to form a spiral. Spirals are also found in the scroll friezes, in scroll motifs turning in on themselves to become spirals and in flutings. This naturalistic imagery is diametrically opposed to the heavy forms, sober abstract friezes and the severe and solemn pictorial inventions of early Classicism and the ...

Heavy iron or iron-bound coffer made in Germany and Flanders from the 16th century to the 18th, when they were supplanted by the safe. The chests had a dummy keyhole in the front and were fastened by a lock on the underside of the lid. The word ‘Armada’ may allude to the Spanish Armada, but there is no historical connection with the chests of the Armada....

(b 1717; d 1785).

American furniture-maker whose New York workshop specialized in chairs in the Chippendale style. His reputation is largely based on attributed pieces, such as the sets of chairs made for Sir William Johnson (now divided, examples in Winterthur, DE, Dupont Winterthur Mus. and New Haven, CT, Yale U. A.G.) and for the Van Rensselaer family (New York, Met.)....

Lidded urn on a carved tripod stand in the style of the metal tripod on the choregic monument of Lysikrates. James Stuart reconstructed the tripod, and invented the motif, which he used at Kedleston Hall (Derbys, NT) as painted wall decoration, as incense burners on chimney-pieces, as candelabra in front of mirrors, and in friezes above doors. The name derives from the use of the depiction of the tripod in Joseph-Marie Vien’s painting ...

(b Milton, MA, 1751; d Dorchester Lower Mills, MA, Aug 25, 1815).

American cabinetmaker . His father, also Stephen Badlam (1721–58), was a part-time cabinetmaker and tavern keeper. Orphaned at a young age, Badlam was trained both as a surveyor and as a cabinetmaker. Soon after the outbreak of the American Revolution he was commissioned as a major in the artillery. He resigned within a year because of illness but after the war was made a general in the Massachusetts militia. On his return to Dorchester Lower Mills, he opened a cabinetmaking shop in his house and became active in civic affairs. He built up a substantial business, which included participation in the thriving coast trade, and even sold furniture through the warehouse of Thomas Seymour in Boston. He also provided turning for other cabinetmakers in the neighbourhood and sold picture-frame materials and window glass. Several chairs in the Federal style with characteristic carved and stopped fluted legs are stamped with his mark, but his fame rests on the monumental mahogany chest-on-chest (...

(b 1760; d 1838).

Irish–American cabinetmaker. He was a native of Dublin who trained in London before emigrating in late 1794 to Philadelphia, which was then the capital of America. In 1812 he entered into partnership with his son and advertised his ‘fashionable Cabinet Furniture, superbly finished in the rich Egyptian and Gothic style’. Surviving examples of his furniture are in Neo-classical style, such as the sideboard in the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City....

(d Paris, March 22, 1772).

French cabinetmaker of German birth. About 1749 he became Marchand Ebéniste Privilégié du Roy Suivant la Cour et Conseils de Sa Majesté. He was active during the reign of Louis XV and was the only French cabinetmaker who was equally competent in both the Louis XV and Neo-classical styles. His pieces were few but of an extremely high standard; he employed fine wood marquetry, Japanese lacquer and Boulle marquetry, as well as producing rigorous bronzes. Although he was little known to the general public of his own day, such leading dealers as Léger Bertin, Hébert, Charles Darnault, Lazare Duvaux, Poirier and Claude-François Julliot gave him commissions, and through them he was patronized by a fashionable élite. His extant works in the Louis XV style include desks fitted with porcelain plaques, a series of sumptuous marquetry commodes (e.g. c. 1755; Toledo, OH, Mus. A.) and an astonishing upright writing-table (1758...

(b Norwalk, Staffs, Sept 16, 1632; d Hatfield, MA, Jan 3, 1713).

American joiner. He was brought to America by his parents c. 1640. In 1661 he moved to Hadley (now Massachusetts) in the Connecticut River valley, and entered into partnership with John Allis family. Belden’s son Samuel (1665–1738) and Allis’s son Ichabod (1675–1747) ran Belden & Allis after the deaths of their fathers....

French family of furniture-makers. Pierre-Antoine Bellangé (1758–1827) made furniture for the courts of Napoleon (reg 1804–14), Louis XVIII (reg 1814–24) and Charles X (reg 1824–30). His furniture is characteristically made from mahogany and other dark woods. As part of the reconstruction of the White House in 1817, President James Munroe ordered 53 pieces of furniture from Bellangé: a pier table, two sofas, two bergères, two screens, four upholstered stools, six footstools, 18 armchairs and 18 side chairs. Many of these pieces were dispersed in the auction of 1860. The process of reassembling this collection in the White House was initiated in 1961 by Jacqueline Kennedy (1929–94); the White House now has the pier table, a bergère, a sofa and four armchairs.

Pierre Antoine’s brother, Louis François Bellangé (1759–1827) was also a furniture-maker; furniture that he designed himself is usually decorated with porcelain plaques, but his workshop also used designs by Edmé-Charles Boulle. When the brothers died in ...

(b ?Germany; d after 1804).

French cabinetmaker, possibly of German birth. He was first mentioned in the accounts of the Garde Meuble de la Couronne in 1784. The following year he became a maître-ébéniste and was appointed Ebéniste du Roi. In 1786 he became the main supplier to the Garde Meuble under the direction of the sculptor Jean Hauré, who was in charge of furniture production. Beneman understood how to create a unified style in furnishings for royal residences, which is shown by his copying of old pieces: the writing-desk (Waddesdon Manor, Bucks, NT) for Louis XVI, for example, was based on the Bureau du Roi Louis XV (1769; Versailles, Château;) made by Jean-Henri Riesener and Jean-François Oeben. There are few identifiable works by Beneman, so his contribution to the period is difficult to ascertain. The few pieces of furniture created during the Directoire (1795–9) indicate that he could adapt his forms to the new, fashionable styles....

Large armchair, fashionable in the 18th century, typically with canework sides, back and seat, fitted with an upholstered seat or, in later chairs, a loose cushion; it differs from other armchairs in that the area between the arms and seat is upholstered. A bergère hat is a large straw hat.

(Battista)

(fl late 17th century–early 18th).

Swiss-Italian stuccoist and architect. He drew up the plans for the abbey church of Muri (1694–7), Switzerland, which is regarded as the consummation of the centrally planned church and one of the most beautiful Baroque buildings in Switzerland. Bettini’s scheme involved reconstructing the cruciform Romanesque abbey church. The twin towers and the low choir spanned by a Gothic lierne vault were retained, but the nave was converted into an octagonal rotunda with transeptal chapels. The ends of the former aisles, at the west and east, lie outside the octagon and are used to form galleries. The eight arches defining the octagon are of equal height but unequal width. Uniformity of height is obtained in the narrower, diagonal arches by raising the imposts rather than by stilting the arches. A large saucer dome, with stucco ornamentation by Bettini, covers the rotunda, admitting light, via penetrations, from semicircular windows set on a slightly curving entablature inside, supported by folded pilasters. Bettini’s reputation is based on evidence that he produced designs for the building, while the more famous architect ...

German family of decorative designers. Brothers Paul Amadeus (fl 1737–52) and Johann Adolf (fl c. 1743) both worked with the Bavarian court architect François de Cuvilliés on Schloss Brühl, a German Electoral castle halfway between Bonn and Cologne; they worked on the interiors of the Falkenlust (...

(b Lacochère, Orne, April 29, 1764; d Paris, March 26, 1843).

French cabinetmaker and silversmith. The silver and silver-gilt produced in his workshop rivals that of his contemporaries Henri Auguste and Jean Baptiste Claude Odiot. By 1789 Biennais had established himself at 283, Rue Saint-Honoré, Paris, as a cabinetmaker and tabletier (a dealer in and maker of small objects). After 1797 Biennais, no doubt encouraged by the dissolution of the guild system, expanded his business to include the manufacture of silver. During the Consulate Biennais became Napoleon’s personal silversmith, although he may have provided Napoleon with silver as early as 1798, when it is said that he supplied him with a nécessaire de voyage prior to his Egyptian campaign (1798–1801) and trusted him to pay for it on his return.

Biennais produced large amounts of silver for Napoleon and his family, including, in 1804, the crown and sceptre for his coronation and a number of nécessaires of different types, remarkable for the combination of forms of varying shapes and sizes that are ingeniously accommodated in a restricted space. One (...