CONVENIENT REGIONAL PROVENCAL OLD SLIGHTLY sighting your crossbow in LATE 18th CENTURY WALNUT MOULDINGS OPENING BY THREE DRAWERS

Biography

The history of the chest of drawers
A dictionary from 1760 gives an amusing definition of the chest of drawers: it is a piece of furniture of very new invention which its convenience quickly made very common.

In reality, the chest of drawers, born from the need for rational storage, already existed in the 17th century. As for the word, it appears for the first time in 1708 in a letter from the Duke of Antin who declares having admired at Guillemart two chests of drawers in tortoiseshell and pewter veneer being made for the King's bedroom in Marly. Louis XIV period chest of drawers. A dictionary from 1760 gives an amusing definition of the chest of drawers: it is a piece of furniture of very new invention which its convenience quickly made very common. In reality, the chest of drawers, born from the need for rational storage, already existed in the 17th century.
As for the word, it appears for the first time in 1708 in a letter from the Duke of Antin who declares having admired at Guillemart two chests of drawers in tortoiseshell and pewter veneer being made for the King's bedroom at Marly. Louis XIV period chest of drawers Previously, we only talked about boxes with drawers. Until the 19th century, the chest of drawers was an expensive piece of furniture reserved for the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie, it hardly found its way into the homes of modest people. The so-called Louis XVI chest of drawers, with simple and refined forms, was born under Louis XV, in the middle of the 18th century after the discovery of the ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii and the return to favor of the antique style. The book by the haberdasher Lazare Duvaux tells us that, in 1753, Madame de Pompadour ordered three Greek-style chests of drawers from him.
This simplification of forms will increase over the years until, in the last years of the reign, the jump inherited from the Transition period disappears. The bronzes are discreet. They are sometimes replaced by a simple copper rod. It must be said that as technology has progressed, assemblies no longer need to be hidden. The tapered legs are fluted, the spinning top legs indicating late manufacture. Another model of Louis XVI mahogany chest of drawers, the half-moon in the shape of a semi-circle. Louis XVI period mahogany half-moon chest of drawers, model which was generally intended to be leaned against a trumeau. The Louis XVI mahogany chest of drawers was very popular at the end of the 18th century and it was manufactured until 1820 using the same processes to the point that it is sometimes difficult to date it.
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Provencal style
Styles owe a lot to history and/or geography. Conforming to the rule, that of Provençal furniture is influenced by Italian creations, those of Genoa in particular, whose exported furniture is copied and pastiched by Provençal carpenters and cabinetmakers, the fustiers. From the Renaissance onwards, Parisian styles established themselves - with a time lag - in the workshops of artisans in Marseille, Aix, Arles, Beaucaire, Avignon and Forcalquier.
The Provençal spirit was fully expressed in the 18th century with the Regence and Louis XV styles. Let us point out that the rocaille movement owes a lot to the artists of the South, and more particularly to a student of the Marseille sculptor Pierre Puget, Bernard Toro, who published in 1716 a collection of drawings in which the curves and sculptures that we find in Provençal furniture in general and more particularly on large ceremonial consoles triumph. The typically Provençal style was born in Arles, then spread throughout the province.
It is divided into two main trends: the floral style and the so-called Fourques style, the second taking its name from a locality near Arles. Fine and dense sculptures based on plant elements (leaves, flowers and branches) characterize the floral style. the olive branch is often preferred to the acanthus leaf; omnipresent, the famous neighboring rock shell sometimes with ear patterns that recall the meanders of the human ear. Often, elements are openwork such as the lower crossbars of cabinets, consoles or chests of drawers. More sober, the Fourques style is distinguished by hollow sculptures or linear moldings ending in curls rolled into a ram's horn or shell shape: the spiral decoration. From the end of the 18th century, elements of the Louis XVI style - ears of wheat, bunches of fruit, tureen reminiscent of the antique urn, draperies - covered furniture with still Louis XV structures and shapes. The two styles coexisted throughout the 19th century.
Another characteristic of Provençal furniture, bobèches (Arlesian name), plumets or mouchets (names given in Avignon), small sculptures or turned pieces in the shape of a plume, crowned by an acorn or an olive, which crown the top and the corners of the panetières and the upper part of the seat uprights. If inlaid and painted furniture is relatively rare, if we except the cabinets from Uzès which can be arbitrarily linked to the Provençal style, on the other hand there is no shortage of pieces in natural wood. From the 18th and 19th centuries, and more rarely from the 17th century, they enjoy keen interest from enthusiasts who appreciate the density and quality of the sculptures.
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