Late 19th Century Louis Philippe Style French Dressing Table With Mirror and Drawers

Description

We kindly suggest that you read the entire description, as with it we try to give you detailed technical and … more We kindly suggest that you read the entire description, as with it we try to give you detailed technical and historical information to ensure the authenticity of our objects.
Peculiar French walnut toilette in the Louis Philippe style; the upper top has a nice, soft molding, is hinged so that it can rise perpendicularly to the cabinet, and has a mirror inside; the faux drawer under the top is divided into convenient, deep compartments; there are also two other practical drawers equipped with a handle; the whole is supported by four "cabriole" legs joined at the bottom by a useful shelf. With this type of leg, the design becomes very pleasing, well-proportioned, and elegant. The entire piece of furniture was produced by applying differently colored walnut slabs to the surfaces, thus creating a pleasant and refined geometric design. So the most interesting and compelling feature of this object is the processing by which it was made: the "lastronatura." The exact term is Italian "lastronatura" untranslatable into English, in fact, "lastronatura" is very different and older than "wood veneer". This craft technique spread as early as the sixteenth century and remained unchanged until the mid-nineteenth century before the Industrial Revolution; it consisted of cutting tree trunks of noble wood (walnut, briar, feather, etc., by hand with saws. ) into many layers varying in thickness from 4 to 6 millimeters, which were then applied to furniture for decorative purposes; the finishing of this process was very complex: the layer of wood was treated with natural earth dissolved in water to the desired shade, it was antiqued with stone, fixed with shellac applied with a brush, and finally polishing was done in 12 passes with a cotton pad soaked in shellac, straw oil with pumice stone powder. Lastronatura is not to be confused with veneering which is a modern process, in fact, the wood layer is cut by machine and the thickness is below 1 mm., while that of lastronatura, as already mentioned, is from 4 to 6 mm. This ancient technique, applied to our piece of furniture, has allowed us to enhance the colors, flaming, and grain of fine European walnut. The piece of furniture was created by true Master Craftsmen between 1870 and 1875 in an artisan workshop in the town of Pont-de-Beauvoisin, a French commune in the department of Isère, nicknamed the city of furniture because of its ancient tradition of woodworking, a charming and sophisticated piece of furniture, compelling and versatile, easily placed in any setting. The Louis Philippe style developed in France in the mid-nineteenth century is characterized by solid forms and refined decoration and aims to enhance the practicality and functionality of furniture. The lines of the furniture are straight and sober, and the shapes are softened with rounded corners and rounded elements. The most commonly used woods are dark woods, such as mahogany, walnut, and rosewood. The dressing table is in good condition, it has some stains on the top (see photo), which will fade after some time by using a darker shade of wax to clean it. Measures width cm.50, depth cm.41, height cm.76. For all our shipments we use special packaging materials (wooden crates, styrofoam, etc.) for maximum protection and safety of the objects. less