Writing cabinet
(c. 1845)
Medium
Mahogany (Swietenia sp.), Ebony (Diospyros sp.), gilt-bronze, mirror, velvet, steel, brass
Measurements
(a-h) 133.0 × 68.5 × 38.5 cm (overall)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of John H. Connell, 1914
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work
The style of this Writing cabinet imitates fashionable French furniture of the late seventeenth century, of the type that was made for grand interiors and whose sole purpose was to impress. The cabinet is decorated with so-called ‘boullemarquetry’ in which the surface was veneered with ebony and inlaid with panels of scrolling decoration composed of brass – engraved with line work, tortoiseshell and sometimes pewter or horn. This technique derived its name from André-Charles Boulle, cabinetmaker to Louis XIV, but many other cabinetmakers employed the technique, and it became fashionable again in the second half of the nineteenth century.