Classic Furniture

Craftsmanship, Trade Organisations and Cross-Cultural Influences in East and West

Florian Knothe

• Publisher: Hong Kong University Press
• eBook ISBN:
  9789887471073
• Year: 2016

This publication presents a selection of essays on Chinese and European furniture making, stylistic influences and workshop practices during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Single chapters focus on the similarities and differences in cabinetry in East and West, and the overwhelming impact of chinoiserie on the design of furniture in early modern Europe. Individual masterpieces by cabinetmakers in France, England and Germany further exemplify the wide-reaching effect of an 'exotic' stylistic vocabulary and the development of an eighteenth-century fashion in the decorative arts.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Classical Chinese Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties
• French Furniture of the Ancien Régime: Domestic and Foreign Talent in the Capitol of Luxury Production
• Exotic Worlds of Paris Dealers: The Marchands-Merciers, ‘dealers in everything—makers of nothing’
• Pagodas of the West Stylistic Influences in English Furniture Making
• Chinese Maidens On the Rhine The Pictorial Marquetry of David Roentgen’s Cabinetry
• Postscript
• Selected Bibliography