Reproducing the 18th-century: Copying French Furniture

Interesting display at the Wallace Collection looking at the 19th century fashion for reproducing French 18th century furniture.

To do this it took a piece from its own collection made in 1776 and compared it to a reproduction of the piece made in about 1880. Oddly the earlier piece has the cruder construction because less attention was paid to what couldn’t be seen. However it’s decorative marquetry was much finer with some of the pieces engraved to enhance the detail.

This furniture was not necessarily made to deceive but more likely because there was a fashion for the style creating a demand which couldn’t be met from originals. 

I liked the way some of the detail such as cupboard doors were shown directly side by side and it was quite fun to try to guess which was which.

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