furniture port
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by Loïc of Boisbaudry
expert furniture and objets d'art
© 1996
the seventeenth to early nineteenth century, artisans have made in the ports of France and their immediate vicinities, furniture, exotic wood - primarily mahogany - known as the " furniture shipping. Production was important, and many copies reached under. But what do we know about these furniture port? Let the point. *
The wood most used was mahogany, to the point where it has come to symbolize the cabinet port of choice. But really mahogany, mahogany would be better to speak of, because under that name are hidden not only several species, but several genera of the family Meliaceae. These mahogany, for the time we are concerned, came from Central America and the Caribbean.
species identification
Grand Larousse dictionary (1) informs us mahogany that "the earliest known is the swetenia mahogany or mahogany from Cuba." And, together, all the authors cite the first Cuban mahogany giving it precedence, the finest quality and most of our furniture port and Honduras mahogany, more rarely Santo Domingo mahogany.
Yet Hector Lefuel who conducted extensive research archive on Jacob, the famous Parisian cabinet makers, renowned for their mahogany furniture in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, says "It was especially St. Domingo then revolted and under control English fleets that came from mahogany. Later this fine wood, hard, but expensive, was replaced by the Cuban mahogany, then those in Tabasco, Honduras and Nicaragua, whose quality is less beautiful (2) .
Anyway, mahogany trees are uniformly outstanding qualities. Following the example of several timber, they are rot (3), to resist absolutely boring and have a tight grain. Their color may be blonde, brown or reddish. Depending on their nature and direction of flow, they can take on a "united", "speckled" or "Tiger" "Watered" like the stuff, "wavy" when they can look at the water surface, "flamed" as this name can evoke, "tracked" or "burl".
Rarely were used, from America or the route to India, ebony - black - (and again, not always), the guaiacum yellow veined chocolate, wood lemon yellow walleye, pigweed wine-colored, rosewood, locust, which could be mistaken to say of authors with mahogany and other rare species, with poetic names, he is very difficult to recognize that it is a specialist business. A visit to the collection timber of Nogent-sur-Marne is persuasive (4)!
This difficulty in identifying the wood is also due to the patina, the result of time and labor rights, which can give these wood transparency sheer, inimitable, but rebel against their identification, and it is quite significant see that for rare species, the present authors enumerate lists of wood that are never quite the same, unless they are taken directly from the dictionary Roubo (5) which, however, concerns only the cabinetry Paris of the late eighteenth century.
As for inventories of the eighteenth century, they are not vocal in the name of the wood. Besides the mahogany is often called, is the name "wood î1es" that comes up most often, or original names that we often lost their meaning.
More than ever, a scientific study is needed, it would probably separate the different woods used at different times and manufacturing centers.
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Mode d’emploi
Ces bois étaient acheminés par bateau, comme fret de retour pour remplacer la canne à sucre pendant la morte saison (6) ou bien comme lest pour des cargaisons légères (7) ou bien encore comme simple denrée.
Débarqués en France en grosses billes ou larges planches, comme nous l’attestent les dimensions de certains panneaux utilisés, les menuisiers devaient utiliser des outils spécifiques pour travailler ces bois très durs, parfois même rebelles dans certaines conditions.
J.P. Blake a relaté (5) l’histoire, sujette à caution mais pas moine significative, first use of mahogany in England in the late seventeenth century: "Then a captain brought in a lot, and that his brother had the idea to use it for building her new home. But the wood was so hard that the workers refused to work. Part of the cargo fell into the hands of a cabinetmaker named Wollaston. He employed a song to make a box with candles. This box was much admired and Wollaston was then located with the same wood, which gradually gained public favor. The cabinet had to appreciate because it is very just about to play, and takes very good glue. "
This difficulty working mahogany and other exotic woods, and more at the carving, quite naturally gave the craftsmen to carry furniture with smooth surfaces and polished, sometimes curved, putting extra on the qualities of these woods : color and veining. (9)
Some furniture is made entirely of wood, exotic others "negligently" mixed with native woods in the same color, or even juxtaposed in contrast worries: amaranth and lemon, mahogany and mahogany plain speckled wood native and exotic wood ... The range was wide artisans.
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Context
But the taste of exotic wood is very old in Europe. For example, the Jacquemart-Andre Museum keeps a stall conducted in northern Italy around 1505, by Panteleone dei Marchi, whose case is decorated with religious figures in pear, lemon tree, service tree, rosewood, oak and walnut.
In France, the work of exotic woods from abroad is liable. François 1er, Henri IV and many others kings of France will come from foreign artisans, including Italian, Flemish and German, in the workshops of the Louvre and the Gobelins, introducing from the mid-sixteenth century and especially in the seventeenth century, the technical mastery of ebony veneer.
The term "carpenter ebony" is mentioned for the first time in 1608 in the corporate statutes in Paris. In the early eighteenth century, the cabinet - which has lost its etymological meaning - uses colored wood such as rosewood and amaranth, hitherto little used, and under Louis XV, marquetry accumulate Employment species more exotic variety.
As mahogany, which will be the figurehead of the port cabinet, it was according to G. Leclerc, Spain in 1520, sent as ballast in the form of boards and blocks on board the caravels, and introduced about 1595 in England where he used to build boats (10)
Its earliest mention in the French cabinet in 1724, the estate inventory of the cabinetmaker's workshop Guillemart Francis, which features running, a small table in "cherry wood modagaony (11) (12).
As for his use common in Paris, she begins to 1770-1780.
But until 1753, all French furniture were made of wood veneer because the material was scarce and expensive. In Paris, even in the late eighteenth century, "the wood inlay to own (...) are sold by the pound because of their rarity and not working in veneer" (13). Mahogany was the most prevalent in tropical timber and could be partially used in the massive Louis XVI.
The first Parisian exotic wood furniture is solid mahogany and date from 1753. These include, for "Six convenient solid mahogany" delivered by the seller Lazarus Duvaux to Madame de Pompadour, the chateau de Crecy. This furniture exceptional in nature and quality of the recipient, had been made by Fermet, from Bordeaux, who was then working as a craftsman free in Paris, before being received master in 1759 (14).
frequently call for "mahogany" to describe the mahogany is indicative of the predominance of English in using this wood. And indeed, in 1720 - 1730, they realized already furniture in solid mahogany, carved with great technical mastery. Anglomania will qu'asseoir in France at the end of the Louis XVI taste of mahogany.
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Specificity furniture port
In this context, furniture port have several peculiarities. They are made of solid tropical wood, built up, sometimes into the cleats, and well before Paris (15), and systematic manner.
first mentioned so far comes from an inventory Unpublished Malo, 1724 (16) (Contemporary therefore that of the workshop of the Parisian cabinetmaker Francois Guillemart, quoted by G. Janneau to be the first to mention the mahogany cabinetry in French).
Another feature, if the French furniture of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries veneers are made in the classic French style, with furniture shipping, artisans treat them in a local style, substantially different from a port region to another, what the rest allows us to differentiate (17).
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Three production centers: St. Malo, Nantes, Bordeaux
St. Malo seems precursor realizing, from the second half of the seventeenth century, furniture that might be termed "pre-port" because they are not yet solid exotic wood.
This production results in a very characteristic piece of furniture called "Malo". This is a buffet with four doors and generally two rows of two drawers. The doors are decorated with framed double octagons are columns and thin torsos.
This type of furniture is quite stereotyped heavily influenced Dutch furniture, why not slavishly copy a model. It may be adorned with plates of ebony or other exotic woods, and exceptionally rich in ivory, ink drawings from China or engraved designs. These will also be carried Falkland oak, and probably from the late seventeenth century, mahogany.
The Dutch influence was very significant in Europe during the first half of the seventeenth century, is attested in Saint-Malo with force and is found even in its architecture (18)
Another feature of the Falklands, their mode of assembly: the ledge, secured with two hooks inside, which ensures the locking of the different pieces of furniture that are simply nested. This method avoids the presence of pegs on the front and facilitates the dismantling and it lasted until the eighteenth century.
At the end of Louis XIV, Saint-Malo opens the Parisian style. The engineers who settle in Saint-Malo and the best known is Garangeau, there are probably no strangers. If
the Malo does not disappear, it becomes purer and more sober line, even austere, like the military architecture of the city, and even civil. The cabinets feature well this new contribution to their straight and smooth facades, simply floored, highlighted vigorous moldings. Entries locks and pull handles, brass plaques formed cut, reminiscent of Dutch influence.
Under Louis XV, feet and arching slightly, under Louis XVI, the amounts will be decorated with flutes. But the style of Louis XIV will be prominent throughout the eighteenth century and corresponds to the period of this glorious city.
This taste for the style of Louis XIV is not unique. Even in Paris, some customers will order the cabinet, until the reign of Louis XVI furniture Boulle or convenient "to the Regency."
In Nantes, the first movable port could date from the late seventeenth century. In the eighteenth century, production is characterized as a whole by its abundance and variety of furniture designs made of exotic wood. Unlike Saint-Malo, the styles of Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI are represented in Nantes and achievements follow closely enough the Parisian models. Production was particularly abundant under Louis XV.
The general trend is a sober and elegant. But the joint use of wood species such as lemon, mahogany or amaranth, sometimes gives them a strange harmony. By cons furniture gays and lemon are particularly bright.
Following aesthetics Paris, Nantes is betrayed, apart from its simplicity which does not require special settings, by the taste of certain types: the presence fine carved moldings and small packages - in the lower cross dressers, secretaries and the threads - coaching doors for cabinets and buffets.
Other features arched feet and rolled "in Periwinkle, fronts of drawers serpentine" eel "or" wave ", cornices ogee" in heart ", according to local terminology.
The English and Dutch influence, or rather Anglo-Dutch, is also present in Nantes, as she will be in Bordeaux. Thus, convenient to office, whose sloping seat lockers and discovered a small door in the middle, come directly from the Scriban.
Bordeaux who adopt the mahogany in the early eighteenth century, had a beautiful and large production under Louis XV. The style is chatty and contributes to the Baroque.
The famous "convenient Bordeaux ', charged with curved lines, sometimes decorated with a carved decoration, is quite rare to be emphasized in furniture port.
The workmanship is often superb. The internal hardware (locks, casement) may also be of great quality, like those of old doors Hotels in this city. Finally, some furniture is not pegged on the front.
Almost oddly, this furniture can fit into opulent paneling particularly pure line. Indeed spread out the furniture made by local artisans after the local taste, then swallow the paneling was designed by Parisian artisans then in fashion.
centers Other important but less known may be mentioned: Le Havre, Granville, Morlaix, Brest, Lorient, Rochefort, etc.. ... and production devices affected by this or that great port, but we know so little.
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Artisans
A variety of this style is superimposed a large difference in quality of execution, the most rustic furniture furniture alongside the more refined. The disparity was great craftsmen.
There was much discussion on the origin of furniture artisans port. Who were they?
Some argued that in Saint-Malo (prisoners) Dutch realized early furniture port. While the Dutch - And English - were probably the first to work these exotic woods so special (which would have justified their technical assistance), there is no evidence to support this thesis. However, their presence is well documented and undeniable stylistic influence in the seventeenth century.
Others think it was shipwrights who have executed this furniture originally outside their core business. We do not have more evidence. Yet this thesis is justified: it was these shipwrights who worked primarily 1'acajou and other exotic woods for hulls of ships, discovering the qualities of these woods and how they work.
But forget the corporate organization of France that it was difficult to evade. Each business was part of a corporation that, whatever might be local variations, assured its members an exclusive right to manufacture, in return for a number of obligations which the most immediate was a quality control manufacturing .
Any artisan who was trying to make furniture out of the corporate framework soon found himself hunted by the management of the corporation, named guild.
Witness Nantes prosecution by the guild of carpenters and cabinetmakers and cons Cormeray Audeville for usurpation of privileges.
This also explains the jealousies which were subject to Nantes Javoy Claude and Antoine Nicolas. The latter had been received by the corporation Parisian master, was forced to move from Nantes, to iron his control.
Yet some artisans were able to exercise outside this framework.
This could be based on privileges granted by some cities. And Bordeaux, artisans could freely exercise under local franchises.
This could also be due to privileges granted to religious speakers, as in the confines of the Paris suburb of Saint Antoine.
Moreover, as stated Véronique Cornet (19): "the Sauvetat Sanitat Bordeaux and Nantes host a 'good number of workers whose financial resources do not allow them to meet expenses incurred by receptions control and banquets. " "
Were there still other types of artisans? Sure. Especially in small towns or the countryside.
There is much to learn about it and the truth must lie in a cocktail of various origins which we have lost the exact proportions.
corporation Nantes
To better monitor and defend their profession, the guild Nantes forced its members to sign their names on works they made, with the help of a matrix of iron. In turn, the guild affixed, at one of its four annual tour, his own mark set half an ermine and a half lily contiguous with the four corners, the figures for the year emission of the punch. She perceived at that time, a royalty of 10 sols per unit. We know of four brands of this guild, the first of 1722, without supervision, two from 1770 and 1776, both included in an oval, and finally a fourth in 1787, enclosed in a square with canted.
Sample marks on a piece of furniture from Nantes, who was executed between 1770 and 1776, as evidenced by the punch guild Nantes (left) used until 1776, when a new stamp has been put into service. The stamp the carpenter (right) includes the words "in Nantes. These brands were hit cold with a mallet on a matrix of iron bearing inscriptions.
space of time between the first punch of 1722's second of 1770, leave us, though unfortunately, a very wide range of dating.
If the rule was not applied on an ongoing basis, for reasons that seem to elude us in large part, the few brands that we face must be regarded as a happy exception to province. Neither Saint-Malo, or Bordeaux, or other port cities have stamped production, alas!
Our knowledge of furniture port location and precise dating would have been much easier.
The following list (20) does not list all of cabinetmakers and carpenters may have made or stamped wooden furniture exotic or native timber. Moreover, the punch guild sometimes occurs alone.
Note that the furniture order which differ from current production by their quality or originality, è seem to have escaped the stamp and the stamp of guild.
Mention is made when the stamp cabinetmakers or carpenters is known to us. It is unusual to find, for convenient, often on an upper edge of tray.
ALLUIS: furniture manufacturer in the eighteenth century
AUDEVILLE: journeyman cabinetmaker, he led a workshop about 1785 to about fifteen workers on behalf of the merchant LEMASLE. He was involved in prosecutions brought by the corporation against his boss LEMASLE for usurpation of privileges.
BOUCHEREAU: master and bahutier Coffretier
BOURGEOIS: wood turner
BOUTTETOU: before 1752
BARON: cabinetmaker residing High Grand'rue, quoted in 1774 on the lists of the militia.
Beden, John, master carpenter in October 1774
BONIFACE, Antoine master carpenter before 1745
Bertet, François: master carpenter before 1745
BANAL : master carpenter 19 September 1750
BLANDAIN: February 1786
DRADEN: before 1752
CARDONNEL, Remy master carpenter, turner, layetier received in August 1788
CORBERE Joseph: June 1773
CORNER, Peter Joachim: born in 1758, he moved to Nantes as "merchant-glazier-meubliste" dock Brancas He also owned a woodworking shop some thirty workmen under the direction of a fellow named GUENERIE. Following a proceeding against him by the guild of carpenters, cabinetmakers for usurpation of privileges, he succeeded in 1787 with master cabinetmaker Jacques COUI1LAUD to use his studio as nominee of the latter, which filed for bankruptcy in the rest the following year.
COUILLAUD, Nicolas: master carpenter before 1745
COUILLAUD Pierre : master carpenter
COUILLAUD, Jacques: son of Nicolas COUILLAUD received carpenter born in 1745, performing Rue du Port-Maillard. In 1757 it will serve not ready for the workshop du marchand Pierre-Joachim CORNERAY. En 1789, il sera élu juré.
CHANELE : maître menuisier avant 1752. On cite de lui dans des archives sis lits à tombeau en acajou
DESTROULLEAU, Pierre : travaillait au XVIIIe siècle
GREGOIRE CADET J.J. : son estampille qui nous est connue comporte la mention « à Nantes »
GREGOIRE, Christofle : maître menuisier en 1767. Son estampille qui comporte la mention « à Nantes » nous est connue
GUENERY : compagnon menuisier, in 1784 he led workshops Merchant CORMERAY before being involved in a proceeding for infringement of privileges. In 1787 he began his own account as "carpenter chambrelan showman" in St. Similien
Gumel, Benedict: master carpenter in May 1773
Javoy, Claude received a master carpenter in Paris in 1779 he later moved to Nantes, about 1783. Prestige of Parisian artisan earned him numerous commissions. Jealousies and annoyances of the corporation Nantes crystallized in a trial which he won in 1787 anyway
JOACHIM, Pierre: active su eighteenth century
THE BRIEUX: master carpenter in September 1750
LE BRETON: master carpenter before 1752
THE BEAT (or LEBATTUS ) jeans: master carpenter street Bouteiller, jury in 1786. He realized including bedsteads and chairs
HERIC THE FA: born in 1750 received
LEMASLE: manufacturer of furniture in the late eighteenth century.
Lemoine, Julien: before 1786
RENT: turner cabinetmaker
HAMMER, Louis received master in 1783
SOFT Louis: master carpenter in 1760. He acquired control without having to make a masterpiece. He practiced Sanitat.
NICOLAS, Antoine received a carpenter born in Paris in 1765, settling in Nantes, he was forced to board his master. His stamp is known to us.
PLUMETAT: turner
PUMPKIN, Louis received born October 6, 1750
SAVEREAU (or SAVREAU), Louis: master carpenter born in 1680, was released in 1764.
Saliot, Francis gray wood turner
THOMAS, GH: active around 1786-1790, based close to the warehouse cafes Nantes
VALLEY: manufacturer Furniture under Louis XVI. His stamp is known to us with the words "in Nantes.
VC: Legend abbreviation assigned Victor CORMERAY or Corm, Nantes furniture found on the Louis XVI period.
corporation Bordeaux
In Bordeaux, there are several joiners cabinet makers exercising their profession as a craftsman free, following the relief granted by the city. V. Cornet (21) noted the following year 1782, "The masters are not carpenters carpenters cabinet (...) masters guarding the building works. "However, this statement calls des nuances. Ainsi André Bérard, maître menuisier, a fabriqué en 1789 un cercueil, une caisse de pendule et des boiseries. Ci-dessous, quelques uns des nombreux menuisiers-ébénistes du XVIIIe siècle, qui ont pu exécuter des meubles en bois exotique.
On pourra se référer au mémoire de M. Joubert pour consulter la liste exhaustive de ces artisans.
ABRAHAM dit CADET : cet ébéniste qui s exercé entre 1783 et 1791 en tant qu’artisan libre a fabriqué “des meubles de luxe et des objets de tabletterie en acajou.
BARDOU, Thomas : maître menuisier aux Chartrons de 1751 to 1785, he was Contreboursier Bayle and the guild.
BERARD, Andre: master carpenter to Chartrons from 1744 to 1785, he made a coffin in 1789, a case of the pendulum for the convent Chartrons and trim its vestry.
BOTTLE, Charles: master carpenter in 1757, died in 1780 at the age of 84. He was recipient of the poll of teachers in 1780.
Boyer, Antoine Louis received a master carpenter in 1757, he was commissioner of the corporation. Resident Saint-Sevrin, he died in 1772.
Brel, Jean, said ALSACE: master cabinetmaker active from 1785 to 1510 he lived in the Mole Street until 1790 and then Notre Dame in the suburb of Chartrons. It quotes him a pedestal blond mahogany.
Castain, John, received a master carpenter in 1755, he served until 1755 with loads of Bayle, Bayle and Contreboursier first of his corporation.
CASTILLON FOURRANGEAU, J. : Master carpenter came to Nantes, assets under Louis XVI.
Coiffard Father: master carpenter, died in 1755. The estate inventory his workshop identifies four planks of mahogany 150 pounds and a small plank machemillier.
Köln: cabinetmaker of Louis XVI, he lived and practiced Judaic Street as a craftsman free.
DUBOIS Elder: master cabinetmaker from 1777 to 1792, rue Saint-Martin street and Judaic.
the Second DUBOIS: master cabinetmaker 1783 1 1792, resident after 1785 near the church of St. Sevrin.
ESCLAFER, Jacques: Master carpenter from 1744 to 1778, active around 1785
FRANC, Jean: master carpenter under Louis XVI, known as "carpenter's box." 0n quote him "a curved mahogany cabinet in his elevation, framed doors (...) behind the walnut, with four wooden shelves of Nerva, planks and panels of mahogany.
JET craftsman free reign of Louis XVI under local franchises.
KOENIG: cabinetmaker 1790, rue Surson.
LABOURIER: cabinetmaker of the late Louis XVI, rue des Herbs.
LAROSE: cabinetmaker between 1784 and 1791
MATHALM said LEFRANC: fairground worker between 1783 and 1791, cabinetmaker
TOURNAI: cabinetmaker of Louis XVI under local franchises, Forandège street.
VELIWCK, Jean, said FLEMISH, master carpenter residing at Fort Louis (1744-1787)
corporation Malo
We
do not know pas plus pour Saint-Malo de marques de jurande ou d’estampille de menuisiers-ébénistes.
Les artisans étrangers ont fait l’objet d’un édit : « Il ne se pourra habiter en Icelle, aucun artisan ou gens de métier étrangers, de quelque art, qualité et condition qu’ils soient, sans la volonté et consentement du Corps de Communauté de la ville, et par requête présentée en assemblée générale des dits habitants et qu’ils puissent lever boutique qu’en faisant chef-d’oeuvre et par leur consentement (22). » Ci-dessous la liste des menuisiers et ébénistes relevée by Philippe Petout based roles capitation of 1725.
CARFATAN, Lawrence master carpenter, rue de Lancon
FORTY, John, cabinetmaker, rue Sainte-Marguerite
Guillouet Gilbert: master carpenter, rue de la Fosse
MAINGY VALLEY, master carpenter, rue du Pont-qui-Tremble
Roblot Augustine: cabinetmaker, rue de Toulouse
TAILLY (DU): master carpenter
NEIGHBOR, Bartholomew master carpenter, rue de la Crosse
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Recipients
Who bought this furniture? Most wealthy undoubtedly including the seventeenth century and early eighteenth century, or even a simple wooden furniture native was already uncommon and expensive addition, customers can increasingly broad as and when that 'flocked exotic woods. Several authors are this time to peak from 1720 to 1750.
There is no doubt that the quality of some furniture gives them a destination worthy of the owners, others more widely.
This furniture took place in country houses, the monasteries, follies or malouinières, or downtown in hotels, some of which have been paneled in mahogany or ebony (23). In less luxurious residences as well, but in regions where the sea has been, within a few decades, originally of prodigious wealth. One can not fail to mention Mago La Balue which acquired in 1780 include Hotel No. 22 Place Vendome, whose happy Crozat maritime speculations and privilege of trading with Louisiana had in 1723 made him the richest financiers, Samuel Bernard fortune estimated at his death at 33 million books, and his eldest son Jacques, who built the current Rodin Museum in Paris.
The sea was also the source of many brews, especially on the Atlantic coast. Indigenous families came to be grafted foreigners: Scottish, Irish, Dutch, English - Catholics and Protestants Jews - the nobility to the bourgeoisie. What
furniture can make us relive port, beyond the picturesque and the exotic, the intensity and singularity of the lives of these marina, these artisans or those owners, who are so close and so distant time.
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An estate inventory from 1724 Malo
(24)
An inventory Malo after death, dated 1724, recently discovered in private archives, gives us some information furniture shipping.
The estate inventory of a certain Antoine Gaillard, Sieur de La Motte, has 110 sheets in-4. Rigorously established after several days of inventory, it relates only to the papers, personal effects and chattels of the deceased, situated in an apartment on Rue de la Victoire in Saint-Malo, comprising 10 rooms, attic, basement, and a shop in the court of the diocese. Are present this inventory è heirs (Gaillard of Gastines Boisrioux Gaillard, Villemorin Heurtault, Baudran of Riaud, Gaillard Hélène Gaillard and the Riaud), two 'women revandeuses " to estimate the property (Jeanne heals and Servanne Vassse), a lapidary for jewelry (Jan Lossieux), and a changer of the king of the city for silver, gold coins and money (of Valley Lossieux son). The quality of the estimators gives the inventory all the reliability and all other desirable.
The inventory mentions first records of the deceased, the sheet 1 to 87, briefly described.
They concern his private life
both marriage contracts of the deceased, one dated from 1687 with Mary Servanne Guillaudec, Maid of
The Bichettière, the other dated 1690 with Mary of Ages, young lady Montrivage
• a treaty sales made by the deceased his son in 1717, its load of Adviser to the Admiralty in Saint-Malo, in the sum of 12,360 pounds
• rent receipts of the owner of his apartment, Mr. Bordas
• A Treaty signed between the shareholders of the new stadium field that city's south side, dated June 10, 1720
• Un billet par lequel le défunt et le sieur de La Pluvinnais (?) Le Breton ont tiré au sort de leurs actions de la nouvelle enceinte de cette ville, en date du 29 mai 1720
• Un livre de recettes de ses fiefs
• Des contrats d’achat immobilier
• Des actes de partage immobilier
• etc
Elles se rapportent également à sa vie professionnelle :
• De nombreux livres de comptes relatifs à des parts ou des décomptes dans différents ships (mentioned), the Royal Company of India, the Western Company, sale and barter of goods, payment of crew, etc.. ... Some books are written partly in English or English.
The list could be extended and developed, but this is not the goal. At least it allows us to situate already part of life and social position of the trader easy to realize that it is fairly representative of Saint-Malo merchants of that era.
Continues this archive the most valuable part of the inventory since respect to movable property of the deceased, the sheet 88 E 110.
Apart mahogany furniture, inventory reports 14 tapestries, furniture in pine, oak or walnut, a single painting of a Madonna (25), curiously little porcelain from China, some jewelry, the Silverware and pewter in good proportion, an ever astonishing variety of clothes and fabrics (among other 48 dozen napkins), a few oriental carpets, and a few goods to its stores: the sugar and the indigo.
But just to live our subject for the mahogany furniture. That that lists the two "women revandeuses"
in the show "a pair of wooden cabinets accajou has four fighting men and four caifsons" and in a room "a wooden cabinet from the front accajou two fighting men. "
Since the earliest mention of mahogany in the French cabinet, quoted by William Jeanneau, in 1724 and refers, as we reported, inventory after death of the workshop Parisian cabinetmaker Francois Guillemart which signals, running a table « bois de merisier modagaony », nous constatons d’une part, que notre inventaire porte la même date de 1724, et que d’autre part, il ne rapporte à des meubles déjà existants et non pas en cours d’exécution. Dans ces conditions notre inventaire porte donc la mention des plus anciens meubles français en acajou et, par extension, des meubles de port (26) (27).
Autre point intéressant, l’acajou est désigné par son nom propre et non par son nom anglicisé de « modagaony ». Or même le premier inventaire qui cite des meubles parisiens en acajou massif et qui date de 1756 (28), emploie également la dénomination anglaise of "mohagony. Our inventory, dispensing with this name, we offer in the cabinet, the earliest mention of mahogany in its non-French.
Finally, the cost estimates we also bring surprises. The pair of mahogany cabinets with four doors and four caissons is prized as 20 pounds, 15 pounds in mahogany cabinet, and table tree decorated with iron plates 5 pounds. While in the same object, a small chest of boxes, with no indication of wood reaches 18 pounds, a "cabinet with two grilled wings" 12 pounds, a walnut dresser 6 pounds, a "cabinet of walnut and oak with four wings and two boxes" ... 12 pounds
exotic wood furniture seem therefore more expensive, but in a reasonable proportion if it takes probably conclude that the mahogany was already abundant at that time in Saint-Malo, and exotic woods were more precious.
Further research towards Saint-Malo would certainly find references to older, dating from the late seventeenth century.
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Our current knowledge of sulfur from a serious lack of data probably will fill the time, responding to the paradox: the further away a given historical period and the more one progresses in his knowledge. Hopefully this paradox we bring the fruit matured at length.
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References
(1) Edition 1982 in 10 volumes
(2) Hector Lefuel FHG Desmalter Albert Morancé, nd, p. 97
(3) Ile Feydeau was built in the mid eighteenth century on a raised platform on piles of mahogany
(4) Centre Technique Forestier du Bois, 41 bis, Avenue de la Belle Gabrielle, Nogent-sur-Marne. The scientific collection is unfortunately not open to the public.
(5) Roubo, Art woodworker, Saillant and Nyon, 1769-1771
(6) Françoise Maillet, furniture Nantais, the stamp, April 1985. Of same author, owner of Decor Nantes in the eighteenth and wooden furniture of the Isles, 1984.
(7) Similarly, the cobblestone streets of Rochefort were shipped from Canada
(8) JP Blake, the English cabinet, Chippendale period, Hachette, 1924, page 85.
(9) The furniture was polished. The opening came later. The French polish dating from the nineteenth century.
(10) Genevieve Leclerc, species of wood in furniture, Stamped, November 1971, page 19.
(11) Quoted by William Janneau Workshops Parisian cabinetmakers and carpenters in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, SERG, 1975, pages 24 and 25.
(12) See Appendix for instructions on another inventory, unpublished, from 1724
(13) Roubo op.cit
(14) Count Salverte, cabinetmakers of the eighteenth century, F . Nobel, 6th edition sd, p. 118.
(15) Ledoux-Lebard Makers of the nineteenth century, Editions de l'Amateur, 1984, page 17. William
Janneau op.cit, pages 42 and 43.
(15) France has some delay compared to abroad. Portugal, Italy and the Netherlands have made solid hardwood furniture from the seventeenth century. See the Great Encyclopedia of Furniture, Princess, 1980, pages 56-70 and 105. As for Spain which saw the mahogany early, it seems that the sumptuary laws enforced with extreme severity in 1591, were the cause of a lack of furniture in exotic woods.
(16) See the attached notice regarding this inventory.
(17) should be distinguished from the Parisian furniture - furniture in a province that is an imitation more or less happy - Furniture Regional where as a stylistic Parisian piggyback original local components in the form, decoration or function. Norman and the Wardrobe, the bed closed Breton, trafficking Picardy
(18) Philippe Petout, hotels and houses in Saint-Malo, XVI - XVII - XVIII centuries, Picard, 1985.
(19) Veronique Cornet, Aquajou mahogany, cabinet or port in the eighteenth century. Thesis ICART studies. 1984.
(20) extracted largely Granges Surgères, Artists Nantes, Nantes and Paris, nd See also Earl of
Salverte, Op City, V. Cornet opus cité, F. Maillet, opus cité.
(21) V. Cornet, opus cité
(22) V. Cornet, opus cité
(23) Boiseries en ébène exécutées vers 1740 au 6 rue de la Poste à Port-Louis, pour Simon Jolly, subrécargue de la Compagnie des Ondes.
Boiseries en acajou au 70 quai de la Fosse à Mantes, aujourd’hui disparues.
(24) Les connaissances ont évolué depuis 1996.
(25) Plusieurs malouins ont été portraiturés par Hyacinthe Rigaud, comme en témoigne son livre de comptes kept in the library of the Institute.
(26) "a wooden table with FAPE placques of ironwood, a box" also mentioned in our inventory, is not strictly speaking a furniture port because it is not Solid hardwood. At most it would be a pre-cabinet port.
(27) Our three mahogany furniture should be in all probability, solid mahogany. Besides, it does not appear that there has never used a mahogany veneer in Saint-Malo.
(28) It is the delivery, already reported, six chests of Madame de Pompadour, the chateau de Crecy.
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