AN AMARANTH AND EBONY INLAID AND GILT-BRASS MOUNTED SINGLE DOOR DISPLAY CABINET

AN AMARANTH AND EBONY INLAID AND GILT-BRASS MOUNTED SINGLE DOOR DISPLAY CABINET OR BOOKCASE IN THE MANNER OF MOREL AND SEDDON
English or Possibly Danish. Second Quarter Of The Nineteenth Century.
Measurements
Height: 64" (163 cm) Width: 47" (119.4 cm) Depth: 14 1/4" (36.2 cm).

Research
Of amaranth, ebony and gilt-brass. The attic frieze above a molded cornice set with repeating ebonized spheres. The frieze inlaid with ebony neoclassical vegetal motifs. The two similarly inlaid flanking uprights are centered by a single glazed large door with narrow central division. The glass edged in finely cast gilt-brass foliate molding with anthemia to each corner. The whole raised on a cavetto molded plinth and flour rectangular block feet. The interior three shelves covered in possibly original dark blue velvet. Evidence of a previous configuration to the interior. Attic frieze old but not original. Possibly originally with shallow shaped crest. Internal base plinth old but not original intended to support a heavy display object.

Provenance:
A Danish Collection

Distinctively “Frenchified” furniture in the so-called Charles X taste was produced by Morel and Seddon for King George IV at Windsor Castle in 1828. The keynote of this style was the use of heavily contrasting neoclassical inlay on a pale wood ground. In the case of the present cabinet, it is a particularly sumptuous item as it employs the rare and expensive amaranth, or bois violette, as the pale contrasting veneer. Coming mostly from British Guiana, Trinidad, and Brazil, amaranth is a very heavy hard wood, difficult to work but giving a lustrous finish. A Morel and Seddon washstand cabinet still at Windsor uses amaranth for its inlay. The present cabinet is also distinguished by the prominent use of finely cast gilt-brass that borders the glazed sections.

Full research report available.