featured item
Furniture – a timeless gift for Valentine’s Day
Posted by David Taylor on 13/02/2015
Antiques are a world of history – of things, of people, of places, of events. Sometimes, antiques take on all these things during their life, and carry them on into the future, for people like us to discover all over again. If you’re in the market for a mind-blowing Valentine’s Day gift this year, do consider something that you can build your love upon into the future. Something much like this stunning piece of furniture.
Antiques are a world of history – of things, of people, of places, of events. Sometimes, antiques take on all these things during their life, and carry them on into the future, for people like us to discover all over again. If you’re in the market for a mind-blowing Valentine’s Day gift this year, do consider something that you can build your love upon into the future. Something much like this stunning piece of furniture.
Built in the late 18th century, this bureau currently listed on the website has all the hallmarks of an invaluable history piece that could lay the foundations of your romance for years to come. Designed to store valuable correspondence and to write letters on, bureaus became gradually more and more ornate as time went on, developing their own nuances until regional influences could be seen. Dutch bureaus originally showed little to distinguish them from their neighbours the English across the Channel. But these kinds of bureau, with inlaid marquetry, began to show their own distinct personality in the 18th century. The broad corners are a giveaway of the late 18th century Dutch style, and show the peak of the bureau style, before smaller secretaires came into fashion.
A piece such as this shows not only your taste in selecting a special gift, but also what it hints at. These kinds of pieces show a future, collecting furniture and beautiful things together, becoming – as the Dutch would call it – liefhebbers or admirers. Admirers of all things beautiful and wonderful. The marquetry and decoration of this piece straddles two eras – a time when correspondence and decoration went hand in hand with a different way of life, meeting a time when decoration and façade became a more popular way to own furniture. Furniture had to be both functional and beautiful, long before form met function in the twentieith-century. Antiques, then, are a timeless gift, and you can give them to your loved one, trusting in the fact that these gifts are eternal.
For a background on decorative furniture and what to look for, check out a book edited by Gordon Campbell, called The Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts, volume 1.