Black-stained pear
wood veneer on pine, with carved and gilded parts and with
maple-wood and metal inlay. The upholstery is later.
Settee: 95 x 153 x 59 cm; armchairs: 81 x 70 x 58 cm
Inv. no.: 53.2082.1; 53.2081. 1-2
(Room 24, Nos. 9-11)
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SUITE OF FURNITURE (SETTEE,
2 ARMCHAIRS)
Sebestyén Vogel (c.1779–1837), Pest, c. 1810
In Central Europe the Empire style developed under
the influence of French court art and English middle-class "Neoclassical" art
alike. In this region a more livable and comfortable version became
established.
The above suite is veneered in black-stained
pear wood rather than in the ebony that was customary in Western
Europe. It is embellished
not by the splendid gilded-bronze fittings found on French furniture,
but by partly bronze-coloured, partly gilded carved lion’s-paw
legs and herm-embellished arm supports.
Researchers generally consider furniture similarly
embellished to be the work of the Vogel concern in Pest. In 1805
Sebestyén
Vogel received a permit to establish a "factory",
and shortly afterwards he opened depots in the Hungarian towns
of Debrecen,
Kassa (today: Kosice, Slovakia), Nagyvárad (today: Oradea,
Romania), Szeged, and Temesvár (today: Timişoara, Romania).
Cabinetmakers,
designers, sculptors, lathe-operators, gilders, upholsterers,
braiders, copper and bronze workers, glaziers, and even piano
makers worked
in Vogel's factory. According to an advertisement placed in
the Hungarian newspaper Magyar Kurir, French and English designs,
too,
were used in his factory. << previous
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