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Jean Launois

Orientalist art, popular in Western World, despite its appeal, gradually declined by the early 1900s. The style of academic painting associated with it appeared outdated, as new trends like Tonalism, the Aesthetic style, Impressionism, and Post-Impressionism emerged. However, the passion of ...

History of Furniture: Cabinets

Interior Design · Craftsmanship · Furniture

Our ancestors stored their supplies in the recesses of caves or hollow trees. Then they began to gouge out the wood - this is how the box appeared. The drawer and lid are almost a cupboard.In ancient Rome, there were recesses in the wall for storing weapons - armariums, later they had doors ...

Chiwara Masks

African Art · Heritage · Craftsmanship

Art historians consider the Chi wara (also Ci Wara, or Tyi Wara) to be the iconic sculpture, that came from the West African region, known as Mali, that included the Bamana or Ségou Empire. The first documents were printed in 1912 in France and were called 'Tyi Ouara'. The Bamana (or Bambar ...

Maison Denière

Mantel Clocks · Maison Denière · Classic Antiques

Maison Denière was a famous French foundry with an unrivaled reputation for quality in the nineteenth century. Jean François Denière (1744 – 1866) and Thomas Matelin founded the first workshop Denière et Matelin in 1808.According to the catalogue of the 1855 Paris Exposition  ...

André Delatte

Nancy School · Art Nouveau · Craftsmanship

Banker captured his name in cameo glass – Andre Delatte (1887- 1953).André Delatte is a master glassmaker who founded Verreries de l’Est in 1921, whose workshop produced beautiful artistic glassware under the A.Delatte Nancy trademark in Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles.Be ...

Wedgwood Jasperware

CRAFTSMANSHIP · HISTORY · TECHNIQUES

Josiah Wedgwood (1730 – 1795) – An English potter, who’s company was founded in 1759. Wedgwood crafts are famous for their unique traditional materials: Jasper, luminescent Queen’s Ware, and fine bone china. Since 1759 to today, many of Josiah Wedgwood’s methods are still used b ...

Art Deco

Art Deco · 20th Century · Visual Arts History

Art Deco is a relatively new style, yet, there are many curiosities hidden in its history. Popular in the “Roaring 20s”, this style comes back to the 21st century as a major trend. What is Art Deco Style? Art Deco is a style that combined arts and craftsmanship, it manifested across arc ...

The Japanese Shibayama Inlay

Japan · Meiji Period · Inlay

The shibayama zogan (inlay), as it is known amongst the Japanese, is an art technique consisting of incrusting diverse source materials into a ground base material, particularly, Japanese lacquer. The technique is often mentioned as being an artistic achievement of the Meiji Period in the se ...

Franz Xaver Messerschmidt
(1736-1783)

Franz Xaver · Austrian sculptor

Austrian sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt was born in Wurttemberg, Germany, in the year of 1736. He is most known for his series of 64 grimaces represented in extraordinary character heads (of these only 49 survive today), which have shocked the artistic critique of the period, and puzzled ...

Floral Decoration in Meissen Porcelain

floral decoration · rococo influence

For many enthusiasts of antique porcelain, the Meissen factory is the highest standard ever achieved for a type of porcelain made in Europe (as opposed to the porcelain made in China, starting several centuries earlier). The discovery of the Arcanum to make this “pure white gold” was mad ...

Archibald Knox and his Design

Archibald Knox · Art Nouveau · Celtic Revival

Archibald Knox was born in the year 1864 in the Isle of Man. Although being Manx by birth, he had a Scottish descent, and this origin would have an important aesthetical influence in his designs, inasmuch many of them feature the characteristic disciplined and sober traces of the North. Arch ...

Wondering about the Cabinet of Curiosities

history · cabinet of curiosities · first places

Cabinets of curiosities have been around for more than 4 centuries, and they may be regarded as the ancestors behind our passion for collecting antiques – these “chambers of wonder” were the first visible shape of our taste for antique and precious, foreign and exotic, mysterious or si ...

Chinese carved cinnabar lacquerware

The Chinese Art of · Cinnabar · Lacquerer Pieces

The material we know as “lacquer” has a plant origin, as it comes from the so-called “lacquer tree”, widely disseminated in Asia through a variety of subspecies. Indeed, the word we use - lacquer - connotes to this origin, and, interestingly, its western etymology is Portuguese and d ...