Enfilade

Wenfangtu, detail, ca. 1750, China, coloured woodblock print, 110 × 50 cm
(Stockholm: Nordiska Museet)

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The long eighteenth century in the latest issue of Furniture History, from The Furniture History Society . . . I would particularly note the the article by Kee Il Choi, Jr, which identifies a category of Chinese woodblock prints (wenfangtu / 文房圖) as graphic source materials for marquetry panels of French furniture, especially pieces from the early 1770s—an alternative to the traditional assumption of carved Coromandel (kuancai) lacquer screens. In addition to being an ‘origins’ story, it’s fascinating material as the prints themselves raise myriad rich questions (wenfangtu are now known only from examples outside of China). –CH

Furniture History 58 (2022)

A R T I C L E S

• Christopher Rowell, “The Carved Room at Petworth Revisited and Grinling Gibbons as an Auctioneer, Dealer, and Collector,” pp. 39–128.
• Kee Il Choi, Jr , “From Lieux to Meubles: Chinese Woodblock Prints and French Marquetry of the 1770s,” pp. 129–156.
• Irene Alessandra Meneghetti, “Transfer Printing on Wood: Research and Replication Based on Two Side Tables Attributed to Joseph Schneevogl,” pp. 157–174.
• Sarah Medlam, “Fit for a Prince: Seddon’s Cradle for Shiloh, the Prince of Peace, the Expected Child of Joanna Southcott, 1814,” pp. 175–198.
• Rufus Bird, “John Girdwood: A Modern Edinburgh Antiquary,” pp. 199–226.

A satinwood and marquetry secrétaire à abattant with gilt-bronze ormolu mounts, ca. 1775, France; stamped: René Dubois (maître, 1754–99), 137 × 84 cm (Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria, 705.a-i-D4).