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What Does Napoleon Have To Do With Furniture? Season 2, Episode 20.
43 Plays3 years ago
In the 3rd installment of the Empire period we explore person of note including Napoleon.
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Transcript
Introduction and Partnership Announcement
00:00:21
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Green Street Joinery and the American Craftsmen Podcast are proud to partner with Montana Brand Tools. Montana Brand Tools are manufactured by Rocky Mountain Twist in Montana, USA. With numerous patents dating back to the invention of the hex shank system by our founders, we strive to produce accessories that add precision, flexibility, and efficiency to your toolkit.
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Exploring the Empire Period
00:01:00
Speaker
For 10% off your order, visit MontanaBrandTools.com and use the coupon code American Craftsman.
00:01:06
Speaker
Welcome back American craftspeople. Yeah. So where you been? I've been right here. Yeah, me too. We've been in the same spot. You guys probably been all over the place because it's been about a month. Well, you get the drift. We've been sitting down here in the basement all day. Yeah. Hopefully I've been around a week ago.
00:01:29
Speaker
Yeah. So let's see. We got episode 20 this week. We're still in the empire period and we're going to talk about some notable persons. Yeah. Now you might think I'd bring up somebody like Duncan Fife first or something, but we really can't. We don't have the empire period. We don't have the style without Napoleon.
00:01:56
Speaker
Right, and we ended last episode talking about him, too. Yeah, yeah, and his throne. Yeah. Quite a throne it is. Because it's just unavoidable. He starts and influences the whole thing.
00:02:17
Speaker
You know, he doesn't start out to say, well, I'm going to create this, you know, whole period of style that goes across the Western society. But he's a super influential figure of the time. And so, well, let's just
00:02:37
Speaker
kind of review what he did
Napoleon's Influence on Arts and Style
00:02:40
Speaker
and maybe give you a better understanding of why he's such an important figure in the empire period's design scheme. So he starts what's the first French empire when he takes over and it's short, it's only 10 years 1804 to 1814. Wow, I didn't know that. Yeah, he didn't make it through.
00:03:05
Speaker
Napoleon's reign was short, you say? Yes, indeed. And you'll start to see little tidbits of other rulers that have this kind of reputation and the playbook they use.
00:03:30
Speaker
So he's a strong military leader and he's very, very aware of the value of the arts as a tool for propaganda. That's interesting.
00:03:44
Speaker
Um, and, you know, not unlike, uh, people like, um, you know, Hitler and Mussolini and all these other like dictators and such a file. They, they all have a certain side of them that people still admire. Like Napoleon did a lot to rebuild France and
00:04:08
Speaker
Mussolini did a lot for the south of Italy and things like that. So they kind of all started out, you know, winning people over. Right. So he promoted the developing empire style as he believed it reflected France's prominence and power. So he creates this, you know, style. It's, hey, we're France. This is
00:04:39
Speaker
lavish and powerful and beautiful little bit of nationalism. Right. You know you could see that in the in the ends and things like that. You know on his furniture. It kind of.
00:04:54
Speaker
He's an autocratic ruler. So he leads by absolute power. No democratic elections and no freedom of speech. So you know that makes his voice the loudest for sure. Right. And maybe one of the only voices.
00:05:13
Speaker
But despite all these things, he makes significant strides towards improving public education, religious freedom, and even more. But it's all about control. He wants to control French culture. He wants
Egyptian Motifs in Empire Furniture
00:05:30
Speaker
to direct it, affect it in every single way, and that includes the arts. So he creates these protocols
00:05:42
Speaker
that regulate the style of art and production and manufacturing. Yeah, it's strict. Under these regulations, cabinet makers start designing pieces, hearkening back to Baroque designs and of course the classical periods of Greek and Roman empires.
00:06:09
Speaker
Uh, yeah, I mean, I'm sure Napoleon got a little hard on because that's what he wants to be. And you know, exactly. He sees himself just like again, mostly they saw themselves as the new Caesars.
00:06:25
Speaker
Um, so empire furniture suited Napoleon's pension for large components as well as his urge to show off his authority and the style spreads across the continent because many, uh, Napoleon's many European because of his many European military campaigns. Spit it out, Rob.
00:06:48
Speaker
you're still reeling from the, the, the secret space program. Oh my God, that was awesome. Um, and the empire style is an evolution of this neo classic design, um, borrows heavily from, uh, Rome, Greece, and then eventually Egypt. Uh, Napoleon admired Rome, the Roman empire.
00:07:13
Speaker
And of course he idealized and emulates these values. He fell much quicker than they did. Oh yeah, yeah.
00:07:25
Speaker
So war and classical world motifs characterize the empire style. Military details, including spires, coats of arms, trophies, motifs from Roman mythology are frequently in the furniture designs. We saw all that stuff, the lions, the eagles.
00:07:50
Speaker
uh, deities and other characters. The, the, I don't know what you'd call that the woman with the, the woman's naked woman's torso with the lion's legs and wings on her back. That's a cryptid.
00:08:10
Speaker
That's a skinwalker. Yeah. Well you know he brought back from this Egyptian campaign the Sphinx the palm leaves. We could name even more the scarab.
Charles Honoré Lanier's Impact on American Furniture Design
00:08:30
Speaker
I believe that sleigh design is sort of reminiscent of that too. Don't you. Yeah.
00:08:38
Speaker
Yeah I mean what we talked about last last episode was talking about like Grecian scrolls and stuff like that but I don't know I've never seen like a real well I guess I've seen pictures of stuff in museums like those those
00:08:55
Speaker
boats that they had on the Nile River like it's reminiscent of that definitely yeah yeah that's that's what I see and like those the things that you know what I don't know what they're called where the the slaves are carrying them up on a pole yeah yeah like a looks like a barge almost yeah I don't know what they call that they do that there's a bunch of different cultures that do that but yeah the the Egyptian one specifically you know you're talking about
00:09:24
Speaker
It's like a throne kind of thing. Yeah, that's a good way to put it. This is something I had no idea. One of the more unique motifs that emerged was the B and the letter N encircled by a crown of laurels. Well, that much we could see. We saw it in his throne. No secret.
00:09:50
Speaker
that's some like some serious because the end symbolize triumph and glory according to Napoleon myself. Yeah. I think that link is probably the same same throw. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's so much there. Right. That's it's insane.
00:10:19
Speaker
Baron Dominique Vivant Denon they know. Yeah that's that is he's a bar and I guess a Dominique Vivant Denon. My French is terrible. I try to learn French once. I've tried to learn a bunch of different languages.
00:10:40
Speaker
Yeah, why did you study in school? Spanish. Yeah, me too. And then I took Italian in college. Me too. Yeah, I think I'm pretty sure I flunked out of that one semester. It's too confusing when you have learned Spanish for, let's see, I started Spanish probably sixth grade when you learn it for four, five, six years and then try and learn Italian. It's just super confusing. Yeah, because there's some things that are really similar and some things that are completely different. Yeah.
00:11:10
Speaker
Yeah, I had the same experience. Then on my own, I've tried French. I brushed up on some Italian because we were supposed to go to Italy last year or the year before. Portuguese, I've tried. Portuguese is like next to Obama. I heard that's pretty hard. If you speak English, there's noises in Portuguese that you just don't make. I wonder where that comes from.
00:11:39
Speaker
I don't know. I think it's like a heavily maybe Latin kind of. Yeah. I don't know. It's weird because they're right next to Spain. Yeah. It's similar to Spanish. Yeah. Yeah. I wonder how they got their own language like that. All right. Well with the Baron. What did you call him the Baron. Denon. He's like invented those like weren't those like cheap VCRs. Yeah. Yeah. I think at one point they were good but
00:12:07
Speaker
they probably, you know, were going to fail. Like Westinghouse. Yeah, and then, you know, they were bought up and all the manufacturing was shipped over to China somewhere. Yeah, Westinghouse used to be really good, didn't it? Yeah. And like when I was a kid, it was junk. Yeah. I think it was General Electric and Westinghouse were the two that fought over the rights to electrify the, or to create a
00:12:35
Speaker
power plant from the waters from Niagara Falls. I might be making that up completely, but we'll have to do a little background research on that. Yeah, we'll go with it. There's plenty of people on the internet making claims about stuff they got no clue about. Might as well hop on that bandwagon. Pretty harmless.
00:13:00
Speaker
But it was like Tesla and Edison were the two main engineers that were on opposite sides of that. Well, we know how Tesla found out everything he knows. Ancient alien technology. Secret space soldiers. No, secret space program.
00:13:24
Speaker
Oh, man. If you haven't heard of that, you got to check that out. Oh, yeah. If you want us to do a podcast, a completely different podcast, just on conspiracy theories, we can make that happen, too. All right. So who's Baron down on? Back up just a little bit. Oh, sorry. That's all right.
00:13:48
Speaker
So Napoleon's military campaigns in Egypt strongly influenced the integration of Egyptian elements in empire furniture. So you have the classical Greek and Roman influences, which are obvious. And then you have this injection of the Egyptian. And Denin is predominantly responsible for the spread of this Egyptian motif.
00:14:17
Speaker
He wrote and published a book in 1802 during Napoleon's Egyptian campaign, which we went over two episodes back. And he depicted drawings detailing, it says, Herms. I have no idea what that is. Herms? Herms. I don't know if that's a real word or a misspelling. So he's director of the Louvre.
00:14:45
Speaker
The other thing I learned while we were on a little hiatus there was devoted to Napoleon. As Napoleon is sort of. Home getting his, uh, you know, Kerme, which is like a design. I think that's how you say it. There he is. The country's around him. They looted Italy. You know, like a designer brand. Oh, that stuff is still in the room.
00:15:09
Speaker
I don't know what I was trying to spell out. Have you seen a lot of terms of loopy and deity? They change the religion? Yeah. Hermes? Hermes, I see. Apparently not. That's what I was just reading. That's the other thing that I found interesting was. That'd be the first that we heard about him. The Encyclopedia Britannica. But we know about the palm leaves. They seem fit to know that he was. That's pretty cool. And I quote an extraordinary ugly man. I'm trying to see a chair with mummies in his legs.
00:15:37
Speaker
That's not right. That's wrong. That's wrong. What's that have to do with anything? I don't know. It was in the closing paragraph too. That's what I mean. Why they had to put that in there. Yeah. It was like a parting shot, you know.
00:15:52
Speaker
So now we have play these French names because they sound It's like my last name barone, you know, but only that's an easy one though But I mean you have it gets Anglica size. Yeah, so that's what we're doing to these poor French names per seer
00:16:11
Speaker
Percier and Fontaine Fontaine's not hard, but any area Francois Leonard Fontaine. So you got Charles Percier and Pierre Francois Leonard Leonard Fontaine. They were hugely influential architects, Percier and Fontaine.
00:16:38
Speaker
And their work pioneers both the direct war and empire furniture. So the direct why I believe is you know like the the cabinet that's you know Napoleon as we discussed controls everything right. So he's dictating like you know what types of furniture can even be built.
00:17:01
Speaker
Uh, so these guys are hugely influential because they're sort of the artists behind, you know, what, um, Napoleon sees and checks off as acceptable. So together they wrote, and I'm not even gonna attempt the name of the, um,
00:17:21
Speaker
book they wrote in 1812 because I put it in English, Collection of Interior Decoration. You studied French. How do you say that? I didn't study that much.
00:17:38
Speaker
decorations interiors. Yeah, so they wrote Collection of Interior Decoration, that's the title of the book, in 1812, which becomes a fundamental guide to style of this time. And it's not just really a choice. If you want to work, you work in this style.
00:18:03
Speaker
Or else? Exactly. Here's Chuck again. He's coming back up. He's a Paris-born and trained cabinet maker, Charles Honoré Lanier. And he is considered, according to his Wikipedia page, one of the most impressive cabinet makers in American history.
00:18:29
Speaker
I had not heard of him until doing the research on this. Man, he lives a long time. Yeah, he only lived and worked in New York City for 16 years. And he died at 40.
00:18:48
Speaker
which is really it's young even then I think. So it may be for this reason that he's been in the shadow of Duncan Fife also a New Yorker. After settling in America Chuck distinguished himself as one of the most talented cabinet makers of the 19th century.
00:19:11
Speaker
Yeah, after the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, anti-English sentiment made French goods especially appealing to Americans. Oh, oui oui. Contrary to post 9-11 America, where everything French was anti-American. Yeah, but again, you could see how these
00:19:37
Speaker
You know, world events are shaping things seemingly disconnected, style and war and political connections.
00:19:53
Speaker
So now you have, um, a French cabinet maker. He's popular. He does good work, but you know, he's, he's not English. So that adds to his popularity. And he's Lenoir is, uh, it's probably not how you say his name.
00:20:11
Speaker
Now I've totally made up a new name. He imported French pattern books, so he's staying up with the latest Parisian fashions.
00:20:33
Speaker
What he did was he kind of melded the American style with the Parisian style so that he could appeal to the American audience that he was working for in New York. He didn't want to just sell to the hoity toity elites. He wanted to make a living. Not unlike us. We must
00:20:58
Speaker
You got to make what people want to buy. Yeah, we try and really, you know, persuade our clients.
00:21:09
Speaker
as best we can, and we're fairly successful at it. Yeah, but sometimes just gotta... Sometimes just gotta make
Comparing Lanier and Duncan Fife
00:21:16
Speaker
it, make it and shut up. So, Lanier not only capitalized on America's attraction to the French style, he helped to refine it. His ornate creations became synonymous with wealth and taste, conferring prestige upon their newly prosperous owners.
00:21:37
Speaker
Yeah, so people wanted to own a piece of his furniture. Yeah, that's like a green street. Yeah, that's what we're shooting for.
00:21:46
Speaker
Yeah, damn right. Yeah, I mean, there's no reason not to. So he found patronage among the American elite and French exiles who also fled the revolution. In case you didn't know, there was a French revolution, too. All kinds of revolutions having around these signs. We just watched a guy who he orchestrated it, remember? Oh, yeah, he's part of the Illuminati.
00:22:14
Speaker
Um, and during the time of Lanier, it's not described as, um, empire. They called what he did French antique. That's a whole different thing now. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, today's works called, you know, federal, he worked in the federal, uh, style, neo classical, and of course American empire. Um,
00:22:39
Speaker
So, considering that he was named one of the most prestigious and important cabinet makers, I thought we should learn a little bit about his early life. He was born outside of Paris in Chantilly, France, 1779. You're getting killed with these French names. I know, they are killing me. He's son to...
00:23:05
Speaker
I always unmute my computer and then I get a thing. Michelle Surreal on here and in keeper and his wife Marie Genevieve Malice. That wasn't too bad.
00:23:20
Speaker
So from childhood, he's influenced by his older brother, Nicholas, and an uncle, Jean Baptiste, who were both successful cabinet makers selling furniture in the pre-revolutionary Paris. So it was before the French Revolution. And so both of these relatives contribute to Lanier's training as a furniture maker. And you know what they say, when do they call a furniture maker in French?
00:23:47
Speaker
was it Ebeneest Ebeneest. Yeah. It doesn't have a good ring to it. No Ebeneest Ebeneest. I don't think they pronounce the A at the end like in Italian right Ebeneest.
00:24:03
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Hey Ben East. I don't know. Must must sound better in French. Oh yeah. That's another one. You if you want to sound right. You've got to put an accent on it. Yeah. Hey. And if you don't know what the hell you're saying it feels weird. Hey Ben East. Yeah. I always think you ever watch Hogan's heroes. No. They had like a French guy and then he used to. I was thinking pepper loop you. Yeah. Same thing.
00:24:28
Speaker
How would Pepe Le Pew say it? I don't know. They still play Pepe Le Pew? Oh, yeah. I watch it on Saturday morning. They have a disclaimer at the beginning. On Disney, a lot of the old movies they do. Oh, really? Yeah, Peter Pan.
00:24:44
Speaker
You know, it says, like, you know, there may be depictions in this that are, you know, basically off-color depictions of different... What's going on with Peter Pan? Well, the Native Americans. Oh, see, I'm not familiar with the show at all. That's why... Peter Pan, the movie? You've never seen that? No. That's been out since the 50s. Yeah, I never saw it. Yeah, I mean, they sing a song called, like, Why is the Red Man Red? Really? Oh, yeah. Oh, my God.
00:25:14
Speaker
Yeah, you see, that's why I'm asking the question. Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, the old Disney stuff and the old Hanna-Barbera, all that Looney Tunes, Mary Melodies type stuff, it's littered with all these politically incorrect and insensitive. Yeah.
00:25:34
Speaker
So he's trained in Paris, but he picks up his toolkit and heads to America because of the French Revolution. Can't blame him. And yeah, you can't do good work under those conditions. Hard to do good work under good conditions. He heads to America in 1803.
00:26:04
Speaker
And though the French Revolution brought the disbandment of the furniture guilds and the associated fashionable practice of labeling pieces with a maker's label, Lanier continued that tradition in the US despite its lack of guilds. So he signed all his stuff.
00:26:24
Speaker
Um, it's a shame the guilds sort of have, I mean, I have never been a member. I've heard of, I know of people who are members and some of the people like, you know, you think about it and you're like, Oh man, this is a bunch of dipshits. So it's a shame that now like being in a guild is like, you know, something for a weekend warrior kind of person. Whereas back then it was a real professional. Yeah. It was a path.
00:26:52
Speaker
Yeah. Well, yeah. And all the members were real full-time furniture makers who, you know, they were in it to elevate the craft and not just. No, I agree 100 percent. I mean, you didn't just pay your dues and show up for cheese and crackers. Yeah. And talk about, you know. And if you're in a guild and that's not what you do, I'm not we're not disparaging you. But I just know
00:27:19
Speaker
of one guy in particular who was in a guild. And it just kind of told me everything I need to know about that. We're speaking with limited exposure. Yeah. And we were not impressed. Yeah. So but maybe there is something out there that we're not aware of which would be cool. Yeah. Maybe we start our own.
00:27:40
Speaker
There you go. There's just not enough pros around to. Yeah. It's a network of sorts. But in that day, a guild was also a co-op a lot of times, wasn't it? Yeah, it was a construct to bring young people into the trades.
00:28:04
Speaker
And it was done in a way like, I know it sounds harsh, but that's the only way people like you and I could afford to train a young person with no skills. They would have to come and work for us for free and do it for 21 years. Well, 14 years. I would say, you know, seven years.
00:28:30
Speaker
because we're going to spend the first couple losing money. And then the next couple, he could do some things to earn his way back. And then just when he's starting to make you some money, he's going to go off on his own. Yeah, it's like, listen, for the first year, he's going to stand over there and watch. And then when we leave for the day, you clean up. Clean up. Don't get in the way.
00:28:59
Speaker
but it's the only way that it works. Yeah.
00:29:05
Speaker
So yeah, the guilds in France are gone after the revolution. So let's pick up. So materials and decorative motifs. In Paris, he's working primarily in mahogany with limited amounts of satinwood and rosewood and veneer inlays. His early pieces show the influence of the late Louis XIV style.
00:29:32
Speaker
Uh, but after he moved 16th, 16th, sorry, get your Roman numerals mixed up. They have to move in to the U S long. He, he benefited from the more stable economy and access to exotic hardwoods. Interesting that, that there were more exotic hardwoods in the U S I guess the proximity to South America. Yeah. Must've, you know, because of the trade and the stable economy and
00:30:00
Speaker
Oh, yeah, yeah, I'm forgetting that things are falling apart in France. Right. Yeah. Didn't we read somewhere, wasn't there like a big walnut freeze, remember? In France, they had all kinds of walnut, and then there was a big frost that killed the walnuts. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
00:30:17
Speaker
Yeah, because French walnut is supposed to be really nice. Yeah, yeah. So he had the benefit of the economy. He started working on larger pieces here in the States. His furniture is characterized by the use of architectural motifs.
00:30:36
Speaker
columns, and brackets, pediments, and pilasters, Greek and Roman motifs. There's this word again. And we're going to have to look this up. And themions. Oh, that's the palmette. How come I can't find it? Oh, blah, blah, blah. In ancient Greek and Roman,
00:31:02
Speaker
uses it is also known as the anthemion from the Greek carry that a flower all right so it's a floral motif yeah like a palm leaf
00:31:17
Speaker
So lanyards, furniture, architectural motifs. Cariotids. There they are. Liars, cariotids, dolphins, laurel wreaths, and winged figures. Well, we saw all that in Napoleon's throne. I wanted to see a dolphin. That's right. We didn't see a dolphin. And a mummy.
00:31:41
Speaker
Federal motifs associated with the early republic include eagles, five or six pointed stars, large figures were carved and gilded while smaller decorative mounts were cast in bronze and gilded.
00:31:57
Speaker
Well, so his range of furniture. Earlier work included sideboards, commodes, which is not what I looked at up. A commode, I might even have written it down. A commode is not a toilet. Yeah, I remember we talked about that. I think it was in colonial. Yeah. Originally, it was like a low-chester drawers kind of thing. I think so. Yeah. So work tables, dining tables, chairs, game tables.
00:32:26
Speaker
Maybe that was a game tale where we saw last episode. As the Empire style, you want to read this? No, not particularly. As the Empire style became more entrenched and its success grew, Lanier produced larger, more expensive pieces, including sofas, cylinder desks, and bedsteads.
00:32:46
Speaker
And now while his pieces are considered within the empire style, his work is distinct for being more delicate and recalling the refinement found in the direct was style.
00:32:59
Speaker
We're going to get a good look at some of his stuff here. And you could see some millennials furniture in the White House Red Room. Oh, wow. Yeah. There's the Red Room again. Well, it is the empire period still. So Albany Institute of History and Art, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. So I mean, the guy is an important figure. It's just, you know, we don't know his name. Bartopel Mansion. That sounds familiar. Yeah.
00:33:31
Speaker
Is that? It's in the Bronx. Wow. Is that where Pell Grant comes from? That's a good question. I'm a recipient of a Pell Grant. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Part of my college degree was earned with the Pell Grant. Hm. Earned in Burr. Lani A. Bed. Yeah.
00:34:02
Speaker
Goes deep. Game table. Game table. That's it. Huh. You think it'd be bigger? Yeah. And not so one-sided. Right. I wonder what it looks like on the back. Yeah, I don't see another angel. Yeah. How do you sit there?
00:34:28
Speaker
and why do they have a thing a bowl on it. So let's just that's for monopoly. Let's describe it for the listeners. It's got a four like a four legged
00:34:43
Speaker
base with like a claw feet, but they're at a really steep angle, or really... Would you say steep or shallow? I guess it's kind of like a shallow angle. Yeah, yeah, I see what you're saying. I'd say they're about 15 degrees in relation to the floor, if you're picking up my drift. And it's connected by like an X-shaped sort of base. We got an angel coming up, but he's got weird legs.
00:35:11
Speaker
Yeah. Like it's almost like they're not supposed to be legs. Almost like a fish. Like he's got like elf feet and then wings coming up, but no arms and his head and the tips of the wings in his head are holding up the front of the table. And you got two columns in the back with like, uh, acanthus leaves that are holding up the backside of the table. It's kind of disjointed in a way, isn't it? It's weird. I don't see how it's a game table.
00:35:41
Speaker
Um, and it's not symmetrical at all. Well, no, I mean, well, left to right it is, but front to back, not at all. Front to back, yeah. And it's got like, uh, I don't know what you call that on the front. Some little leafage. Yeah. Gilded leafage. Yeah. Definitely on the top. It looks like it's all veneer, I guess. Yeah. Um, it's a hard pass for me. Yeah.
00:36:08
Speaker
Let's see a center table. Oh, that was looks like it's those are bet. This has to be the game table and that had to be the center table. Is it? Oh, is that like a chess board on the top? It looks kind of like it. What's the hyperlink say? You know what it says? What? Red Room Ghirdam. Oh.
00:36:34
Speaker
So that's in the White House. Yeah. This is pretty cool. Again, people's heads are holding up the table. Yeah, that is the center table. With this urn at the bottom, it's pretty cool. Claw feed again. Big S-shaped legs. I like that, actually. Almost like a Cabrio leg. Yeah. I like this. Oh, he's reusing that motif of the sort of like that X. Yeah. The wide band.
00:37:05
Speaker
apron yeah it's like a little place you would put like a tea tray or something if you had somebody bringing bringing in you know you had the help bringing in some tea or something that's how we usually do it got the yeah got the lion with the ring in its mouth down here oh i never i didn't ever saw that yeah i don't know what they call that but something i've seen before yeah good pickup
00:37:29
Speaker
I mean, at least that's what it looks like. No, that is it. Yeah. I love the heads. Yeah. So the legs, there's just a head on top of the leg. And that's what's holding up the table. It sounds goofier than it looks. Yeah. It looks really stylish. Oh, there we go. Yeah. These are like some, uh, what's the name of those chairs again? Clismo. Clismo. Yeah.
00:37:59
Speaker
with some harps as the splat. Yeah. Yeah, those are cool. Nice. I like the wood in those. Yeah, these might be my favorite example. Some carving on the legs. Yeah, he's got this scroll worked in here. And this is less one piece and more two separate pieces, which I think is kind of what I like about it.
00:38:29
Speaker
Because that single arc, I don't know. Yeah, it's like they make the sides, like the front and back leg are attached as like a strong element. And then they put the front and back stretcher on to attach those two sections. Interesting carvings here in the leg.
00:38:58
Speaker
Oh, there it is. Oh, wow. Oh my God. Wow. So it's a Clismo shape. Yeah. But it's really, it's really ornate. More of an armchair, this one. Mm-hmm. More, would you call it a bust? Yeah. Like a bust of an angel with the wings go back and they're holding up the arm. The head is holding up the arm.
00:39:27
Speaker
These almost look like a sarcophagus, the way they're shaped. Yeah, yeah. Both of them had this scroll end here. Another harp. Dark wood with bright... Holy cow. Jeez.
00:39:55
Speaker
These are all definitely related as far as, um, Oh yeah, that's a good picture too. What he's bringing to the table. Yeah. He loves having the head holding up the table. I like the angle on these claw feet. It's like it's ready to attack.
00:40:18
Speaker
Yeah, it's got the animal feet. I mean, a lot of the same elements, even the shape of that bottom section, it's just... It's a rectangle instead of a square. And look, this is actually for symmetrical. Yeah. That's my favorite out of all those. Got these columns in the center that go down to the floor.
00:40:45
Speaker
Oh, yeah, that's nice. Stone top. A little, again, a harp on each corner. All that gold, that gilded, I guess it's gilded brass or... No, that's got... You think those are cast or you think it's carved? I don't know. They didn't really mention anything about metalwork, so I'm going to assume that they're wood. Yeah.
00:41:17
Speaker
Wow. A lot of veneer. So during the first decades of the 19th century, Duncan Fife and Charles-Honore Lanier were the acknowledged leaders of the New York furniture trade. Both immigrant craftsmen, they established a distinctive New York style of cabinet making and incorporated contemporary European design.
00:41:44
Speaker
That's the Big Apple. Yeah. Americans considered their work to be the pinnacle of taste and sophistication. Like Fife, Lanier often incorporated decorative elements taken from the architecture and furnishings of ancient Greece and Rome.
00:42:02
Speaker
And he also promoted his European training and knowledge of contemporary Parisian modes by attaching a trade label to his furniture that was written in both French and English. Fancy. Ooh, how sophisticated. Yeah. And it was noted that they both influenced one another. Like, you know, they saw what was going on. Yeah. At each other and go, oh, yeah. They're going to tiptoe. That's right.
00:42:33
Speaker
Now we come to Duncan Fife and he's the guy that most of us have heard of. If only for his tool chest. Well and I think the difference between these two guys that Lani A was the was the designer and the maker and Fife really just the designer and he had a whole slew of guys building all this stuff for him.
00:42:57
Speaker
That's a that's a very good point. So he had you know he could just focus on designing and have his minions make it for him basically. Yeah. Yeah. Is that the dream.
00:43:15
Speaker
You know the executive chef, they long to get back behind the stove. Once you're just out there talking to people. I think the dream is to have a shop that's putting out work. Let's say you have a catalog of pieces and you have people making them and then just take on your own commissions and you have as much time as you want to work on them basically.
00:43:41
Speaker
Right. And maybe even develop more stuff for the catalog. Yeah, or commissions are just building whatever, you know, building spec stuff that you just want to make. All right. So having gone over in last month's series, let's just briefly recap Fife's career. He was a poor immigrant. I was going to say, yeah, from Scotland. I was born a poor black child. In 1784.
00:44:11
Speaker
Oh, he arrived in America in 1784 and he moves down in New York in 1791. I think he was in upstate New York when he first moves in. So he acquired his wealth and fame through hard work, exceptional talent, and the support of patrons. That's a good thing. He'd come to count among his clients some of the nation's wealthiest and most storied families.
00:44:36
Speaker
His personal style characterized by superior proportions, balance, symmetry, and restraint became the New York local style. And he became known as one of America's leading cabinet makers by selling furniture at relatively low prices. It's funny to even think about using the word restraint in any of this furniture.
00:45:03
Speaker
Maybe they'll want the Duncan Fife chair. What the hell is the name of those chairs? I keep forgetting. Clismo. Clismo. Yeah. Yeah. What? Angels with their heads holding up the table and wings. Gilded. Bare-chested women with lions legs in gold. He showed a lot of restraint in that one.
00:45:31
Speaker
Well, Fife's work encompassed a broad range of the period's neoclassical styles, starting from his earliest furnitures, which bear the influence of his 18th century British predecessors, Thomas Sheridan and Thomas Hope, which we never really touched on, continuing with Regency, Federal, Empire, and ending this late with his late simplified designs in the Grecian plain style.
00:46:00
Speaker
So to wrap up this episode, let's compare some of Fife's work to some of that we just saw from Lanier. We have a Fife table here. There you go. OK. Yeah, a little more strange.
00:46:15
Speaker
similar shape to the, uh, the quote unquote game table that we saw. Mm-hmm. And, uh, the, the liar, I think it is. Okay. Yeah. So he's using that motif as sort of like the, the, the trunk, the pedestal. Yeah. Little wheels, little brass claw feet. These legs are reminiscent of the Clismo chair. Yeah. Yeah. Real steep angle, like that original carving. Mm-hmm.
00:46:43
Speaker
And it looks like it's solid wood, except for the top. I don't know. Is that veneer on the sides of those legs? Hard to tell. But definitely a lot of veneer going on on the top and its components. Oh, and so here's the landing air table. I did a good job with those links. Wow. Yeah. Wow is right. That's like the same thing. Yes.
00:47:13
Speaker
Yeah, even down to the little wheels. Mm-hmm. Looks like he's got a double liar. That's right. And Feist just got a hard to tell. Yeah, from that angle. Yeah, I knew what I was doing when I put these links together.
00:47:32
Speaker
You see Lonnie A is a fan of the gilding, because he's got it all over here. He's got a can of the sleeves under here. This thing looks like a little cameo. And some string inlay around the top. So Fife's is a little bit more pedestrian in the way. Yeah. There's something about this that I like better. It seems to.
00:48:02
Speaker
be a little bit more unified to me. Yeah. Yeah, this is like one, two, three. Yeah, and a top, yeah. And this is just. It just seems to be all tied together better, doesn't it? Yeah. All right, score one for the Frenchman. Sorry, Duncan. Let's see the five chair.
00:48:30
Speaker
All right, there's the Clismo chair. He put some feet on. Yeah, they have hairy legs. They're like twisty. I'm not a fan of that element right there. Looks like a little Chihuahua feet.
00:48:56
Speaker
It looks like it's got little dog legs on it for the front legs. I mean, the back is nice enough. Let's check out one of yours. I like that one better. I do, too. It's got a better stance to it. Yeah, I mean, we're looking at really similar elements.
00:49:26
Speaker
This one's kind of like a slouch. This one's got some gusto. It does. That's a good way to put it. It looks a little weak. It's derpy. That's a little stronger looking. Yeah. This almost looks like it's melting. I can't disagree. It's markedly better.
00:49:59
Speaker
And the elements that they share are many. Oh, yeah. So it goes to show you just the small changes. Yeah, I mean, look here. Breeded, round, scroll, scroll. Breeded, round, scroll, scroll. Liar in the back. This right here. Even the way it transitions to the foot in the front? Yeah.
00:50:32
Speaker
This looks so much better here. Mm-hmm. The way Five put those legs and feet on the front almost looks like folk art. A little bit, yeah, like it's just like a mishmash. Like they're stuck on there, right? Yeah. Like he was just like, yeah, like some crazy guy. Cut the legs off. In a junkyard, yeah, like, I'm going to stick these doll hands into the bottom of this chair.
00:51:05
Speaker
Yeah, I mean this. It's so much nicer. Yeah. Oh, man. It wasn't my intention to shit on Duncan Fife. Yeah. But I found those examples where they had really similar pieces. I mean, who's going to trust a Scotsman to make furniture? Come on.
00:51:32
Speaker
Sorry out there to our Scottish listeners. Do we have any Scottish listeners? Probably. We're big in the UK. Do you remember there was a?
00:51:45
Speaker
a Saturday Night Live skit with Mike Myers. If it's not Scottish, it's crap. No, I've never seen that. That must have been the, you know, because he did that guy in Austin Powers, a fat bastard. Yeah, it's exactly that voice. That would be his tagline. If it's not Scottish, it's crap. I think he's done quite a few things with the Scottish accent. That's funny.
00:52:15
Speaker
So this is wrapping up the empire period for us. Well this episode. Oh yeah we got one more episode. Technology and Finance. Oh and Finance that was that was pretty interesting because it we kind of talk about not to give anything away how you know you can't start a factory and build up production without money.
00:52:39
Speaker
Ain't that the truth? And some changes occur during that time that make it possible. Yep. And that's how somebody like Meeks comes along. Oh, you tell me he had a little bit of help. Had a little juice, you know. Yeah, it must be nice. Well, I think that's all we got this week, folks. That's it. Thanks for tuning in. And we'll see you next week, episode 21. Yeah, take care of yourselves out there.
00:53:24
Speaker
Ain't no shame, but there's been a chain