Inlaid Tulipwood Bombe Commode with Ormolu Mounts

• Serpentine - Resembling a serpent, in the form of an elongated 'S'. A serpentine front is similar to a bow front, except that the curve is shallow at each end, swelling towards the middle. The term presumably derives from its similarity to a moving snake or serpent. Serpentine fronts are usually veneered, with the carcase either being cut and shaped from a solid piece of timber, or built in the 'brick' method.
• Circa - A Latin term meaning 'about', often used in the antique trade to give an approximate date for the piece, usually considered to be five years on either side of the circa year. Thus, circa 1900 means the piece was made about 1900, probably between 1895 and 1905. The expression is sometimes abbreviated to c.1900.
• Pierced Decoration - Ornamental woodwork with part of the background cut through and removed to produce an open-work pattern.
• Commode - The word "commode" when used to describe an item of furniture, has three usuages:
  
  1. As used to describe an item of English furniture, it refers to what is euphemistically called a 'night table', that is a small cabinet concealing a chamber pot.
  
  2. In its 18th century French usuage it describes a low and highly decorated chest of drawers for salons and reception rooms. A bombe commode is a commode with rounded sides and front, giving the chest a somewhat swollen look.
  
  3. It is also used to denote a half round or serpentine shaped cabinet, with panelled doors, standing on legs. They were pieces on which the cabinetmaker lavished his most accomplished art, with rich veneers, marquetry inlays, gilt mounts and other ornamentation.
• Apron - A decorative wooden panel that sits underneath the top surface of a table or chair, and unites the top of the piece with the legs, running at right angles to the underside. On carcase furniture such as a chest or wardrobe, the apron sits below the drawers or doors and attaches to the legs.
  
  On carcase furniture without legs the panel under the drawers or doors sits on the floor and is termed a plinth.
  
  An apron can provide a decorative touch to an otherwise unadorned piece of furniture and at the same time provide structural support and strength. They can be carved or pierced and quite elaborate.
• Ormolu - Ormolu was popular with French craftsmen in the 18th and 19th century for ornamental fittings for furniture, clocks and other decorative items. True ormolu is gilt bronze, that is bronze that has been coated with gold using a mercury amalgam. Due to the health risks associated with using mercury, this method of creating ormolu was discontinued in France in the 1830s. A substitute was developed consisting of about 75% copper and 25% zinc, however it was inferior to the bronze version. It was often lacquered to prevent it tarnishing.
• Inlay - Decorative patterns inserted into the main body of a piece of furniture, generally in wood of contrasting colour and grain, though brass, ivory, ebony, shell and sometimes horn have been used. Inlay may consist of a panel of well figured timber inset into a cabinet door front, geometric patterns, or complex and stylized designs of flowers, swags of foliage, fruits and other motifs. As a general rule, in pieces where the carcase is constructed in the solid, the inlay is relatively simple such as stringing, cross banding and herringbone banding. Where more elaborate and decorative work was required veneer was used. Inlay has been fashionable from at least the latter half of the 17th century, when a variety of elaborate forms were developed
• Bombe Front - More commonly associated with a dome shaped dessert, "bombe" in furniture parlance means "puffed out". In profile the piece is serpentine shaped, narrow at the top, swelling out towards the middle and continuing to the floor, though sometimes it narrowed again at the foot. Drawer fronts are curved in section. Bombe pieces are often highly decorated with marquetry inlay, or veneered and set with brass or ormolu mounts. The most common use of the word, is in the description of the 'bombe commode'.
  
  The bombe design was particularly popular in the 18th century, during the reign of Louis XIV, when it was used to create furniture pieces with a curved, rounded bulging shape. This design was used on furniture in many styles, including Baroque, Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI. The bombe chest is one of the most iconic furniture piece featuring this design. They were usually made of precious woods like mahogany, rosewood, and walnut, and feature elaborate inlay, gilded ornaments and ormolu. Other items of furniture where the bombe design can be seen include cabinets, commodes, and desks.
• Panels - Timber pieces, usually of well-figured wood either recessed or applied over the frames of doors and as decoration elsewhere in the carcase of cabinet furniture. The panels may take a variety of shapes rectangular, square, shield shape, oval, half-round or in the form of Egyptian pylons.
• Mounts - Mounts are used to describe bronze, brass and ormolu adornments on furniture especially quality furniture in the rococo and classical revival style, and are also the cabinet makers' name for the metal fittings on furniture, such as hinges, locks and handles, and metal edges and guards which protect furniture from damage.
• Veneers - Veneers are thin sheets of well-figured timber that are glued under pressure to the surface of a cheaper timber for decorative effect, and then used in the making of carcase furniture.
  
  Early veneers were saw-cut so were relatively thick, (up to 2 mm) but is was realised that saw cutting was wasteful, as timber to the equivilent of the thickness of the saw was lot on each cut.
  
  A more efficient method was devised to slice the timber, either horizontally with a knife, or in a rotary lathe.
  
  Flame veneer, commonly found in mahogany or cedar furniture, is cut from the junction of the branches and main trunk. So-called fiddleback veneers, where the grain is crossed by a series of pronounced darker lines, is usually cut from the outer sections of the tree trunk.
  
  During the 17th and 18th centuries, and in much of the walnut marquetry furniture made during the latter part of the 19th century, the veneer was laid in quarters, each of the same grain, so that one half of the surface was the mirror image of the other.
  
  The use of veneer allows many other decorative effects to be employed, including stringing, feather banding, cross banding, and inlaid decorative panels in the piece. The carcase over which veneer is laid is usually of cheaper timber such as pine, oak or, sometimes in Australia during the first half of the 19th century, red cedar.
  
  The important thing to remember about veneers is that prior to about 1850 they were cut by hand, and were consequently quite thick - ranging up to about 2mm deep.
  
  From the mid-19th century veneers were cut by machines and were almost wafer-thin. This is a critical point when trying to judge the approximate age of veneered furniture.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• chests of drawers, period - Louis style 475
• commodes and chests, country of origin / style - Louis XV 287