This is a lavish Victorian style burr walnut breakfront marquetry credenza. Dripping with beauty and smothered in fine ormolu mounts and hand painted Sevres style plaques. The credenza comprises three cupboards with two shelves in each. The central cupboard provids hidden storage space, while the cupboards to either side have glass panelled doors for display items. The central cupboard is the breakfront part of the credenza. In the centre is a large Sevres style hand painted porcelain oval plaque depicting a floral arrangement, bordered with an ormolu mount. All the cupboard doors are surrounded with marquetry decorations of flowers. Along the top runs a cornice, which is covered with a row of miniature Sevres porcelain plaques, with a larger one in the centre. At the two front corners are two grand ebonised Corinthian columns, which frame the piece wonderfully. All the corners are edged with ormolu mounts. It is set onto eight turned wooden feet at the base. Its attention to detail and lavish decoration are certain to draw the eye wherever you choose to place it in your home. Condition: In excellent condition, please see photos for confirmation. Dimensions in cm: Height 120 x Width 227 x Depth 47 Dimensions in inches: Height 3 feet, 11 inches x Width 7 feet, 5 inches x Depth 1 foot, 6 inches Burr Walnut refers to the swirling figure present in nearly all walnut when cut and polished, and especially in the wood taken from the base of the tree where it joins the roots. However the true burr is a rare growth on the tree where hundreds of tiny branches have started to grow. Burr walnut produces some of the most complex and beautiful figuring you can find. Marquetry is decorative artistry where pieces of material (such as wood, mother of pearl, pewter, brass silver or shell) of different colours are inserted into surface wood veneer to form intricate patterns such as scrolls or flowers. The technique of veneered marquetry had its inspiration in 16th century Florence. Marquetry elaborated upon Florentine techniques of inlaying solid marble slabs with designs formed of fitted marbles, jaspers and semi-precious stones. This work, called opere di commessi, has medieval parallels in Central Italian "Cosmati"-work of inlaid marble floors, altars and columns. The technique is known in English as pietra dura, for the "hardstones" used: onyx, jasper, cornelian, lapis lazuli and colored marbles. In Florence, the Chapel of the Medici at San Lorenzo is completely covered in a colored marble facing using this demanding jig-sawn technique. Techniques of wood marquetry were developed in Antwerp and other Flemish centers of luxury cabinet-making during the early 16th century. The craft was imported full-blown to France after the mid-seventeenth century, to create furniture of unprecedented luxury being made at the royal manufactory of the Gobelins, charged with providing furnishings to decorate Versailles and the other royal residences of Louis XIV. Early masters of French marquetry were the Fleming Pierre Golle and his son-in-law, André-Charles Boulle, who founded a dynasty of royal and Parisian cabinet-makers (ébénistes) and gave his name to a technique of marquetry employing tortoiseshell and brass with pewter in arabesque or intricately foliate designs. Ormolu (from French 'or moulu', signifying ground or pounded gold) is an 18th-century English term for applying finely ground, high-carat gold in a mercury amalgam to an object of bronze.The mercury is driven off in a kiln leaving behind a gold-coloured veneer known as 'gilt bronze'. The manufacture of true ormolu employs a process known as mercury-gilding or fire-gilding, in which a solution of nitrate of mercury is applied to a piece of copper, brass, or bronze, followed by the application of an amalgam of gold and mercury. The item was then exposed to extreme heat until the mercury burned off and the gold remained, adhered to the metal object. No true ormolu was produced in France after around 1830 because legislation had outlawed the use of mercury. Therefore, other techniques were used instead but nothing surpasses the original mercury-firing ormolu method for sheer beauty and richness of colour. Electroplating is the most common modern technique. Ormolu techniques are essentially the same as those used on silver, to produce silver-gilt (also known as vermeil). Our reference: 00261 Please feel free to email or call us (+44 20 8809 9605) to arrange a viewing in our North London warehouse. 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