Ormolu Mounted Kingwood Bureau Plat

• Provenance - A term used to describe the provable history of an antique or work of art, and thus an additional aid to verifying its authenticity. Provenance can have an inflating effect on the price of an item, particularly if the provenance relates to the early settlement of Australia, a famous person, or royalty. Less significant are previous sales of the item through an auction house or dealer.
• 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.
• Cabriole Leg - The cabriole leg evolved from an elongated scroll, curving out at the knee which may or may not be carved, and forming a serpentine shape as it descends to the foot.
  
  First introduced into English furniture in the late 17th century, cabriole legs were widely used during the Queen Anne and early Georgian periods, where they frequently terminated in a pad foot or ball and claw foot. The style has had many imitators since then. The cabriole leg was re-introduced in the mid-19th century, and is commonly associated with the balloon-back dining or drawing-room chairs made in walnut, mahogany or, in Australia, cedar. The Victorian cabriole leg, on the whole, was rather more slender than the earlier form, following the French style, which emphasized the delicacy and daintiness of the chairs they were designed to support. Cabriole legs are sometimes found on windsor chairs, especially those made during the 18th century.
• Frieze - An architectural term denoting the flat, shaped or convex horizontal surface of furniture, between the architrave and the cornice, usually found on a cabinet or bookcase, or on desks and tables where it may include drawers, the area between the top and the legs. In ceramics, the term refers to the banding, of usually a repeating pattern, on the rims of plates and vases.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• desks, style or type - bureaux plat 98