Daniel Cottier Attributed, an Aesthetic Movement Oak Sideboard in the Queen Anne Style
Price on Application
This item is price on application due to its rarity and importance.
1880-1889
About this piece
Attributed to Daniel Cottier, this ebonised oak court cupboard aligns to the Aesthetic Movement (circa 1860 to circa 1890) and Queen Anne Revival taste, c.1880. The cupboard is richly worked throughout, with an architectural upper stage, open lower shelf and a strong contrast between the black ebonised ground and warm painted decoration.
The upper section is arranged with a central painted mythological panel flanked by angled side panels, each set within deep moulded frames. The frieze above carries a continuous painted and gilt strapwork border, while the lower frieze is decorated with scrolling foliage and sunflower-like roundels. The painted panels sit within carved bead, egg-and-dart and moulded borders, giving the whole upper section a dense but disciplined Aesthetic surface.
The turned front columns are heavily carved with leaf and flower ornament, with scroll capitals and block bases, while the vertical side panels carry pierced Gothic and Renaissance-style scrollwork. The cupboard combines Queen Anne Revival massing with the more advanced Aesthetic taste for ebonised surfaces, painted panels, mythological subjects and finely controlled ornamental contrast.
A similar court cupboard by Cottier & Co. is illustrated in Jeremy Cooper’s Victorian and Edwardian Furniture and Interiors: From the Gothic Revival to Art Nouveau, pl. 391.* Another court cupboard catalogued as Daniel Cottier, c.1873, was described as stained and carved oak inset with gilded and painted panels, with Cooper again cited for a cabinet with similar carved decoration. A further Cottier ebonised and decorated cabinet, c.1880, shows comparable use of flower-head roundels and painted decorative panels within an ebonised cabinet form.**
REFERENCES / PROVENANCE
* Jeremy Cooper, Victorian and Edwardian Furniture and Interiors: From the Gothic Revival to Art Nouveau, Abbeville Press, 1987, pl. 391, where a similar court cupboard by Cottier & Co. is illustrated.
** Christie’s, Interiors, Style & Spirit, Paul Reeves and The House Beautiful, lot 691. Daniel Cottier, ebonised wood and decorated cabinet, c.1880, with flower-head roundel frieze and decorated panels.
