19th century AD

Magazine Antiques, Sept, 2004 by Noel Riley

The most usual decorative themes in penwork are neoclassicism, chinoiserie, and floral subjects. Of these, the neoclassical designs tend to represent the earliest phase, while chinoiserie decoration reflects the revitalized oriental taste of the 1820s and 1830s, which had been stimulated in England by the decoration of the Royal Pavilion in Brighton. Flowers, from the highly stylized to the botanically meticulous, were a favorite subject of decoration from the 1820s onwards.

This is to generalize, however, and it should be emphasized that neoclassical, chinoiserie, and floral themes often coexisted. The popularity of neoclassical subject matter persisted into the 1820s, when it was quite usual for Chinese scenes to be surrounded by neoclassical borders. Flowers, either in allover patterns or in borders, were used alongside both neoclassical and chinoiserie subjects. For example, flowers predominate in the exuberant decoration on the cabinet shown in Figure 1, but the top of the base (invisible in the photograph) bears a Chinese figural scene, and the side shelves are backed with designs of flowers, trees, and exotic birds reminiscent of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Chinese wallpapers. Neoclassicism is not far away in the flower-embellished acroteria edging the shelves and forming a gallery to the superstructure.

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Some penwork designs reflect the increasing naturalism in floral ornament that was stimulated by botanical illustrations of the period and is also discernible in embroidery during the 1820s and 1830s, but a significant proportion was inspired by the ivory decoration on Indian furniture. Indeed, during the nineteenth century, penwork was most often referred to as "imitation ivory inlaying" (10) or "Indian painting to imitate ebony and ivory." (11) Numerous designs rather loosely follow the ivory decoration on furniture produced in the workshops of Vizagapatam (now Vishakhapatnam) and other centers for British residents in India during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This furniture was not made for commercial export, and, although many examples eventually found their way to England with their owners, they were rare and expensive. It is hardly surprising that such treasures were imitated.

The Indian furniture was usually of ebony, padouk, or rosewood with the floral borders and motifs either inlaid or engraved on ivory veneer. In either case, the details were engraved into the ivory surface and the lines filled with black lac to give them definition (see Pl. II, Fig. 2). It is easy to see the parallels between these designs and certain penwork floral borders, with their fine lines and crosshatched blooms and leaves set against a dark background. The border of flowers and leaves around the mirror in the upper stage of the cabinet in Figure 1 follows that of the ivory-inlaid dressing mirror in Plate II remarkably closely.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

It was rare, however, for penworkers to copy the ivory designs precisely; it was more often a matter of capturing the effect. The swirling borders on the mirror base in Plate II contain distinctive carnations and fluttering parrot tulips derived from seventeenth-century Dutch flower painting, but flowers are only rarely depicted so accurately in penwork. Nor was the tree-of-life design often chosen by pen-workers, although it was a favorite among Indian craftsmen of both furniture and of printed textiles. Plate III illustrates a rare example in penwork, but it evokes Dutch flower painting as strongly as Indian ivory work.