Iron and steel furniture in France

Magazine Antiques, Sept, 1996 by Ulrich Leben

During the eighteenth century England was famous for its polished steel knife blades, watch chains, buttons, and other small objects, which were also sought after in Germany and France. In southern Italy, around Naples, metalworkers forged extravagant steel bedsteads and tables, and the Russian arms factory in Tula produced all manner of steel furniture (see Pl. XVII).

In eighteenth-century France, iron ore deposits in the Dauphine and Burgundy regions were exploited by de Buffon among other aristocrats, providing the raw material for the production of high-quality steel, and freeing France from dependence on expensive imports. It may well be that during the reign of Louis XVI interest in the locksmith's craft was an additional impetus for the production of steel. In this period an enormous increase in patent applications for locks was triggered by an increased use of forged keys.(6) Locksmiths also branched out into other metallurgical specialties. On November 16, 1767, L'Avant Coureur reported that locksmithing

has become in the hands of the French an art of decoration which, by its richness and the beauty of the craftsmanship often attracts people of taste. Since the last century our artists have distinguished themselves with the magnificent grilles in the Church of Paris and the Abbey of Saint Denis and by those at the Chateaux of Versailles and "de Maisons." In our day the iron used to make these kinds of objects has been enhanced by meticulous polishing so that it resembles steel.

The same journal noted that the locksmith Pierre d'Eumier had forged a steel console to support a marble top for a customer in Poland and a steel grille for the choir of the church of Saint Germain l'Auxerrois in Paris.(7) On July 30, 1770, L'Avant Coureur reported that the royal locksmith Gerard had made a forged-steel canopy three feet in diameter and sixteen feet tall that was polished to the brilliance of silver for the church of Saint Genevieve (now the Pantheon) in Paris.(8) The journal commented that Gerard had proven that "in the hands of an intelligent and industrious artist iron could be made to take the most pleasing, varied, and delicate forms."

Jewelry, art objects, and furniture of polished iron and steel became status symbols for French society before the Revolution. The industry was centered in Paris and unlike its counterparts in other European countries, archives and newspapers offer information about a large number of makers.(9) After 1770 an increasing amount of steel furniture was made in France, perhaps spurred in part by the incorporation of elaborate iron and steel mechanisms in the marquetry furniture of David Roentgen (1743-1807) and Jean Henri Riesener. The order books of the royal family(10) show that beginning in 1784 Marie Antoinette repeatedly commissioned the royal locksmith Jacques Antoine Courbin to make steel bedsteads for her children and their governesses.(11) These were considered more hygienic since they were impervious to bugs.

In 1778 the locksmith Tranoi offered bedsteads of "polished steel, with and without canopy," which could be "assembled without screws and bolts"(12) (see Pl. XI). Thus they were particularly suitable for military officers and travelers, who were otherwise obliged to endure the lice-infested beds in inns. The austere headboards and footboards of these bedsteads were often padded and covered with silk taffeta or velvet and the beds themselves enclosed in drapery and furnished with cushions. Today the fabrics are gone, but the role of the upholsterer in the original appearance of these beds should not be overlooked.

Large objects, including furniture, were made of malleable forged steel, whereas brooches, clasps, and other small objects were made of cast steel, which was technically difficult to produce and therefore expensive. It was also quite brittle, although it did take a brilliant polish, according to the knife maker Jean Jacques Perret, who, in 1779, presented Louis XVI with razors and a mirror of cast steel, which he had made and polished.(13) In 1787 Reisener created a desk (Pl. XIII) for Marie Antoinette's rooms at the palace of Fontainebleau near Paris. It is decorated with polished steel fittings as well as gilt bronze and inlay of mother-of-pearl. Other ebenistes who embellished their furniture with steel were Bernard Molitor (1755-1833) and Adam Weisweiler, who used plaques of polished cast steel as the background for gilt-bronze ornament on the table shown in Plate III.

In the 1790s the French came to prefer the sheen of steel and brass on mahogany-veneered case furniture to the golden luster of delicately chiseled gilt-bronze ornament, which was deemed effeminate and was associated with the degraded and decimated aristocracy. Brass and steel mounts and inlaid strips of steel required the precise work of an instrument maker and the fine polishing practiced by locksmiths and gunsmiths.(14) A German commentator noted in 1789 that in Paris steel

is worked as if it were gold and it is used in almost the same way. Souvenirs, boxes, and vanity cases are decorated with faceted steel "diamonds," which also frame cameos, and miniature paintings mounted in the lids of steel boxes, mimicking gold snuff boxes. Polished steel or wrought steel buttons, watch chains, clasps, ornaments for women's dresses, etc. are at the height of fashion.(15)