.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
While 17th and 18th Century production of polychrome-decorated gilt leather panels is mostly associated with workshops in the North and South Netherlands, a recent article in the Furniture History Society Journal has pointed out that English craftsmen were also producing high quality leather panels during this time (E. Koldeweij, 'Gilt Leather Hangings in Chinoiserie and Other Styles: An English Speciality', Furniture History Society Journal, 2000, vol. XXXVI, p. 61-101). Published correspondence between Dutch patrons and English craftsman, foremost the London gilt leather maker John Rowland (d. 1744) and a number of his apprentices who later established independent workshops to continue the craft in London, demonstrate the degree of cross-chanel commission and trade in such decorative panels.
Details of the price, maintanence, workshop production and frequency of custom orders have been gleaned from these remarkable survivals of correspondence between a patron and craftsman. Quite often, sets of wall hangings could be ordered with specific motifs and decorative schemes - in fact the practice of the time seemed to favour custom orders rather than panels made ahead of time and kept in stock.
Details of the price, maintanence, workshop production and frequency of custom orders have been gleaned from these remarkable survivals of correspondence between a patron and craftsman. Quite often, sets of wall hangings could be ordered with specific motifs and decorative schemes - in fact the practice of the time seemed to favour custom orders rather than panels made ahead of time and kept in stock.