Object of the Day, Museum Edition: A French Mahogany Arm Chair, 1870

Armchair
French, 1870
This and all related images from:
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Here, we see an armchair of mahogany with gilt-bronze mounts. The arm supports are designed as winged sphinxes. This chair is the work of the French furniture makers at Jacob Fréres and is stamped as such. It is stenciled underneath with the inventory marks of the Palais de Tuileries and the number 27463. The number refers to its removal to the Garde-Meuble in 1826 from the Chateau de St. Cloud.

What’s curious is that though the inventory marks are genuine, the chair itself is a fake. It is not the chair that was removed from the Chateau de St. Cloud. It is, in fact, a newer chair from 1870 which was built on the frame of a much simpler chair. The original chair was the one which was supplied by Jacob Fréres between 1802 and 1803. Let’s look at the front legs. Aren’t they a bit out of proportion? The legs are, in reality, additions which were stripped from a table which had been built by Jacob Fréres.

In effect, we have a chair built in 1870 which someone has tried to give importance to by using the inventory numbers of an earlier chair built for Napoleon I. So, this is a con job along the lines of something Matt Bomer’s Neal Caffrey would have executed had White Collar been set in Nineteenth Century France. The forgery is quite clever and whoever did it took a great deal of time and effort to make it look convincing. Why? At this point, no one knows. It remains an attractive, if not poorly proportioned, mystery. 

Object of the Day, Museum Edition: A French Mahogany Arm Chair, 1870

Armchair
French, 1870
This and all related images from:
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Here, we see an armchair of mahogany with gilt-bronze mounts. The arm supports are designed as winged sphinxes. This chair is the work of the French furniture makers at Jacob Fréres and is stamped as such. It is stenciled underneath with the inventory marks of the Palais de Tuileries and the number 27463. The number refers to its removal to the Garde-Meuble in 1826 from the Chateau de St. Cloud.

What’s curious is that though the inventory marks are genuine, the chair itself is a fake. It is not the chair that was removed from the Chateau de St. Cloud. It is, in fact, a newer chair from 1870 which was built on the frame of a much simpler chair. The original chair was the one which was supplied by Jacob Fréres between 1802 and 1803. Let’s look at the front legs. Aren’t they a bit out of proportion? The legs are, in reality, additions which were stripped from a table which had been built by Jacob Fréres.

In effect, we have a chair built in 1870 which someone has tried to give importance to by using the inventory numbers of an earlier chair built for Napoleon I. So, this is a con job along the lines of something Matt Bomer’s Neal Caffrey would have executed had White Collar been set in Nineteenth Century France. The forgery is quite clever and whoever did it took a great deal of time and effort to make it look convincing. Why? At this point, no one knows. It remains an attractive, if not poorly proportioned, mystery. 

Object of the Day, Museum Edition: An Unusual Throne

Armchair
French, 1870
This and all related images from:
The Victoria & Albert Museum

If you thought that the British Monarchy had a lot of crowns, their number is nothing compared to the amount of thrones rattling around in various palaces. Just as I’ve had to pause to figure out which crown I’m talking about, I’ve had to spend some time this morning acquainting myself with the different thrones so I don’t lead you down the wrong path.  They all look enough alike as to be confusing. 


So, let’s start with a throne of sorts—not English and not, technically a throne. Nevertheless, it’s an attractive chair and fits with the day’s theme.

Here, we see an armchair of mahogany with gilt-bronze mounts. The arm supports are designed as winged sphinxes. This chair is the work of the French furniture makers at Jacob Fréres and is stamped as such. It is stenciled underneath with the inventory marks of the Palais de Tuileries and the number 27463. The number refers to its removal to the Garde-Meuble in 1826 from the Chateau de St. Cloud.

What’s curious is that though the inventory marks are genuine, the chair itself is a fake. It is not the chair that was removed from the Chateau de St. Cloud. It is, in fact, a newer chair from 1870 which was built on the frame of a much simpler chair. The original chair was the one which was supplied by Jacob Fréres between 1802 and 1803. Let’s look at the front legs. Aren’t they a bit out of proportion? The legs are, in reality, additions which were stripped from a table which had been built by Jacob Fréres.

In effect, we have a chair built in 1870 which someone has tried to give importance to by using the inventory numbers of an earlier chair built for Napoleon I. So, this is a con job along the lines of something Matt Bomer’s Neal Caffrey would have executed had White Collar been set in Nineteenth Century France. The forgery is quite clever and whoever did it took a great deal of time and effort to make it look convincing. Why? At this point, no one knows. It remains an attractive, if not poorly proportioned, mystery.

Painting of the Day: The "Spanish Forger" Jonah and the Whale, 1900

"Jonah and the Whale"
by "The Spanish Forger"
c. 1900
The Victoria & Albert Museum

The artist who was known as “The Spanish Forger” was the “Neal Caffrey” of the early Twentieth Century—except maybe for the sparking blue eyes and cool fedoras. In the mid Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries both in Europe (especially Britain) and in the U.S., the fashionable elite turned their attention to collecting medieval panel paintings and illuminated manuscripts. “The Spanish Forger” seized upon this opportunity, noting an opportunity to not only make some money, but to put his talents to good use, and soon became one of the most skilled and prolific forgers in history.

This forger was responsible for a host of paintings which the V&A says are, “of sweet faced figures set against a background of steep hills and castles derived from the study of illustrated books on the Middle Ages.”

For decades, these expert forgeries were attributed to the Fifteenth Century Spanish painter, Jorge Inglés. The works were discovered to be forgeries in the 1930s. And, yet, we know almost nothing of the person called “The Spanish Forger.” He’s given this name because of the nature of the paintings he produced, but we can’t be sure that he was Spanish. In fact, it is thought that the artist was active in France in the late 19th century and early 20th centuries.

Here we see one of the Spanish Forger’s works--one of a group of five or six miniatures of similar size and borders. The miniatures are very cleverly painted on the back of cuttings from a real Fifteenth or Sixteenth Century page from an Italian choir book.

The scene depicts Jonah and the Whale from the Biblical Old Testament--at the moment when Jonah is thrown overboard from the ship upon which he sailed. The whale can readies himself to swallow Jonah.

The work of the forger is very convincing. Chemical dating would have indicated that the page itself was quite right in age. However, the forger, as clever as he was made one mistake. The headdresses that the men are wearing had not been developed in the fifteenth century. This anachronistic error gave away his entire con. 

Object of the Day: A French Mahogany Arm Chair, 1870

Armchair
French, 1870
This and all related images from:
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Today, if I seem a little slow in starting, it’s not because I’ve been napping, but rather doing research. We’ll be looking at thrones today. Now, if you thought that the British Monarchy had a lot of crowns, their number is nothing compared to the amount of thrones rattling around in various palaces. Just as I’ve had to pause to figure out which crown I’m talking about, I’ve had to spend some time this morning acquainting myself with the different thrones so I don’t lead you down the wrong path.  They all look enough alike as to be confusing. 


So, let’s start with a throne of sorts—not English and not, technically a throne. Nevertheless, it’s an attractive chair and fits with the day’s theme.

Here, we see an armchair of mahogany with gilt-bronze mounts. The arm supports are designed as winged sphinxes. This chair is the work of the French furniture makers at Jacob Fréres and is stamped as such. It is stenciled underneath with the inventory marks of the Palais de Tuileries and the number 27463. The number refers to its removal to the Garde-Meuble in 1826 from the Chateau de St. Cloud.

What’s curious is that though the inventory marks are genuine, the chair itself is a fake. It is not the chair that was removed from the Chateau de St. Cloud. It is, in fact, a newer chair from 1870 which was built on the frame of a much simpler chair. The original chair was the one which was supplied by Jacob Fréres between 1802 and 1803. Let’s look at the front legs. Aren’t they a bit out of proportion? The legs are, in reality, additions which were stripped from a table which had been built by Jacob Fréres.

In effect, we have a chair built in 1870 which someone has tried to give importance to by using the inventory numbers of an earlier chair built for Napoleon I. So, this is a con job along the lines of something Matt Bomer’s Neal Caffrey would have executed had White Collar been set in Nineteenth Century France. The forgery is quite clever and whoever did it took a great deal of time and effort to make it look convincing. Why? At this point, no one knows. It remains an attractive, if not poorly proportioned, mystery.