Large Original Display Cabinet, Around 1770, Aachen-Lüttich

Details

Description

Large display case

Aachen-Liège 18th century

oak

Size: 249x165x55cm

good original condition, minor signs of wear

Authenticity will be confirmed … Read more Large display case

Aachen-Liège 18th century

oak

Size: 249x165x55cm

good original condition, minor signs of wear

Authenticity will be confirmed in writing.


Furniture in the Aachen-Liège style (or Aachen-Liège Baroque) refers to furniture from the 18th century that was made in the Liège-Maastricht-Aachen-Monschau-Verviers area. A characteristic of this furniture is the appearance of wood, which means that the wood is not covered by a veneer or a layer of paint and that the ornamentation is formed solely by wood carving and not by silver-plated or gold-plated metal fittings or similar.

The heyday of the Aachen-Liège furniture style was in the late baroque and rococo periods. Politically, Aachen was a free imperial city at the time; ecclesiastically, the city belonged to the diocese of Liège. At this time, the Aachen-Liège area was strongly oriented towards France in the field of art. The styles were therefore primarily referred to by their French names Régence and Louis-quinze; transitions to the early classicist Louis-Seize can also still be seen in the Aachen-Liège furniture.

In the 17th century, furniture production in the Aachen-Liège area did not have any special characteristics. The model at the time was the Dutch furniture carpentry workshop. It was only from the beginning of the 18th century that a distinct style developed, first in Liège and then in Aachen, which can be recognized in furniture with Régence decorations.

The Aachen-Liège furniture is usually made of oak. While elsewhere in furniture construction, the fiber of the wood used was often cut and these interfaces were covered with veneer, lacquer or metal fittings for decoration, in the Aachen-Liège area, emphasis was placed on protecting the wood fiber and highlighting the natural grain of the wood itself as decoration without additional applications. The wood was also stained, waxed and brushed.

Even though the Aachen-Liège furniture has many common stylistic features due to the contact and labor exchange between the two neighboring cities, there are also differences
which you can tell whether a piece of furniture was made in Aachen or Liège.

Aachen display cabinets are usually made in one piece, while Liège furniture usually consists of a base cabinet and a slightly recessed display cabinet attachment.

The carving of Liège furniture is more elaborate, but sometimes appears “imposed”, while the carving of Aachen furniture is simpler and appears more organic. In Aachen, flower motifs and leaf and flower tendrils are preferred as motifs, while in Liège the rocaille motif predominates. In Aachen furniture, the carving is usually recessed and framed by the remaining carved surface.

Aachen cabinets have a miter at a 90° angle in the curved cornice, which is known as the “Aachen nose”.

Aachen furniture often has a bean-shaped interior mirror in the crowning rocaille.

The showpiece of the Aachen-Liège furniture is the glass or display cabinet in which the house's porcelain was displayed, which was still an absolute luxury item at that time. It has wooden doors in its lower part and glazed doors in its upper part. The corners of the top are often beveled and also glazed, sometimes even the side walls are glazed. Carved wooden muntins divide the glass panes of the doors. An area with drawers can be installed between wooden doors and glass doors.

Wardrobes and linen cupboards are one-piece with two wooden doors decorated with carvings. The smaller linen cupboards usually stand on high, curved legs, the taller wardrobes on short, thick feet or flattened balls.

The chest of drawers is a half-height piece of furniture that only has drawers. The front sides of the drawers in particular are decorated with carvings.

In the writing cabinet or bureau, a cavity is installed between a lower part, which is provided with doors or drawers, and a recessed upper part, which is closed by a sloping cover plate, which serves as a writing surface when opened.

Grandfather clocks were also built as furniture in the Aachen-Liège style. The weights and a long pendulum that oscillates with a small amplitude hang in the long, narrow cabinet, which ensures high accuracy. Grandfather clocks were also assembled with other types of furniture such as chests of drawers or writing cabinets to form so-called combination furniture.

This furniture usually has a rectangular floor plan, but there are also triangular cabinets and grandfather clocks that can be placed in the corners of rooms



An important collection of furniture in the Aachen-Liège style, especially display cabinets, is located in the Couven Museum in Aachen. Other museums with Aachen-Liège furniture include the Musée d’Ansembourg and the Grand Curtius in Liège, the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels and the Museum aan het Vrijthof in Maastricht.


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