Featured Here a jere, there a jere,

Everywhere an Etagere! OK, for fun let's drop the usual Q and A in favor of a little show and tell. That means you have to supply a photo or two to the thread, if you've got one.

Anyway, etageres (a French word describing an arrangement of shelves, often with a mirrored back) began as smaller pieces in the late 18th century. They were usually quite elegant, a series of 3 or 4 shelves often inlaid with marquetry. These were designed to hold and display the various material objects that were part of an increasingly (for some) affluent European society. In the U.K. and U.S.A. smaller units were called "whatnots."

As the taste for ornament grew in the 19th century, etageres grew larger and often became the design flagships for furniture companies, using only the finest materials and levels of craftsmanship. This continued on into the 20th century. Actually, etageres are common even today, although of course they are now simple shelves held together withmetal or plastic, functional yet soulless.

So this etagere dates to ca. 1870 and is made of walnut, marble and glass. It's attributed to Mitchell & Rammelsberg of Cincinnati and St. Louis. Since this one was found in Missouri, I'll say that it was made for their St. Louis "Wareroom." This piece features M & R's characteristic piercework carving.

I'll post a few more as time goes on, and I hope you will, too. Post 'em if you got 'em!

 

Classy sitting room.....& wood !!!!

 

Thanks amigo. And I deliberately kept myself out of the mirror's reflection....I know how you are.

 

Very lovely. My grandmother used to call a piece of furniture she had an etagere but it didn't look anything like yours. Interesting.

 

isn't that u in the other mirror way down the hallway.....

 

I don't have an etagere either and, I don't want one!
Takes up a lot of space and pretty much zero function, just saying....

 

ahhh, yer just sounding like an old fuddy duddy !!!

 

Function RULES when it comes to furniture. Furniture isn't a painting one hangs on the wall. Rather, it's form (ever) follows function.

 

then why do sooooooo many......back up to a flat wall ???
Hehehe!!!!!!!

 

Even Louis Sullivan didn't come close to living the ideal "form ever follows function." You HAVE met his ornament on the Carson Pirie Scott Department store, right?

Pure function, like pure communism, is something that is never quite attained, and the closer one gets to it the more humorless, austere and joyless life becomes.
Function is important, but it's just one factor. Ornament, craftsmanship, materials, oh yeah! Delight for delight's sake!

 

Unless you like pretty things that set on it and are accentuated because of what they sit on.

Therefore the etagere most certainly has Function.

 

Do you have a photo, Pearls?

 

No one on my side is talking "purity" over here.
The Shakers OTOH tried that and achieved great beauty I think!
If a piece of furniture ain't functioning, it ain't happening!
You could also say, a non-functioning piece of furniture ain't long for this world!
SO THERE!

 

Just being beautiful is a function... as I say to myself every morning!

 

For those few who care......

This etagere is by Prudent Mallard, from New Orleans ca. 1850. Mallard emigrated to New Orleans from France ca. 1820, married an American woman, and started a furniture import business. He also became a cabinet maker; some of New Orleans' finest Rococo Revival furniture, most notably bedroom sets with half testers, was from his shop. This etagere has his trademark cabochon (egg) in the crest, as well as the type of feet he normally used on most of his furniture.

Anyway, if anybody has etagere photos they'd like to post for fun, have at it!

 

Lovely, is it yours?