Post-Tour Clean Up --- Days 14/130-133

Walks: Legion of Honor

Distances: 2.5 miles

Joseph Baumhauer (maker), Commode, mid 18th C, Bloodwood, Kingwood marquetry, marble top, gilt bronze mounts
  

So, preparing for for a recent tour of the Legion of Honor Museum, Ciwt got reacquainted with some of her favorite works - this French commode for one. Ciwt is not a fan of the Rococo paintings  (to her too light and silly) that dominate the walls of Louis XIV's (1643-1715)  Versailles Palace, but she loves how Rococo's curvy openess, lightness and sense of movement works with some of the fashionable furniture of that era. 

This commode's easy gracefulness was a remarkably difficult achievement even for the supremely talented cabinet maker Joseph Baumhauer.  For openers the woods used needed to be imported from South America and were some of the most expensive, dense and difficult to work with using the hand tools of the day.  The green marble that complements the wood tones needed to be sought and then also imported, shaped and carved along the rim to its high level of refinement.  In all the commode demanded more than a thousand man hours.

Perhaps most noteworthy is the commode's gilt bronzing, known as ormolu, which blends with the wood tones and complements the gracefulness of the commode without tipping over into garishness. Ormolu is a highly skilled, intensive - and dangerous - process where shaped bronze surface is coated with a mixture of ground gold and mercury and heated over an open fire.  This work so close to intense heat was known to be perilous at the time, but sadly, it wasn't discoverd until years later that the noxious mercury fumes could be and often were fatal.  (Legislation around 1830 outlawed the use of mercury, and electro-plating - a safer, cheaper process began in the mid 19th century).

When this piece was produced, commodes were just being introduced and sought after by the French upper classes eager to outfit their homes in the new fashionable style.  Because of the materials used and the, literally thousands of man hours necessary for such high quality pieces, they were also the only ones who could afford the cost of such works.  But gradually and thankfully because of their usefulness for attractive storage, and with increasing and less expensive methods of  producing of furniture, commodes made their way from royal and aristocratic homes to homes like Ciwt's and yours.  And became known as chests of drawers or bureaus.