In Varying Shades of Brown : Searching the colourful past of a 18^th century masterpiece

Sammanfattning:

The colourful past of the late 18^th century marquetry furniture has seldom been highlighted. Through ageing and environmental influences, colourful marquetry furniture has lost their original expression. The current knowledge of how Swedish cabinet-makers in the late 18^th century used dyes to colour their furniture is limited. Trace of colour has been observed and the use of dyes has been mentioned, but deeper research in this filed is missing.

A visual examination and studies of archive documents and previous research have been performed to investigate the colourful past of Gottlieb Iwerssons masterpiece, a secretaire in Gustavian style made for the king Gustav III. The result shows that the secretaire has a colourful past in accordance with its original drawing. A hypothetical picture has been created to illustrate the colourful original appearance.