An Investigation of Eighteenth-Century English Red Japanned Furniture in the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe decorative surfaces of four pieces of eighteenth-century English red japanned furniture, including a card table and side chair by Giles Grendey (1693–1780), were examined. Cross-sectional microscopy, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), Fourier transform infrared micro-spectroscopy (micro-FTIR), attenuated total reflectance micro-FTIR (micro-ATR-FTIR), Raman spectroscopy, thermally assisted hydrolysis and methylation-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (THM-GC-MS) analysis, and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) were used to investigate the layer structure and material use. Analysis revealed the common use of a spirit varnish based on sandarac and turpentine, whose simple formulation is at odds with those typically suggested in period recipes for red japanning. Vermilion pigment was used for the red grounds, but different preparatory layers as well as materials for relief decoration separate Grendey’s red furniture from the other objects studied. More examples need to be examined in order to ascertain whether observations regarding process and material use reflect wider practice. However, results from this preliminary investigation suggest that japanners in England were less reliant on the recipes of the treatises than has been supposed, as well as hinting at the possibility of identifying idiosyncratic practices of particular craftsmen.