The best of solid wood furniture

Marquetry remained the outstanding speciality at Revel until the 1970’s when fashion impelled a number of workshops to diverge towards what is called solid wood furniture. More unrefined and rudimentary, the product of the more ancient chest-making, solid wood furniture is characterised by the absence of any decorative facing – its ornamentation, whether it be sculpted or moulded, being worked in the wood itself. This style has, however, produced some exceptional furniture and has its own masterpieces. For manifest financial reasons it has obtained a very large public following.
At one time typical of provincial furniture, solid wood furniture is difficult to date since it has readily borrowed from different styles, the fashion always observing a certain delay between Paris and the provinces. There is only one element of decoration: the metal fittings which have taken the place of the bronzes in cabinet making. Originally made of iron, then of brass during the XVIIIth Century, they are nowadays still made of the same metals.
The most common piece of solid wood furniture is without doubt the great family wardrobe which one finds in a number of different styles according to regional tradition: Provencale, from Normandy, sometimes in the style of Liege, they constitute once more nowadays an important part of the commissions received by the craftsmen of Revel. Most often made of oak or walnut, fine solid wood furniture can also be fashioned out of cherrywood as is done in Normandy, from pear, rowan or almond wood as in Provence, and as in the Vosges from beech or pine. This branch of the trade, even though more unrefined, nevertheless appeals to the well qualified craftsmen, and has a certain artistic side to it particularly when moulding stops following straight lines to give way to sculpture.