Saturday, September 4, 2010

Masterpiece of the Week: A Gothic Revival Armoire by Pugin and Crace

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London boasts an amazing collection of furniture from antiquities to modern pieces. While browsing their online catalog, I came across this cabinet. Designed by A.W.N Pugin in 1850 and crafted by John Gregory Crace, this cabinet (which they referred to as an armoire) was created for the Medieval Court in the Great Exhibition of 1851.

Pugin and Crace were frequent collaborators and had a vast understanding of one another’s working styles. Designed in a Gothic Revival Style, this monumental piece sports hand carved crests which Pugin painted with the symbols of the carpenters’ trade and their initials. With its delicately carved Corinthian capitals, spindles, tracery, and pierced frieze, this was considered one of the grandest works at the 1851 Exhibition, and certainly, can be considered one of Crace and Pugin’s finest masterpieces.







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