There is Gold Leaf and then there is Water Gilt

Wooden Gilt Lamp Base..note flowers have more sheen

There are a lot of frames that claim to be gold leaf.  Knowing what you really have in front of you when you go to buy a piece is being able to see into the piece.What is gold leafing and what is water gilt?  Most frames that you will find today are merely "gold" leaf, and most of these are done with imitation gold leaf which is actually very thin brass leaf.  The same goes for silver leafing today which mostly is aluminum leafing.  Years ago my father did gold leafing and I remember going into his shop and seeing tiny bits of powdery gold fluttering in the air.  These were the tiny pieces that did not adhere to the frame.

Nineteenth Century Water Gilt frame

Gold leafing is the layering of a tissue thin sheet of gold over a surface.  The surface needs to be prepared with a sizing and the the leaf is gently applied on to this surface. Today this is usually an imitation gold leaf.  When this is used the piece needs to be varnish to retain the gold sheen.  Older gold leafing was done like this but with real gold leaf.

Gold leaf chair on wood note the difference in color/tone

Water gilding differs greatly from gold leafing.  Water gilding is gold leaf that is applied over Armenian clay, or red gesso, referred to as a bol. The gold leaf is then applied very delicately as the real gold leaf is very thin and can easily blow around.   Once the gold leaf is applied then an agate tooth shaped burnisher is used to burnish the gold itself.  This gives the gold a luster and sheen that you do not find in regular gold leafing.

Water Gilt Frames

Early Modern Designs in Furniture, Eugene Schone

Monumental Desk by Eugene Schoen at Donzella

Born in 1880 in New York , Eugene Schoen, studied architecture at Columbia University and graduated in 1901. He traveled to Europe and studied architecture with Otto Wagner and Josef Hoffman.  He attended the Paris Exhibition des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in 1925.  Greatly influenced by what he had seen he started designing furniture after the French avant-garde style he had seen there. He opened an interior decorating business and designed the furniture himself. He was able to combine the new materials that were coming into the market place with the more traditional materials and woods used in Art Decco Designs.

Designing and selling furniture during the Great Depression was not an easy task.  He was able to display his furniture in his own shop. Schoen exhibited furniture at the Pennsylvania Museum of Fine Arts and participated in two exhibits of industrial design at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  This helped get him through the depression era.  In 1931, Schoen became professor of  Interior Architecture at NYU.

He designed furniture for Schmieg & Kotzian, Inc., Designers and Cabinet Makers, 521 East 72nd Street, New York along with Paul Frankl.

Schoen recieved the Gold Medal Award of the Architectural League of Crafts.  His designs led the way for other modern furniture designers.

Etagere by Eugene Schoen Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gillian Bryce was at the Modernism Show in Palm Springs

Painting by  William Fredericksen, Estate handled by Gillian Bryce

Our friend Gillian Bryce just got back from doing the Modernist show in Palm Springs California.  She shows with us at 214 Modern Vintage in High Point and travels all over with her great collection of  Art and twentieth century design.  She has a knack of finding wonderful and sometimes yet to be discovered artists. Gillian has a large following of collectors of unique and interesting pieces.

Crowds milling around Gillian Bryce's Booth at the Palm Springs Modernist Show

Water Color by Martin Sumers

Christopher Thurman, Sputnik Modern Booth at the Modernism Show

To see more of Gillian's items visit her website http://www.gillianbrycefineart.com/.   Also visit Gillian and Lewis at the up coming High Point Market Show in Apirl  http://214modernvintage.com/