Rubbenshuis – Lutson Goudleder

Plaisance

69,5 X 79cm (27,36X31,1”)

The Plaisance is probably a Flemish design from circa 1750.

The picture bellow shows the original as it can be seen in the Plantin Moretus Museum Antwerp.

No other archive seems to be available, perhaps some panels are stored in the reserves of decorative arts museums, who will tell.

The original design is small scaled and busy with perhaps more than 70 flowers per panel.

We decided to rescale the design and reduced the amount of flowers to 28.

This way we could contain the work and thus the price per panel it also makes the design more appealing for contemporary designers.

This panel is one of a set made for a customer in Amman Jordan.

Traditionally the color scheme for this panel would be a gilded ground, greenish leafing and polychrome flowers.

This could well be a close match to a 18th century panel.

Some details

To end with, here what a set of 4 looks like, well I hope the upholseter will do a better job than I am on my pc. The aim was to make a square of 4 panels, hmmm it didn’t work out as I expected.

Best Wishes

Frederic

Back in 2004 we were asked to reproduce the leather wall coverings for

MetLife NY

The job and the challenge were considerable.

We made samples for over 8 months, meanwhile the people in charge of the project tried to source other suppliers for the gilded leather in order to secure their need.

In the end we got the order for over 400 panels of gilded leather.

The finalization of the samples was done over here in our workshop, along with Alaxandra Allart form ArtCare Resourses whom traveled all the way to France

For many years I have been trying to get some pictures of the job which I never physically saw.

For an unknown reason MetLife has not been very diligent with pictures.

Despite several requests we never got one picture.

Recently however Robert M. Kelly from the Wallpaper Scholar wrote an article on his blog about the dismanteling of the MetLife Boardroom at One Madison Ave and the transfer and rebuild of this imposing room to the penthouse floor at the actual MetLife building which sits atop Grand Central Station

Robert Kelly was one of those involved in the installation of the leathers along with Barry Blanchard, for those who wish to read the whole story click the link: http://wallpaperscholarblog.blogspot.fr/

Perhaps the posting from Robert Kelly and this one might help moving lines and will we finally get some good pictures from our distinguished customer.