|
|
An 18th Century German Mahogany Writing Table
|
|
|
|
Attributed to Johann Michael Bauer, Bamberg, circa 1765
Height Closed: 3 ft. 11/2 ins. (95 cm)
Height Open: 2 ft. 71/4 ins. (79.5 cm)
Width: 4 ft. 6 ins. (137 cm)
Depth: 2 ft. 111/4 ins. (89.5 cm)
|
| |
Provenance: Neues Schloss, Baden-Baden
Illustrated in Wolfgang Eller, Schreibmöbel 1700-1850 in Deutschland, Oesterreich und Der Schweiz (Petersberg 2006), p.154-55, plates 131-32.
The unique mechanism allowing a complete transformation from cylinder bureau to bureau plat, the tambour cylinder sliding between two arched flanks and when open disappearing almost completely within the table; the flanks, carved from the solid with scrolls and panelling, swinging clear of the table when not in use and attached by means of gilt-brass hinges and spring-catches, the bureau plat itself with a boldly moulded serpentine top, the drawers and sides finely shaped and veneered in chevrons and parquetry, the cabriole legs and lower mouldings simply and harmoniously carved and shaped.
Johann Michael Bauer was court cabinetmaker to the Prince Bishop of Bamberg Adam Friedrich von Seinsheim. According to a surviving bill dated 1 July 1763, Bauer supplied the Prince Bishop with a writing desk of similar form and construction to the present example, for the Residenz in Bamberg (Eller, p.148). Still in situ, this desk is veneered with several different woods and inlaid with the Prince Bishop’s coat of arms (illustrated in Heinrich Kreisel and Georg Himmelheber, Die Kunst des Deutschen Möbels, Munich 1983, Vol.II, plate 567, where it is wrongly attributed to the cabinetmaker Balthasar Herrman).
This desk probably dates from a few years later and is an important early example of the use of plain mahogany veneers in German furniture.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
23 Berkeley Square
|
|
W1J 6HE London
|
United Kingdom
|
T.: +44 20 76 29 09 05
|
|
F.: +44 20 74 95 45 11
|
|
42 rue de Varenne
|
|
75007 Paris
|
France
|
T.: +33 1 42 22 18 87
|
|
F.: +33 9 50 70 74 37
|
|
|