Lot Essay
The design for this globe-shaped work table, or globustisch, with its sophisticated combination of interpenetrating spheres, classical herm uprights and arcane astrological symbols, relates to a drawing for a similar table executed circa 1825 by Friedrich Paulus, a student in Carl Schmidt's drawing school,Vienna,illustrated in G.Himmelheber, Biedermeier Furniture, 1973, fig.13. The herm uprights relate to two designs for tables illustrated in G.Himmelheber, Deutsche Möbelvorlagen 1800-1900, 1988, pp. 330-331, figs. 1612 and 1627, dated 1804 and 1805. Other examples of this unusual form were sold in these rooms 30 March 1995, lot 292 (with a support in the form of a kneeling winged figure) and 27 September 1991, lot 88 (with supports in the form of incurved female herms). Another in a private collection, Munich, is illustrated in A.Wilkie, Biedermeier, 1987, fig.92.