Lot Essay
The secrétaire is designed in the early 19th Century Egyptian antique manner, with its plinth-supported and lyre-shaped commode wreathed by vines and flanked by addorsed sphynx with Antinous-heads, serving as caryatids for palm-leafed columnettes. The rose-garlanded secrétaire, with Egyptian lioness-mask escutcheon and palm-enriched pilasters, conceals theatric balustraded and mirror-backed compartments with Egyptian herms in the Piranesian manner and trompe l'oeil niche statues of Apollo and Gannymede; while the fall, concealed in the domed cornice reveals arcaded drawers and a triumphal-arched recess with Venus's attendant Graces accompanied by Cupid.
The bold architecutral style of this secrétaire is typical of early 19th Century Viennese cabinet-work at a period when entrance to the cabinet-makers' guild required the presentation of a furniture design for approval through the Director of the Architecture Faculty of the Academy of Fine Art. This secrétaire relates closely in style to furniture designs executed in 1806/7 by Gottlieb August Pohle, illustrated in C. Witt-Dörring, 'The drawing institute for Viennese cabinet-makers', Antiques, January, 1955, pp. 174-183.
The elaborate execution, with the Etruscan black with gilt enrichments and with intricate scrolling arabesques further relates to a work-table from Vienna of circa 1825 in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich (illustrated in J. Bahns, Biedermeier-Möbel, Entstehung-Zentren-Typen, Munich, 1979, p. 87, illus. 71). Such works are comparable to the designs originating in Carl Schmidt's School in Vienna. A drawing in the Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna of circa 1825 by Friedrich Paulich, who was studying in Schmidt's school illustrates a related secrétaire à abattant of lyre-shape (J. Bahns, op.cit., p. 89, illus. 72)
The earliest representatives of Viennese lyre-shaped secrétaire are datable to circa 1810 and remained popular throughout the first decades of the century. A closely related secrétaire of lyre-shape and incorporating very similar griffin supports at its base, which is datable to 1810/1815 is in The Art Institute of Chicago and illustrated in 'Bürgersinn und Aufbegehren', Exhibition Catalogue, Vienna, 1988, p. 372
The bold architecutral style of this secrétaire is typical of early 19th Century Viennese cabinet-work at a period when entrance to the cabinet-makers' guild required the presentation of a furniture design for approval through the Director of the Architecture Faculty of the Academy of Fine Art. This secrétaire relates closely in style to furniture designs executed in 1806/7 by Gottlieb August Pohle, illustrated in C. Witt-Dörring, 'The drawing institute for Viennese cabinet-makers', Antiques, January, 1955, pp. 174-183.
The elaborate execution, with the Etruscan black with gilt enrichments and with intricate scrolling arabesques further relates to a work-table from Vienna of circa 1825 in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich (illustrated in J. Bahns, Biedermeier-Möbel, Entstehung-Zentren-Typen, Munich, 1979, p. 87, illus. 71). Such works are comparable to the designs originating in Carl Schmidt's School in Vienna. A drawing in the Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna of circa 1825 by Friedrich Paulich, who was studying in Schmidt's school illustrates a related secrétaire à abattant of lyre-shape (J. Bahns, op.cit., p. 89, illus. 72)
The earliest representatives of Viennese lyre-shaped secrétaire are datable to circa 1810 and remained popular throughout the first decades of the century. A closely related secrétaire of lyre-shape and incorporating very similar griffin supports at its base, which is datable to 1810/1815 is in The Art Institute of Chicago and illustrated in 'Bürgersinn und Aufbegehren', Exhibition Catalogue, Vienna, 1988, p. 372
