A GERMAN ORMOLU-MOUNTED KINGWOOD AND PARQUETRY DRESSING-BUREAU, in the manner of Jakob Spindler, mid-18th Century

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A GERMAN ORMOLU-MOUNTED KINGWOOD AND PARQUETRY DRESSING-BUREAU, in the manner of Jakob Spindler, mid-18th Century

Of bombé form and crossbanded overall, the shaped top and hinged slope inlaid with a central scalloped medallion within a trellis-parquetry border, mounted within an acanthus-enriched moulded frame and above an espagnolette-mask escutcheon, enclosing a fitted interior with black leather-lined writing-slide, now fitted, the reverse of the top applied with a bevelled mirrored plate within a moulded slip frame chased to the top with foliate arabesques and centred by an engraved bust of a soldier, the waved apron with two drawers, on cabriole legs headed by acanthus and rockwork-cast cabochons and C-scrolls and on foliate scroll sabots, inscribed in ink BACK and back, the plate later, the back possibly reveneered (see below), partially remounted, adapted in England in the 19th Century with later interior fittings
37½in. (95cm.) wide; 36in. (91.5cm.) hg; 24in. (61cm.) deep

Lot Essay

This dressing-bureau is closely related to the oeuvre of Jakob Spindler (1724-92). The son of Johann Spindler (1691-1770) and brother of the celebrated ébénistes Johann Friedrich and Heinrich William, the latter of whom is thought to have trained in the Migeon atelier in Paris, Jakob was appointed Bayreuther Hofschreiner in 1748 and collaborated with the designer Carlo Galli Bibiena in Bayreuth in 1754

Its unusual mouvmenté form is almost identical in profile to the bureau supplied by Jakob Spindler to the Neues Schloss in Bayreuth (illustrated in H. Kreisel, Die kunst des Deutschen Mobël, Munich, 1970, fig. 712). Kreisel records that the Neues Schloss bureau has a simulated walnut veneer, on a chalk ground, that was necessitated by the need for economy at the court and this would appear to correspond with the reverse of this dressing-bureau

The stylistic connection with Jakob Spindler is, moreover, further underlined by the closely related rosette parquetry of the fallfront, which is shared on a bureau cabinet also supplied by Spindler to Neues Schloss (ibid., fig. 714)

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