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Lot Essay
This pair of curiously painted side tables relates to a group of furniture dating to the final decade of the 18th century that has been attributed to the entrepreneur, lacquer and painted-ware producer, Johann Heinrich Stobwasser. Stobwasser's furniture was made in conscious emulation of French japanning, called vernis martin, which had been developed to its highest level by the Martin brothers earlier in the century.
Stobwasser, born during November of 1740 in Loenstein-in-Voigtland, was the son of a bankrupted glazer turned itinerant peddler and entrepreneur. Accompanying his father in his ventures, the younger Stobwasser learned the craft of japanning through the Eberlein brothers in Ansbach and developed a degree of reknown for producing small lacquered and painted objects such as small snuff boxes and eventually larger surfaces. By 1763, his fame induced Duke Karl I of Brunswick to invite the Stobwasser family to settle in his territory, granting them full civic rights and freedom from all taxes, and eventually also a large home and workshop in the city itself.
In 1769, Stobwasser's prominent position in the economic and artistic mileau of Brunswick society and court life was assured for the next generation. He successfully petitioned the Duke for safegaurds on his works, effectively giving his a monopoly on lacquer-ware produced in Brunswick that included tables, trays, various types of boxes and toilet sets. At the same time, he received permission to employ all neccessary joiners and turners, be they masters or journeymen, to do all required factory work. Among those to be so employed was the Frenchman Jean Guérin, a former bodygaurd of the Duke's who had learned joinery in France earlier in his life. Guérin soon married one of Stobwasser's daughters and expanded the firm by opening a workshop in Berlin in 1772.
By the 1790's, Stobwasser was employing almost eighty hands in his workshop. It is from this fully matured period of the Stobwasser workshop that surviving examples of lacquer or painted furniture still exist. Their Neoclassic forms, usually with tapering fluted square legs and often hung with painted garlands to the frieze, can be compared quite well with the present pair of side tables (see the group illustrated in G. Himmelheber, Die Kunst des deutschen Möbels: Klassizismus/Historismus/Jugendstil, Munich, 1973, vol. III, figs. 74-77 and pp. 54-55). For more on Stobwasser, see P.A.S. Phillips, 'Stobwasser Ware', Connoisseur, vol. 85, March 1930, pp. 166-173.
Stobwasser, born during November of 1740 in Loenstein-in-Voigtland, was the son of a bankrupted glazer turned itinerant peddler and entrepreneur. Accompanying his father in his ventures, the younger Stobwasser learned the craft of japanning through the Eberlein brothers in Ansbach and developed a degree of reknown for producing small lacquered and painted objects such as small snuff boxes and eventually larger surfaces. By 1763, his fame induced Duke Karl I of Brunswick to invite the Stobwasser family to settle in his territory, granting them full civic rights and freedom from all taxes, and eventually also a large home and workshop in the city itself.
In 1769, Stobwasser's prominent position in the economic and artistic mileau of Brunswick society and court life was assured for the next generation. He successfully petitioned the Duke for safegaurds on his works, effectively giving his a monopoly on lacquer-ware produced in Brunswick that included tables, trays, various types of boxes and toilet sets. At the same time, he received permission to employ all neccessary joiners and turners, be they masters or journeymen, to do all required factory work. Among those to be so employed was the Frenchman Jean Guérin, a former bodygaurd of the Duke's who had learned joinery in France earlier in his life. Guérin soon married one of Stobwasser's daughters and expanded the firm by opening a workshop in Berlin in 1772.
By the 1790's, Stobwasser was employing almost eighty hands in his workshop. It is from this fully matured period of the Stobwasser workshop that surviving examples of lacquer or painted furniture still exist. Their Neoclassic forms, usually with tapering fluted square legs and often hung with painted garlands to the frieze, can be compared quite well with the present pair of side tables (see the group illustrated in G. Himmelheber, Die Kunst des deutschen Möbels: Klassizismus/Historismus/Jugendstil, Munich, 1973, vol. III, figs. 74-77 and pp. 54-55). For more on Stobwasser, see P.A.S. Phillips, 'Stobwasser Ware', Connoisseur, vol. 85, March 1930, pp. 166-173.