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Lot Essay
These elegant bombé commodes were executed in the Danish rococo style of the 1760s and are closely related to the oeuvre of the successful cabinet-maker Matthias Ortmann, who worked in Copenhagen between 1733 and 1757. A similar commode, bearing Ortmann's workshop stamp is in the Kunstindustrimuseet in Copenhagen and is illustrated in H. Kreisel and G. Himmelheber, Die Kunst des Deutschen Möbels, Munich, 1970, vol. II, fig. 853. A pair of related commodes, of similar outline, drawer-arrangement, and with the same characteristic parcel-gilt decoration, was part of the elegant furnishings of the Prinsens Palae, the residence of Statsminister Ove Hoegh Guldberg, and appear in a painting by Wilhelm Haffner (1782). (T. Clemmensen, Danske interiortegninger fra rococo til klunketid, Copenhagen, 1951, p. 20).
A walnut and parcel-gilt bombé commode in the manner of Matthias Ortmann and closely related to the offered lot was sold in these Rooms, 11 May 2000, lot 87, and another example was sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 19 May 1994, lot 164. Sold from the Property of the late Irene, Lady Astor of Hever sold by order of the Executors, Christie's London, 13 December 2001, lot 423.
A walnut and parcel-gilt bombé commode in the manner of Matthias Ortmann and closely related to the offered lot was sold in these Rooms, 11 May 2000, lot 87, and another example was sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 19 May 1994, lot 164. Sold from the Property of the late Irene, Lady Astor of Hever sold by order of the Executors, Christie's London, 13 December 2001, lot 423.