Lot Essay
The daring pierced scrolling foliate carving and subtle contrast between ebonised surfaces and burr-veneers of this display-cabinet are closely related to the decoration of a large suite of furniture in the Historisch Museum in Rotterdam. This suite is attributed to the Rotterdam furniture-maker Johann Diedrich Schmidt (1829-1882) and his brother, the decorative sculptor Cord Heinrich Schmidt (1831-1903), and was supplied around 1865 to the wealthy Rotterdam merchant Abraham Polak and his wife Jeanette Rosenthal for their newly-decorated house on the Schiedamse Singel. (R.J.Baarsen et. al. , 'De Lelijke Tijd', Pronkstukken van Nederlandse interieurkunst 1835-1895, Amsterdam, 1995, pp. 124-127)
See illustration
See illustration