Lot Essay
The lyre was a prevalent motif in the vocabulary of Biedermeier cabinet-makers, and is found in countless variations for seat backs, table supports or desk fronts. A student's drawing executed at the Carl Schmidt's drawing school in Vienna about 1825, now in the Museum for angewandte Kunst in Vienna, features a work table with a pierced lyre-form support very similar to the present pair (see Georg Himmelheber, Biedermeier Furniture, London, 1973, pl. 12).