Lot Essay
The figures in the top two panels of the doors reputedly represent Francis of Lorraine (1708-1765) and Maria Theresa (1717-1780). Francis I was duke of Lorraine and from 1737 grand duke of Tuscany and married Maria Theresa in 1736. When she became Queen of Bohemia and Hungary in 1740, she appointed her husband coregent, and he became Holy Roman Emperor in 1745, succeeding Charles VII.
An armoire in Castle Regensburg (H. Kreisel, Die Kunst des deutschen Möbels, Munich, 1970, vol. II, fig. 279) shares related set-back bowed corners and has similar inlay, while a further music-cabinet bearing the arms of count von Sayn-Wittgenstein of circa 1740 by Johann Martin Reinecke with related figural inlay is now in the Castle Schwarzenau Eder (op. cit., figs. 645 and 647). This armoire further relates to one sold form a European Princely House, in these Rooms, 15 December 1994, lot 485.
An armoire in Castle Regensburg (H. Kreisel, Die Kunst des deutschen Möbels, Munich, 1970, vol. II, fig. 279) shares related set-back bowed corners and has similar inlay, while a further music-cabinet bearing the arms of count von Sayn-Wittgenstein of circa 1740 by Johann Martin Reinecke with related figural inlay is now in the Castle Schwarzenau Eder (op. cit., figs. 645 and 647). This armoire further relates to one sold form a European Princely House, in these Rooms, 15 December 1994, lot 485.