The façade of this elegant secretaire-cabinet is veneered with a richly figured panel of mahogany that has been opened out for the secretaire-section and mirrored for the lower section. Designed in the Frendh Empire style, with Egyptian 'herm' pilasters, its frieze is embellished with lions guarding a flaming 'athenienne' tripod-altar, accompanied by tamed bacchic lion-masks bearing ringed serpents, emblematic of Eternity, while its façade displays 'poetic' Apollo-heads in glory wreathed by flowered-husk garlands. Following the coronation of King Frederick of Wurtenberg in 1806, new furnishings for the Chateau de Ludwigsburg which was being decorated under the direction of the Parisian trained architect Nikolaus Friedrich Thuret (d. 1845). Its furniture, which was decorated in the Empire style of King Friedrick's French allies, was manufactured by Johannes Klinckerfuss (d. 1831), who had trained in the Neuwied workshops of David Roentgen. As the same mounts appear on seat and cabinet furniture provided by Klinckerfuss for Ludwigsburg, it is likely that this secretaire originally came from the same source. Such Empire designs, many adapted from P. La Mesangere's Collection de Meubles, 1802-35, featured in F-J. Bertuch, Journal des Luxus und der Moden, 1806. What appears to be this cabinet is illustrated, W. Wiese, Johannes Klinckerfuss, Sigmaringen, 1986, M.44 (see also the chairs illustrated fig. 1, and the secretaire fig. 24)