Lot Essay
This étagère is closely related to that dated 1807 in the Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna (G. Himmelheber, Die Kunst des deutschen Möbels, Munich, 1973, vol. III, fig. 341), which displays the same light construction and pen-work decoration. Interestingly it is also conceived with identically-shaped trays, similar brass-inlay to the galleries and the same pen-work decorated semi-circle to the top. It is probable that these two étagères were made in the same unidentified workshop and probably within a relatively short time of each other. A drawing of circa 1805 - 1810, in the same museum depicts a similar étagère oflighter construction with similar tray-tops (G. Fabianowitsch, C. Witt-Dörring, 'Genormte Fantasie', Exhibition Catalogue, Vienna, 1996, p. 58, fig. 8).