A SET OF SIX SWEDISH GUSTAF III GREY-PAINTED SIDE CHAIRS three by Eric Holm, three attributed to Eric Holm, each with the channelled oval padded back and serpentine seat covered in peach velvet upholstery, the cresting and seat-rail centred by a flowerhead and foliate trails, on turned fluted tapering legs headed by paterae, each with label STOLMAK.EMBSIG.I STOCKHOLM and three stamped E HOLM, re-decorated (6)

AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE COLLECTION OF SWEDISH WORKS OF ART (Lots 550 - 576) The following lots form part of a collection assembled in the 1950s and 1960s, comprising Swedish silver and paintings and, in particular, a distinguished group of Swedish furniture including three pieces signed by Georg Haupt (d.1784). Haupt is widely accepted as the most accomplished cabinet-maker Sweden has ever produced, comparable in stature to such craftsmen as Jean-Henri Riesener in France, David Roentgen in Germany and Thomas Chippendale in England. On completing his apprenticeship, Haupt left Sweden and the rigorous guild system that prevented him from developing his skills freely. With Christopher Fürloh, the step-son of Georg Haupt's future father-in-law, Christian Linning, and the painter Elias Martin, the son of Haupt's half-sister Ulrica, he travelled to Amsterdam, Paris and London. In Paris he probably met the well-established fellow-Swede Alexandre Roslin, who specialised in portraying the French aristocracy and is known to have taken an active interest in helping compatriots when they arrived in Paris. It was, however, more probably through an introduction by Carl Petter Dahlström, who had worked with Jean-François Oeben until 1755, that Georg Haupt joined the atelier of Simon Oeben, the brother of the more famous ébéniste du roi. Under Oeben's supervision Haupt made a bureau plat in the newly emerging Neo-classical style for Etienne-François de Stainville, duc de Choiseul at Chanteloup. The balanced outline and clear and harmonious appearance of this piece, demonstrate how well Haupt was able to absorb and interpret the new style, which he was to introduce to Sweden upon his return. Contrastingly, the marquetry skills for which he was to become so famous, first appeared during his stay in England. Between 1768 and 1769 he worked with John Linnell on his most prestigious commission, the furnishing of the library at Osterley Park for Robert Child. The pieces which are attributed to him, such as the medal cabinet and a marquetry pedestal desk, bear a striking resemblance to his later work. Haupt's characteristic marquetry repertoire, such as the portrait medallion on the Österbysekretären (lot 576) and the laurel swags and husk trails which appear on all three pieces in this collection, (lots 569, 570 and 576) appear to have developed at this time. It was, however, probably, William Chambers, rather than Linnell, who recommended the still unknown cabinet-maker to King Adolf Fredrick (1751-1771). A small table inlaid with marble specimens, in the Victoria & Albert Museum, which is inscribed by Georg Haupt in 1769, documents that he executed it for and to the designs of Chambers, who was born in Sweden and had numerous important contacts in his country of birth. On Haupt's return to Sweden in 1769, he was appointed hovsnickare, ébéniste du roi and was commissioned by the King to make a cartonnier as a present for Queen Louisa Ulrika. This was the first truly Gustavian piece of furniture in Sweden. Haupt's continued success was assured when Gustaf III (1771-1792) returned from France after his father's death. While in France, the Crown Prince had studied Louis XIV's absolutism and admired Louis XV's douceur de vivre. With assurance of support from the French King, Gustaf III instigated a coup d'état in 1772, re-instating absolutism in Sweden with France as its model. The new King, keen to promote a Swedish version of the Neo-classicism introduced by France, commissioned numerous works from Haupt. For Haupt had been recognised as having successfully married the severity and clarity of Neo-classical lines with the sumptuousness and delicacy of marquetry, and in the process, creating a style unique to Sweden. The adaptation amd re-interpretation of French ideas to develop a Swedish design was widely practised in the early Gustavian period and can be particularily found in seat-furniture. The chairs in this collection, such as the ones by Eric Holm (d.1789), (lot 550) and Johan Lindgren (d.1800), (lots 571 and 572) have an outline which originates in France. The amalgamation of Swedish materials and Swedish craftsmanship, however, produces a distinct Swedish style. The card-table in this collection, (lot 552) which is attributed to Haupt, reveals that the inspiration for his designs originated not only from France, for it is probable that Haupt adopted the concertina-action mechanism of this table under Linnell, who in 1765 supplied a pair of comparable card-tables for the drawing room at Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire to Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Baron Scarsdale. Georg Haupt's style dominated and guided Swedish furniture development in the early Gustavian period. The degree to which he influenced his contempories and successors is demonstrated by an exceptional side table signed by Gustaf Adolph Ditzinger (d.1800), (lot 575), Haupt's former apprentice, who married his widow and took over his workshop after Haupt's death. At the same time it shows how his followers could build on his idea and develop outstanding works in their own right. It is interesting to note that this table, dated 1791, was made while Ditzinger was collaborating with Louis Masreliez, who had replaced Jean Eric Rehn as Court Intendant. Together they supplied furniture for the Haga Pavilion, a retreat built by Olof Tempelman from 1787 to 1790 for Gustaf III. It is, however, the inclusion of paintings and works in silver of the same period which make this collection so complete. The cross-currents between France and Sweden during this time are exemplified by Alexandre Roslin's (d.1793) portrait of Madame Bégouën de Meaux (lot 568), whilst the painting after Elias Martin of A Cabinet Maker and his Maid in his Workshop, (lot 565) on the other hand, offers the link between the paintings and the furniture in this collection. The silver, which is generally of any earlier date than the furniture, complements the collection by outlining how Germany was rather more influential than France on designs in Sweden before the Gustavian period. The pair of candlesticks (1757) by Jonas Thomasson Ronander (d.1786), (lot 562) has a spirally fluted shaft, relating to German contemporary designs. The works of the late 1760s, such as the sauce-boats (1766 and 1769) by Lars Boye (d.1795), (lots 559 and 560) show how Swedish silver design became more independent towards the Neo-classical period

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A SET OF SIX SWEDISH GUSTAF III GREY-PAINTED SIDE CHAIRS three by Eric Holm, three attributed to Eric Holm, each with the channelled oval padded back and serpentine seat covered in peach velvet upholstery, the cresting and seat-rail centred by a flowerhead and foliate trails, on turned fluted tapering legs headed by paterae, each with label STOLMAK.EMBSIG.I STOCKHOLM and three stamped E HOLM, re-decorated (6)

Lot Essay

Eric Holm (d. 1814) in 1774 started to make chairs and in 1780 joined the guild.

Eric Holm successfully adapted the French prototype to the Swedish taste to design this model. When Baron Hans Ramel modernised Övedskloster, in the south of Sweden, in the French taste, he had Jean Eric Rehn, the Court Intendant, design the interior decoration in the fashionable early neo-classical style. He commissioned the furniture from the leading cabinet and chair-makers of the period. Holm supplied the seat-furniture of which the chairs are, although gilt and with an H-shaped stretcher, of the same model as this lot (see: H. Groth, Neoclassicism in the North, London, 1992, pp. 54). A further closely related model by Eric Holm is in the Nordiska Museet (see: S. Wallin, Nordiska Museets Möbler fran Svenska Herrmanshem, Lund, 1979, vol. II, p. 185, illus. 716 and 717).
In 1765 the guild of chair-makers decreed that all master chair-makers were to apply the guild's paper label, to all their works. The label can be found on chairs up to the Swedish Empire period.
A closely related set of four chairs was sold at Bukowski's, Stockholm, 12-13 December 1990, lot 259

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