A GERMAN ORMOLU-MOUNTED WALNUT, AMARANTH AND MARQUETRY BUREAU, the rounded rectangular top and shaped rectangular fallfront inlaid with floral sprays of tulips, roses, narcissae and other flowers and in a C-scroll cartouche-shaped border mounted with foliate-sprays to the angles, enclosing a tulipwood-lined interior with six pigeon-holes and six variously-sized drawers inlaid with further foliate-sprays, around a central door with plain mirror-backed interior, the serpentine-fronted lower section with moulded border and three graduated drawers inlaid sans traverse with foliate-sprays and rockwork cartouches within a C-scroll border and above a bowed apron, the rounded angles mounted with foliate-cast herms, the sides similarly inlaid with further flowers, upon hipped cabriole legs with ormolu sabots, two sabots lacking, the underside of one drawer indistinctly inscribed

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN

Details

A GERMAN ORMOLU-MOUNTED WALNUT, AMARANTH AND MARQUETRY BUREAU, the rounded rectangular top and shaped rectangular fallfront inlaid with floral sprays of tulips, roses, narcissae and other flowers and in a C-scroll cartouche-shaped border mounted with foliate-sprays to the angles, enclosing a tulipwood-lined interior with six pigeon-holes and six variously-sized drawers inlaid with further foliate-sprays, around a central door with plain mirror-backed interior, the serpentine-fronted lower section with moulded border and three graduated drawers inlaid sans traverse with foliate-sprays and rockwork cartouches within a C-scroll border and above a bowed apron, the rounded angles mounted with foliate-cast herms, the sides similarly inlaid with further flowers, upon hipped cabriole legs with ormolu sabots, two sabots lacking, the underside of one drawer indistinctly inscribed
44in. (112cm.) wide; 41½in. (105.5cm.) high; 23¼in. (59cm.) deep

Provenance

The Prince de Quilba
Given by him to his doctor, Dr. Johnson of Guy's Hospital and The Manor House, Kensington, in 1854
Thence by descent

Lot Essay

This bureau-topped commode, with its tripartite bow-front and picturesque inlay of bird-inhabited and flowered cartouches, relates to the work of Johann Friedrich and Heinrich Wilhelm Spindler (d. 1788) at the time of their establishment of Berlin workshops in 1763. With its floral marquetry in the mid-eighteenth century Parisian manner popularised by the Migeon dynasty of ébénistes, it relates in particular to a bureau attributed to their workshops and illustrated in H. Kreisel, Die Kunst des Deutschen Möbels, Munich, 1970, Vol.II, fig. 796

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