CIRCA 1720

As published designs and templates for marquetry decoration were drawn from engraved sources which were disseminated throughout Europe, such as those of Jean Bérain, it is often difficult to attribute furniture on the basis of its marquetry decoration alone. However, a bureau in the Residenzmuseum, Munich, supplied to Kurfürst Karl-Albrecht in 1729 by the cabinet-maker known only by his monogram CSB displays a somewhat similar inlay (illustrated in G. Hojer and H. Ottomeyer, Die Möbel der Residenz München, Munich, 1996, pp. 278-282 and pp. 286-289, fig. 81), however, the paired legs are a feature also found on French and Dutch furniture and even featured prominently on three writing-tables of 'six-pillar' form which were supplied to the London court of William and Mary in 1690 by the cabinet-maker Gerrit Jensen (d.1715). In fact, the shape of leg follows closely the fashionable styles of the time as advocated by the Hougenot architect to William III, Daniel Marot.