IN THE MANNER OF JOHANN HEINRICH STOBWASSER, SECOND QUARTER 19TH CENTURY

Johann Heinrich Stobwasser learned the craft of japanning through the Eberlein brothers in Ansbach and developed a degree of reknown for producing small lacquered and painted objects such as small snuff boxes and eventually larger surfaces. By 1763, his fame induced Duke Karl I of Brunswick to invite the Stobwasser family to settle in his territory, granting them full civic rights and freedom from all taxes, and eventually also a large home and workshop in the city itself. By the 1790's, Stobwasser was employing almost eighty hands in his workshop. It is from this fully matured period of the Stobwasser workshop that surviving examples of lacquer or painted furniture still exist.