SECOND QUARTER 18TH CENTURY

The bone inlay of this elegantly double-domed Schreibschrank is in the tradition of early 18th century furniture from protestant northern Germany, which includes the courts of Hanover and Prussia, and H. Kreisel illustrates clock cases, tables and bureau-cabinets from Brunswick inlaid with such figurative scenes (H. Kreisel, Die Kunst des deutschen Möbels, vol. II, cat. 59-60, 101-103 and 873-879). Most closely related is probably the marquetry decoration of figures and floral sprays in bone, mother-of-pearl and fruitwood with brass banding of the library table from Lower Saxony, dated around 1720-30, that is now at the Museum für Kunsthandwerk in Frankfurt (H. Kreisel, ibid, cat. 102-103).