.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This richly carved and bombé shaped commode, decorated with carved fruit and flowers and with inwardly-curving sides and feet, is closely related to the oeuvre of furniture-maker and designer Johann Michael Hoppenhaupt (1709-c.1778-86), and especially to the work he executed for Schloss Sanssouci in Potsdam around 1750. Hoppenhaupt contributed to the interior decoration of several of Frederick the Great's palaces. One of his first projects was the circular study in the Berlin Stadtschloss (circa 1744), which was followed by the decoration of the so-called Second Appartment in Schloss Charlottenburg (1747). Hoppenhaupt also worked on the private audience room as well as the famous doors of the marble hall at Sanssouci, carried out in 1748 and 1749 respectively (see W. Kurth, Sanssouci, Tübingen, 1964, pp. 149-153).
Hoppenhaupt's style developed under the influence of Johann August Nahl (1710-1781), who had been Hofbildhauer between 1741 and 1746. They collaborated on numerous occasions, for instance on the decoration of the concert hall at Sanssouci, which was designed by Nahl and carried out by Hoppenhaupt (circa 1746-47). A series of designs for consoles, canapés and commodes was published by Hoppenhaupt around 1753, and can be linked to a number of pieces in the palaces at Potsdam, some of which he is thought to have executed himself. These include the gilt-gesso commode in the bedroom of Frederick the Great at Sanssouci, which shares the typical incurved legs as well as further carved features, with the present commode. Another closely related piece by Hoppenhaupt is the pair of white-painted and silvered commodes in the Kleine Gallerie, which have virtually identical carved fruit angles and similar borders to the drawers and sides (see H. Kreisel, G. Himmelheber, Die Kunst des deutschen Möbels, Munich, 1970, pp. 236-243, figs. 731-735 and 739-742 and W. Kurth, ibid., fig. 77).
Hoppenhaupt's style developed under the influence of Johann August Nahl (1710-1781), who had been Hofbildhauer between 1741 and 1746. They collaborated on numerous occasions, for instance on the decoration of the concert hall at Sanssouci, which was designed by Nahl and carried out by Hoppenhaupt (circa 1746-47). A series of designs for consoles, canapés and commodes was published by Hoppenhaupt around 1753, and can be linked to a number of pieces in the palaces at Potsdam, some of which he is thought to have executed himself. These include the gilt-gesso commode in the bedroom of Frederick the Great at Sanssouci, which shares the typical incurved legs as well as further carved features, with the present commode. Another closely related piece by Hoppenhaupt is the pair of white-painted and silvered commodes in the Kleine Gallerie, which have virtually identical carved fruit angles and similar borders to the drawers and sides (see H. Kreisel, G. Himmelheber, Die Kunst des deutschen Möbels, Munich, 1970, pp. 236-243, figs. 731-735 and 739-742 and W. Kurth, ibid., fig. 77).