A CONTINENTAL CUT-BRASS AND IVORY-INLAID ROSEWOOD CENTRE-TABLE

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The following profusely inlaid rosewood suite (lots 139-141) relates to furniture by the Munich firm of Leo von Klenze (1784-1864). Comprising a centre-table, secrétaire and commode, the quality of craftsmanship and decoration suggest the suite may have been commissioned as a wedding-gift or for exhibition. The use of intricate marquetry began to infuse Biedermeier furniture, partly in reaction against its simplicity, during the late 1830s. Invoking a seventeenth century style of intarsia, the use of etched-ivory medallions and scrolled arabesques anticipated the move to a more grandiose, Renaissance-influenced, eclecticism in German furniture. This can also be seen in the lion-monopodia and carved acanthus decoration, which shows a freer Italianate interpretation of the Empire style. The decoration of brass arabesques and etched-ivory medallions of cherub-driven chariots and doves, is very similar to that found on a set of monumental rosewood doors in the Gala Reception Room of the Maryinsky Palace, St. Petersburg. The Maryinsky Palace was built during the first half of the nineteenth century for Grand Duchess Maria Nikolayevna, the eldest daughter of Tsar Nicholas I, and the doors were commissioned in Munich in 1842 (see Z. Belyakova, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolayevna and Her Palace in St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg, 1994, pp. 80-93).

A CONTINENTAL CUT-BRASS AND IVORY-INLAID ROSEWOOD CENTRE-TABLE

POSSIBLY GERMAN, SECOND QUARTER 19TH CENTURY

Details

A CONTINENTAL CUT-BRASS AND IVORY-INLAID ROSEWOOD CENTRE-TABLE
POSSIBLY GERMAN, SECOND QUARTER 19TH CENTURY
The circular top profusely inlaid with Corinthian ornament of winged classical figures, birds, floral garlands and geometric foliate scrolls, above two frieze drawers, on a tapering cylindrical acanthus-wrapped pedestal with octagonal spreading plinth supported by winged lion monopodia on castors
31 in. (78.5 cm.) high; 51½ in. (131 cm.) diameter

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Please note that this group of furniture (Lots 139, 140 & 141) is almost certainly Dutch, made c. 1845-50 in Zwolle by the cabinet-maker Jan Kamphuis. A similarly-inlaid table was acquired by King William II of the Netherlands in 1846 and is now at Het Loo Palace. We are grateful to Dr. Reinier Baarsen for providing this information.

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