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Lot Essay
One of the rarest and greatest technical achievements of the 18th Century was German glass beadwork from Brunswick, with Johann Michael van Selow considered to be its finest exponent. Originally from the Netherlands, van Selow worked under the patronage of Duke Carl I of Brunswick. Despite being granted the ducal privilege for the production of his tables, his factory was in existence for less than twenty years (1755-1772) and few examples of this colourful beadwork exist; some can be seen in the Städtische Museum in Brunswick and in the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, Yorkshire.
Perhaps the grandest example of this beadwork technique exists in a salon of the Chinese Palace at the Oranienbaum complex of palaces (now Lomonosov) near St. Petersburg. Built in the 1760s by Antonio Rinaldi for Catherine the Great, the room contains panels depicting fantastic rococo chinoiserie scenes of embroidered and painted silk, perhaps after the designs of Jean Pillement, which are surrounded by large panels composed of blue, mauve and pink glass beads (A. Kennett, The Palaces of Leningrad, 1973, p. 244).
Similar panels by van Selow are illustrated in L. Synge, Antique Needlework, London, 1982, p. XVII, fig. 5b; and H. Kreisel Die Kunst des Deutschen Möbels, Munich, 1970, vol. II, pp. 273-4, fig. 881. A panel virtually identical in shape and composition, but in a giltwood frame, was sold from an Important Private Collection from Hanover, Sotheby's Amsterdam, 27 March 2007, lot 448 and later at Sotheby's London, 6 July 2010, lot 17 (£8,750). Another closely related table was sold from the Royal House of Hanover, Schloss Marienburg, Sotheby's house sale, 8 October 2005, lot 1465.
Perhaps the grandest example of this beadwork technique exists in a salon of the Chinese Palace at the Oranienbaum complex of palaces (now Lomonosov) near St. Petersburg. Built in the 1760s by Antonio Rinaldi for Catherine the Great, the room contains panels depicting fantastic rococo chinoiserie scenes of embroidered and painted silk, perhaps after the designs of Jean Pillement, which are surrounded by large panels composed of blue, mauve and pink glass beads (A. Kennett, The Palaces of Leningrad, 1973, p. 244).
Similar panels by van Selow are illustrated in L. Synge, Antique Needlework, London, 1982, p. XVII, fig. 5b; and H. Kreisel Die Kunst des Deutschen Möbels, Munich, 1970, vol. II, pp. 273-4, fig. 881. A panel virtually identical in shape and composition, but in a giltwood frame, was sold from an Important Private Collection from Hanover, Sotheby's Amsterdam, 27 March 2007, lot 448 and later at Sotheby's London, 6 July 2010, lot 17 (£8,750). Another closely related table was sold from the Royal House of Hanover, Schloss Marienburg, Sotheby's house sale, 8 October 2005, lot 1465.