CIRCA 1810

The form and decoration of this striking desk reflects the prevailing influence of the French architects Charles Percier (1764-1838) and Pierre-Francois Fontaine (1764-1853) and their influential 1801 book Recueuil des Decorations Interieurs. The designs in their publication incorporated both Egyptian and Greco-Roman motifs and became the foundation for what became known as the Empire style. Egyptian motifs gained particular momentum with the publication of Baron Vivant Denon's Voyages dans la Basse et Haute Egypte the following year. Both works influenced architects and designers such as Thomas Hope and George Smith as well as the German architect, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, who was particularly influenced by his English contemporaries during his 1826 visit. A set of chairs designed by Schinkel for the Prinz Karl Palace in 1828 would be presumed English if not for Schinkel's sketches and the documentation of this commission (Dr. E, Bartke et al., Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Statliche Museen Zu Berlin 23 October 1980-29 March 1981, Berlin, 1982, pp.236-7, figs. 379-80). Several designs in George Smith's Collection of Designs for Household Furniture relate to this writing-desk as well as do German designs of the 1830's. An 1832 drawing for a secretaire abattant has the same distinct pointed Egyptian masks on its gallery (G. Himmelheber, Deutsche Möbelvorlagen 1800-1900, Munich, 1988, p.121, fig 341).