FIRST HALF 19TH CENTURY, IN THE MANNER OF FRANZ XAVER FORTNER

The combination of sophisticated brass and mother-of-pearl marquetry inlaid on a richly-striated rosewood ground bears comparison with the work of the Munich cabinet-maker, Franz Xaver Fortner (1798-1877), whose repertoire embraced Neo-Gothicism to Historicism, and who continued the 18th-century Bavarian speciality of brass-inlaid furniture. By the mid-19th century, the Boulle-revival fashion reached the court of Frederick William IV, and in 1859, he commissioned furniture for the Boulle zimmer of the newly-built Orangerie located in the grounds of Schloss Sanssouci. A Gothic octagonal table by Fortner, veneered in premiere-partie, is illustrated in H. Kreisel, Die Kunst des deutschen Mobels, vol. III, Munich, 1973, no. 672, and a fine wall cabinet by this maker is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, museum no. BK-1996-15.