Lot 718
  • 718

A rare and important German Baroque parcel-gilt and scarlet-japanned bureau cabinet Dresden, circa 1730

Estimate
400,000 - 600,000 USD
Log in to view results
bidding is closed

Description

  • pine, leather, metal, glass
  • height 8 ft. 1 in.; width 45 in.; depth 24 1/2 in.
  • 246.5 cm; 114.5 in.; 62.5 cm
in two sections, the arched top with gilt cresting carved with acanthus, scrolling foliage and centered by a male mask, the upper section decorated with birds in landscapes on the sides and fitted with mirrored doors on front opening to an interior fitted with three small doors and a number of short and long drawers, the lower section decorated to match the top and fitted with three long drawers under a fall front opening to an interior fitted with a small drawers flanking four smaller compartments centered by a larger mirror-inlaid compartment, raised on ball-and-claw feet.    

Provenance

Probably delivered circa 1730 for the Electoral Court in Dresden
Partridge Fine Arts, London, 1997

Condition

Cresting regilt and with restorations. With scattered age and construction cracks, most now restored in areas of lacquered and gilt surfaces. Scarlet lacquer with a number of areas with restorations, inpainting and refreshed decorations. Regilt, gilding now with rubbing. Mirror plates of doows replaced. Writing surface of fall front replaced. Mounts with traces of oxidation and surface dirt; not extensive. Marquetry of mirrred compartment of lower section with minor losses. Mirror plates with foxing. Back and sides and undersides of drawers with later black paint. In good, restored condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

This magnificent bureau cabinet with its vibrant scarlet color strikingly accentuated with gilt highlights belongs to a group of pieces produced in Dresden in the first half of the eighteenth century that have almost identical forms with brass-mounted bombé lower sections, similarly carved crestings and highly comparable chinoiserie decoration. These include one in the Gerstenfeld Collection, Washington, D.C, illustrated Edward Lennox-Boyd ed., Masterpieces of English Furniture, The Gerstenfeld Collection, London, 1998, pp. 48 and 195, no. 7, a one-door version illustrated Lanto Synge, Mallett's Great English Furniture, Boston, 1991, p. 63, n. 59, a highly comparable cabinet in Schloss Moritzburg, Dresden, and one in Schloss Pilnitz, Bergpalais, Dresden. The cabinet in Schloss Pilnitz is included in a group of four similar cabinets, two in black and two in red lacquer, that were recorded in the electoral palace in Dresden before World War II by Rudolf von Arps-Aubert in his article "Sächsische Lackmöbel des 18. Jahrhunderts," Zeitschrift des Deutschen Vereins für Kunstwissenschaft, 1936, vol. 3, 4/5, p. 362. Even though the author describes these four bureau cabinets as "nichtsächsisch," or not Saxon, there is no doubt that they were in fact made in a Dresden workshop. In the past many of the abovementioned cabinets have been attributed to the lacquer-painter Martin Schnell (circa 1660-1715) , the most prominent craftsmen of the genre in Dresden at the time. In Germany, Dresden was one of the most important centers of japanning second to Berlin, where the famed Gérard Dagly (1660-1715) was employed as court-lacquerer. Schnell, after apprenticing with Dagly for seven years, set up his own workshop in Dresden and began working as Hofflacquirer at the Saxon court in 1710. Schnell can be credited with developing lacquer decoration on Böttger stoneware prepared at the Meissen porcelain manufactory and, consequently, with perfecting japanned furnishings for the Dresden court. During the first decade of his career Schnell worked almost exclusively with black lacquer. However, in the early 1720s he abandoned black as the primary color for his pieces and switched to red. Even though some of Schnell's much-used trademark decorative elements such as festoons, fine tracery and lacey strapwork supplemented with figures of harlequins or Chinamen, can be found on the cabinet offered here, it cannot be attributed to Schnell. It is, however, undeniable that it was made by an experienced Dresden master lacquirer emulating Martin Schnell's work. Lacquerers active in Dresden from the second quarter include Nicolaus Gottfriedt Kretzschmar, who was appointed court lacquerer in 1743, Heinrich Gottlieb Ehwaldt, who worked for the electoral princess Maria Josepha, and Gottfried Zimmermann, who also executed pieces for the electoral princess and who, in 1745, was appointed lacquerer to the court. Even though no other cabinets have been attributed to the latter two masters, as the present cabinet can be dated to circa 1730, its lacquer decoration could be the work of either Ehwaldt or Zimmermann.

Schnell and his followers worked most extensively with a chinoiserie repertoire to please Augustus the Strong (1670-1733), an avid collector of the two most iconic imported Oriental goods and their Western imitations: porcelain and lacquer. Lacquered furniture, including those by Martin Schnell, were often destined to the King's Japanisches Palais, which was conceived to host the royal collection of oriental and chinoiserie objects. Inventories of of the Japanisches Palais from 1721 onward indicate that the King's collection contained over two thousand lacquered objects, including both European and Asian pieces. Records prepared by the State Chancellery in 1759 show that two red-lacquered bureau cabinets were to be transferred from the Japanisches Palais to the Residenzschloss in Dresden: "Specification Dererjenigen Meublen, so auf [...] des Chur-Printzens, [...] Mindlichen Befehl, aus dem Königl. Japan. Palais auf das Königl. Schloβ vom 9ten bis den 14. Aug. 1759. sind gebracht worden [...]  Zwei roth laccirte Sächs. Engl. Schränke mit Spiegeln." This indicates that red lacquered furniture was used to exhibit and store porcelain and smaller lacquer objects at the Japanisches Palais. Even though Augustus' primary obsession was collecting porcelain, he quickly realized how well lacquered and japanned objects complemented his ceramics collection. The pairing of the two media was perfected at the Saxon court but it persisted for decades to come not only in the German states but in other parts of Europe as well. As the Parisian marchand-mercier Edmé-François Gersaint (1694–1750) noted in 1747: "Le Lacq est encore un genre de curiosité, qui s'assortit à merveille avec la Porcelaine; & ils ont tant de rapport entr'eux, qu'on seroit surpris de voir un beau Cabinet de Porcelaine, sans y rencontrer quelques-unes de ces Piéces précieuses de Vernis.", see Edmé-François Gersaint, Catalogue raisonné, des bijoux, porcelaines, bronzes, lacqs, [...] provenans de la succession de M. Angran, Vicomte de Fonspertuis [...], Paris, 1747, p. 116.

German Baroque cabinets of the eighteenth century derive directly from English models of the late 1600s and early 1700s, when English furniture exerted strong influence in Northern Europe, particularly in Denmark, the Netherlands and the North German states. To the continental eye, one of the most iconic pieces of English furniture-making was the bureau cabinet, which was simply called "English Cabinet." Among the German states, Saxony was particularly open to foreign influences and local craftsmen quickly embraced new styles and forms. In fact, as early as 1731, the Dresden cabinetmakers' guild allowed one of its apprentices to produce an "English cabinet" as his masterpiece. The fact that only two years after the Verfertigung eines Englischen Schreibe Schranks zum Meister Stück was granted to the abovementioned apprentice the execution of such pieces was required from new apprentices illustrates how immensely popular bureau cabinets had become in a short time.

Sotheby's would like to thank Dr. Monika Kopplin, director of the Museum für Lackkunst, Münster, for her help with researching this lot.