A PAIR OF GERMAN ROCOCO CARVED GILTWOOD CONSOLE TABLES, CIRCLE OF JOHANN MICHAEL II OR JOHANN CHRISTIAN HOPPENHAUPT, BERLIN OR POTSDAM, MID-18TH CENTURY

With their work characterized by the exceptional fluidity of their carvings, the brothers Johann Michael Hoppenhaupt II (1709-1755) and his younger brother Johann Christian Hoppenhaupt (1719-1785) were one of the most important craftsmen working in the Prussian Rococo style. 

Johann Michael Hoppenhaupt II was born in Merseburg and trained in Dresden and Vienna and arrived in Berlin on Frederick the Great's accession to the Prussian throne. In 1746, Hoppenhaupt replaced Johann August Nahl under whom Hoppenhaupt had worked as a woodcarver, as 'Directeur des Ornements'. He is best known to have decorated Schloss Sanssouci, where his greatest achievement was the Music Room. His younger brother's Johann Christian Hoppenhaupt greatest achievement is perhaps the Voltaire Room at Sanssouci where fruit and foliage are combined with monkeys and birds. The two brothers also collaborated on the extension of Fredrick's second apartment at the Palace of Charlottenburg, Berlin.