A Bavarian Régence inalid writing chest
Palisander and tortoiseshell inlaid with brass, tin, and blue stained horn on softwood corpus, gilt horn, replaced gold-embossed felt writing surface, ormolu mountings, marbled paper linings. Two-part writing cabinet with four drawers and curved sides supported on four hoof feet. The hinged writing surface concealing a small compartment with three drawers. The upper section separately attached, with a central compartment flanked on either side by three drawers. All drawer fronts richly inlaid with Boulle marquetry, the central door with an allegory of abundance holding a cornucopia. Older insect damage, localised losses. H 133, W 95, D 71 cm.
1720 - 30.
Heinrich Kreisel and later Georg Himmelheber mention a desk, which today stands in Berchtesgaden Castle, signed CSB. A signed coffer by the same master, of whom very little is known except that he was active in Augsburg and Munich between 1720 and 1730, can be found in the Bavarian National Museum. Stylistically, both are very close to the piece offered here. The desk in particular shows significant similarities in the way the marquetry panels are constructed and used.
It is especially interesting to observe the allegory depicted in the centre of the present work, for which no drawn or printed model is known to exist. The motif is only used in two other writing desks by Bernard II van Risamburgh which were both built for Prince Elector Max Emanuel of Bavaria. Both pieces of furniture, today housed in the Louvre and the Getty Museum, bear Max Emanuel's monogram or coat of arms. The two pieces must have originally been located in Munich and thus known to the aforementioned master CSB in order to reproduce the original.
We would like to thank Mr. Max Tillmann in Schwäbisch-Gmünd for his kind assistance in cataloguing this piece.
Provenance
South German private ownership.
Literature
Illus. in: Tillmann, The Impact of Boulle furniture at the court of Elector Max Emanuel, in: Baroque Furniture in the Boulle Technique, Munich 2013, p. 170, illus. 9.
Mentioned in: Eickelmann (ed.), Prunkmöbel am Münchner Hof, Munich, 2011, p. 92.
Mentioned in: Kreisel, Die Kunst des deutschen Möbels, vol. I, Munich 1968, p. 142.
Cf. the depiction of Abundantia in: Wilson, Baroque and Régence, Los Angeles, 2008, p, 85.
Cf. Kjellberg, Le mobilier français du XVIIIe siècle, Paris 2008, p. 120.