A Bern giltwood mirror
Carved limewood, gilded over red bole and chalk ground, faceted mirror pane. Openwork rocaille cartouche hung with flower garlands with carved foliate scrolls at the lower angles over a round, moulded frame. The finial reattached, a minor loss below the rocaille, minor chips and retouches to the gilding. H 101, W 63 cm.
Around 1760 - 70.
Johann Friedrich Funk (1706 - 1775) was the younger brother of the better-known cabinetmaker Mathäus Funk. He completed an apprenticeship as a sculptor on his father's instruction and afterwards received permission from the Bern Council to open a workshop. In January 1742 he signed a contract with the Württemberg mirror factory, for which he was the only Swiss manufacturer to purchase the high-quality glass for mirrors. Inspiration for his designs also came from his dialogue with Johann August Nahl, with whom he was befriended and who stayed in Bern until 1755. In 1749 Funk received permission to operate a marble saw in Bern. It is thanks to the entrepreneurial skills of the Funk family - and not least of Johann Friedrich Funk - that Bern became one of the earliest industrial production sites for high quality furniture.
Provenance
Koller Zurich, auctioned in June 2012, lot 269.
Private ownership, Rhineland.
Literature
Cf. von Fischer, Fonck à Berne. Möbel und Ausstattungen der Kunsthandwerkerfamilie Funk im 18. Jahrhundert in Bern, Bern 2002, p. 222 f.