Continental Neoclassical Ormolu-Mounted Mahogany Bonheur Du Jour German or Russian, circa 1805, in
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Description
Height 52 3/4 in (133.9 cm), width 35 1/2 in (90.1 cm), depth 23 in (58.4 cm)
Pelham Galleries, London.
Grosvenor House Arts & Antiques Fair, London, 1986.
The fine quality of the present bonheur du jour suggests a style associated with two German master cabinet-makers working in Russia in the late 18th century: David Roentgen and his pupil, Heinrich Gambs.
Roentgen (1743-1807) was the most sought-after cabinet maker in Europe, where he worked for royal and aristocratic patrons including Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. His reputation was based on the highest degree of craftsmanship and quality of materials as well as for ingenious and intricately made pieces with multiple functions. He went to St. Petersburg in 1784 where he was presented to Catherine the Great, who bought his whole shipment of furniture, including the Apollo Desk (State Hermitage, St. Petersburg) that he had specially designed for her. This was described by the Empress in a letter to the former diplomat and Roentgen client Baron von Grimm: 'his furniture is very finely and precisely made, especially those pieces with mechanical devices'. She was so pleased with the desk, she paid the asking price, gave Roentgen a gold box and an additional bonus of 5,000 rubles. His furniture of this period was characterized by restrained architectural forms and the use of mahogany offset by dazzling ormolu mounts.
Heinrich Gambs (1765-1831), who worked for Roentgen in Neuwied am Reim and went with him to Russia in the late 1780s, set up his own workshop in 1795 on the Nevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg. He was commissioned by the Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna in 1793 to provide a desk which she described as 'a large writing table in the style of Roentgen'. Gambs was contracted by Catherine the Great in 1795 to furnish the apartments of the Grand Duke Alexander's apartments at Tsarkoye Selo. He was appointed court cabinet maker in 1801. Gambs' style was originally similar to Roentgen's but by the end of the 18th century was inspired by Parisian taste, with its strict Neoclassical lines, the finest mahogany veneers and extravagent use of ormolu. Additionally, he used ebony and ebonized fruitwood for moldings and as backing for ormolu mounts, making them appear even more pronounced.
There were other excellent Russian cabinet makers working at this period in St. Petersburg drawing inspiration from the work of Roentgen and Gambs. Similar characteristics of Roentgen include pierced galleries with urns to the corners, spring-loaded secret drawers, flame-grained mahogany veneered en papillion and ormolu milleraies panels to the legs that are found on much of Roentgen's furniture of the late 1780s. Gambs used these features as well and also employed ebony and ebonized fruitwood as backing for his ormolu mounts and secret drawers released by hidden buttons.
As this piece is not signed, an attribution is not possible. However, the exceptional design, materials and execution speak to a maker of the highest caliber.
In overall good restored condition, staining, scratches and scuffs to marble, chips to edge, sunfading overall, especially to left side, left side of upper section case with small age crack at bottom center, rubbing to gilding of mounts and probably re-gilt, minor replacements to veneers, age cracks to veneer of projecting lower section with some inpainting, age cracks to undertier and now with four reinforcements below.
Condition
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