A filigree silver–and silver-gilt-mounted pewter inlaid tortoiseshell première-and contre-partie Boulle marquetry and ebony veneered dressing table mirror, probably Southern German, second quarter 18th century. Photo courtesy Sotheby's
of cartouche form with a stylised acanthus leaf cresting, the finely worked border with tearshaped bands of flowers and leaves, the apron with a stylised scallopshell flanked by cscroll sprays, the reverse with a cresting centred by a stylised anthemion flanked by squirrels blowing horns seated on the back of a barking dog, the sides decorated with berainesque motifs and squirrels eating fruit, on the right side two figures one in the form of a minotaur dancing on a plinth, the left side with a seated figure drinking, the other with his hands submerged in a barrel of water amongst scrolling foliage and flowers, the strut centred by a female mask surmounted by a fruit-filled cornucopia applied at the base with a filigree flower, the recessed back panel with a c-scroll cartouche enclosing a female mask suspending drapery flanked by fruit-filled cornucopuia above a musician in a feathered hatplaying the violin flanked by flaming baluster urns, the whole decorated with scrolling foliage; some minor losses to filigree ; 66cm. high, 52cm. wide; 2ft. 2in., 1ft. 8½in. Estimate 50,000-100,000 GBP
PROVENANCE: Formerly in an English Collection.
Comparative Literature: Mogens Bencard, Silver Furniture, Rosenborg, 1992,Copenhagen,1992, p. 55-57, nos 8-11.
Graham Child, World Mirrors, London, 1990, p.180, no. 319, 320 and 320a.
Renate Eikelmann (Hrsg.), Prunkmoebel am Munchner Hof, Bayrisches Nationalmuseum, München, 2011, p.81/82.
Jürgen Ermert, Frühe Uhren mit “Deutschen” Boulle-Gehäusen.Tischuhr mit Carillon von Markwick, London, Teile 1-3, Klassik Uhren 04/2010, 05/2010, 06/2010.
Henriette Graf and Michael Huey, South German Writing Furniture in the Boulle Technique: Johann Puchwiser (c. 1680-1744) and His Workshop in Munich, The University of Chicago Press, Studies in the Decorative Arts, Vol. I, No. I (Fall 1993), pp. 49-75.
Danille O. Kisluk-Grosheide, Wolfram Koeppe, William Rieder, European Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Highlights of the Collection, New York, 2006, no. 29, pp. 81-83.
Jorgen Hein, The Treasure Collection at Rosenborg castle, I,The Inventories of 1696 and 1718, Royal Heritage and Collecting in Denmark-Norway 1500-1900, Copenhagen, 2009, pp. 52, fig. 12.
Peter Hughes, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Furniture, Vol. II, London,1996, no 150 (F50), pp 711-715.
Paul Hartmann, Miroirs Galeries et cabinets de glaces,Paris, plate 69.
Lund Humphries, Silver Wonders from the East, Filigree of the Tsars, Exhibition Catalogue,2006, St. Petersburg, p. 60, cat. no. 50 and pp. 83-93.
Nürnberger Goldschmiedekunst 1541-1868, Germanisches National Museum, Band I, Teil 2, Nürnberg, 2007, p. 984, no. 740 and p. 740, no. 109.
Jean Nérée Ronfort, André-Charles Boulle 1642-1732, Un nouveau style pour l’Europe, Paris, 2009, p. 361, plate e.
Peter Scherer (Hrsg.) Das Gmündner Schmuckhandwerk bis zum Beginn des XIX Jahrhunderts, Schäbisch Gmünd,p.1071.Lorenz Seelig, Silver and Gold, Courtly Splendour from Augsburg, Munich, 1995, figs. 42, 48, 50 and 51.
Christopher Wilk, ed.,Western Furniture 1350 to the Present Day in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London,1996, pp. 82-83.
This exquisitely decorated dressing table mirror with a strut at the back is exceptionally rare as it seems to be unprecedented to find the combination of première-and contre-partie boulle marquetry with the most delicately worked silver filigree decoration on the front. At first sight one would perhaps consider it to be French in origin as the decoration is very much in the manner of the celebrated ornamentalist and designer Jean Berain. However, the mirror bears many hallmarks certainly in respect of the boulle marquetry which would lead to a possible German attribution more specifically to Johann Puchwiser (1680-1744) .
The silver filigree decoration:
Silver furniture was an important component in sumptuous French interiors. Nevertheless, Augsburg in Germany was also an important centre for precious metals and many silver pieces known today originated there. Unlike the furniture made for Louis XIV, which generally was in solid silver, objects made in Augsburg were in the main made from thin silver plates over a wooden carcass. The silversmiths of Augsburg were also known to have supplied silver and silver gilt mounts for the embellishment of luxury objects veneered in ebony, ivory and tortoiseshell as on the offered mirror.
There was a specific group of cabinet-makers in Germany known as Silberschreineror Silberkistler, who were engaged in the speciality of veneering furniture with exotic materials such as ivory, tortoiseshell and sometimes semi-precious stones. This furniture was costly to produce and generally made to order via the intercession of an agent or Silbhändler who was the middleman between the artist and patron. According to Kisluk-Grosheide et al, op. cit, `The agents submitted designs for approval to the client, selected the silversmith to whom they supplied the necessary silver and chose the Silberschriener, who mounted the different elements together on a wooden core.‘ Filigree work by the Augsburg based goldsmiths such as Johann Jacob Adam (1720-1790), are particularly close to the offered example, see the intricate flowers on a filigree cup sold by Sotheby’s in Paris, Important Orfèvrerie Européenne, Boites en Or et Objets de Vitrine, Paris, 18th April 2012, Lot 110 which are very similar to those on the offered piece.
It is worth noting, however, that silver filigree work was produced all over the world not only in Europe but also South America, Goa and Karim Nagar in India and Batavia, Indonesia from the 16th through to the 18th Century. This makes it extremely difficult to date and state a definitive origin for these pieces. There is a prayerbook cover with very similar filigree work illustrated in Nürnberger Goldschmiedekunst 1541-1868, the silverwork by Michael Lauffer, circa 1705/1706, p. 984, no. 740 and a casket by Johann Lorenz Wernberger, 1753/1763, p. 740, no. 109. For other example of German dressing table sets, see Seelig, illustrates op. cit., figs. 42, 48, 50 and 51.Two silver filigree toilet sets, of Oriental workmanship, which belonged to Catherine the Great, have survived in the Hermitage Collection, the mirror of one is of a similar shape to the offered one and illustrated by Humphries, op. cit., p. 60, cat. no. 50, reproduced here in fig.3.
Boulle marquetry and its manufacture in the German States and Johann Puchwiser (1680-1744):
Boulle marquetry was traditionally seen as originating from and solely the monopoly of France. However, the technique was used in other centres in the Low Countries and the German States and Augsburg was one of the pre-eminent centres together with Munich and Vienna. The Boulle metal marquetry technique is mostly associated with the celebrated Parisian cabinet-maker André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732), although this method of decorating furniture and works of art was not invented by him, he was one of the most famous exponents in his day which led to his name being synonymous with this type of marquetry. See Ronfort,op. cit., p. 361, plate e, from Boulle’s `Nouveaux Deisseins', circa 1725-1730, for a dressing table mirror which must have inspired the maker of the offered mirror.Boulle’s design also influenced the maker of a related mirror with a similarly inlaid reverse and strut to that on the offered mirror, which is attributed to André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732) catalogued as French, circa 1713, in the Wallace Collection, London, no. 150 (F50), illustrated by Hughes, op. cit., pp. 714 and 715, reproduced here in fig. 1. The design of the première–partie marquetry on the back is in the manner of engravings by Jean Bérain (1640-1711), who in 1674 was appointed Dessinateur de la Chamber et du Cabinet du Roi.
However, cabinet-makers in German speaking regions were inspired by the circulation of prints from abroad. In the 17th and 18th centuries Augsburg became a centre for engraving and engravings after Jean Berain (see post) were done `à la goût moderne' by Paul Decker (1677-1713), Jonas Drentwett and Johann Jakob Biller (d. 1723). The mirror's shape takes inspiration from engravings for frames by Hieronymous Bolmann and Jacques Bellay and Juste Aurèle Meissonnier published by Gabrile Huquier. Jean Berain (1638/9-1711), was one of the most influential French architects and designers whose decorative style was disseminated across Europe, and other Augsburg publishers sold copies of Berain’s designs during the late 17th and early 18th century. In addition, according to Kisluk-Grosheide et al, op. cit, `..many German silversmiths had spent several years of training abroad, often in Paris, and foreign journeymen came to work in Augsburg, stimulating the exchange of ideas and adoption of new styles’.
Dressing table mirrors were designed to rest upon a table supported by a strut at the back. They were extremely highly regarded according to Graham Child, op. cit,p. 181, and may well have been transported in cases made specially for them. It has been suggested that the adjustable Toilet-Glass was a French invention since they first appear in early 17th century French domestic interiors-see for example an engraving by Abraham Bosse in La Vue. Child illustrates, op. cit., in plates 319, 320 and 320a, two dressing table mirrors inlaid on the reverse which he states ar typical of Bérain’s work. Also see lot 998, sold from the Collection of the Duke of Hamilton, Christie’s London, 17th-19th June 1882, where a similar brass inlaid and tortoiseshell toilet-mirror to the offered example is illustrated, the reverse of which is similarly inlaid to the offered one with fruit-filled tapering baskets, seated squirrels, eating fruit, butterflies, rinceaux and a female mask in a stylised feathered headdress catalogued as `A TOILET GLASS, in shaped Louis XIV frame, by Buhl, designed by Berain…’, the reverse of which is reproduced here in fig. 1. Finally Hartmann, op. cit,., illustrates a strut inlaid similarly to that on the offered mirror, in plate 69.
The Elector of Bavaria, Maximilian II Emanuel (1662-1726) developed a liking for French taste and upon returning to his own court in Munich in 1715, he set out to gather the finest craftsmen of the German speaking world at his court. Very few of them are recorded by name which makes research into the furniture of the Bavarian court extremely difficult. However, due to recent discoveries by the Bavarian National Museum and the scholar Dr. Max Tillmann, Johann Puchwiser( (1680-1744) ) stands out especially.
Several features on the mirror can also be found on other recorded works by Puchwiser including a commode with boulle marquetry attributed to him with the same fluid scrolling foliage, musicians, squirrels and masks. Puchwiser's creativity and free flowing style combines traditional Germanic figures as well as grotesque motifs with ornaments and strapwork much in the manner of Jean Berain's designs. In his introductory letter to the Elector Max Emanuel in Munich he described himself as being` capable of marquetry of the finest standard as was being practised in Vienna’.
The years between 1704 and 1715 were extremely hard for the artists working at the court in Munich as their elector was in exile in Paris. Administration was taken over by the Emperor of Austria and the court was dispersed, partly to Carinthia, in part also to Paris. Puchwiser was relieved of his duties at the Munich Court in 1705, but had already not been paid for the previous year. When the Elector returned in 1715, he was reinstated as royal cabinet-maker to Max Emanuel. He seems to have made several pieces decorated in marquetry before Max Emanuel's exile as these were recorded on the lists of furniture sent to the Netherlands. The furniture on these lists are not identifiable today. It is believed that Puchwiser was the only cabinetmaker at the time who possessed the capabilities to execute boulle marquetry to this fine level in Munich which leads to the suspicion many more pieces unidentified to this date are also by his hand. It is during this period of exile that he would have been accustomed to making furniture in the Austrian taste as he was completely reliant on the Viennese court for commissions. It is also possible that he underwent some training at the Viennese court during this period.
It is assumed that for economic reasons Puchwiser would have reused the same Berain prints over and over again, but fitting them together in ever new ways. From the records it is also proven that he referred to himself as a “Galanterie-Kistler”, which alludes to the contemporary meaning of gallant, meaning in the style/ imitation of the French. He also almost certainly new the new engravings after Jean Berain published by Joseph Friedrich Leopold and Jeremias Wolff in 1703 in Augsburg.
Sotheby's. Treasures, Princely Taste. London | 03 juil. 2013 - www.sothebys.com