A GERMAN ORMOLU-MOUNTED FRUITWOOD AND PARQUETRY BUREAU PLAT

The present bureau plat, with its distinctive mounts and the use of fruitwood for the marquetry, is characteristic of German cabinet makers working in Potsdam, Germany during the second half of the eighteenth century. The unusual bronze mounts depict trophies of music and the scene of two putti, one measuring a globe with a compass and the other writing, emulating a theme of science, learning and knowledge. These mounts relate to the lifelike and fantastical ornament deployed by cabinet-makers at this time, such as Heinrich Wilhelm Spindler and Johann Melchior Kambli. An example depicting these lifelike mounts is a writing table by Kambli, now in the writing room in the Royal Quarters of Das Neue Palais (see G. Streidt, Potsdam, Koln, 1996, p. 105).