A PAIR OF ORMOLU-MOUNTED, BRASS INLAID MAHOGANY COMMODES

This elegant pair of commodes has been made after a design by Heinrich Gambs (1765-1831), cabinet-maker to the Russian court. They follow designs by the court architect and designer Andrei Voronikhin (1759-1814), notably to their pieces supplied to Pavlovsk around 1803-04.
The German cabinet maker Heinrich Gambs (1765 - 1831) had been a pupil of David Roentgen to whom the style of Gambs is strongly indebted. After accompanying Roentgen on his last journey to St Petersburg in 1789, Gambs settled there and established a rapidly growing workshop. He was a great favorite of the Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna and under her patronage he became the pre-eminent cabinet-maker of the last twenty years of the 18th century. The cabinet-maker who was greatly influenced by Roentgen's work, executed many commissions for the Imperial Court.