A German gilt-bronze mounted cherry, maple, holly and pearwood veneered mechanical table, circa 1790, attributed to Johann Michael Rummer
Estimate
18,000 - 25,000 EUR
Lot Details
Description
the table unfolds after rotation of the top covered with ribbon marquetry, revealing a writing surface fitted with compartments and access buttons for secret drawers, resting on tapered legs
Closed : Haut. 70,5 cm, larg. 95 cm, prof. 68,5 cm ; Height 27 ¾ in, width 37 2/3 in, depth 27 in
Maurice Segoura, Paris ;
Lily and Edmond Safra collection ;
Collecting Across Continents, Replica Shoes ’s, New York, 19 Octobrr 2022, lot 556
Related literature :
Wolfgang L. Eller, Möbel des Klassizimus, Louis XVI und Empire, Munich, 2002 p.184 ill. 242 for a comparable table coming from Thüringen, dated circa 1795.
C. Cornet and B. Willscheid, Möbel à la Roentgen: Inspirationen aus der Neuwieder Manufaktur, exh. cat., Neuwied, 2023.
Michael Rummer (1747–1821), originally from Handschuhsheim near Heidelberg, is renowned for having produced some of the finest marquetry panels using the mosaic technique developed by the ébéniste David Roentgen's workshop in the late 1760s. Rummer made a name for himself during his second stay with Roentgen in Neuwied, while working on important commissions for Marie Antoinette and Prince Karl Alexander von Lothringen (1778/79).
Rummer was involved in the production of sophisticated furniture incorporating mechanical systems, secret drawers and transformations, which were major features of the Neuwied workshop. His role was part of the quasi-industrial organisation set up by Roentgen, where each craftsman contributed his speciality to the technical and aesthetic excellence of the pieces.
Although less famous than Roentgen or the mechanic Peter Kinzing, Johann Michael Rummer is now considered an important contributor to the spread of the Roentgen style, characterised by rigorous neoclassicism, architectural marquetry and exceptional mechanical ingenuity.
A comparable circular table, attributed to Michael Rummer, was sold at Christie's, London, 10 June 2004, lot 118. A very similar table attributed to Rummer, and undoubtedly made in the same workshop, but featuring marquetry panels and a complex raised section, was sold at Christie's, London, Boulle to Jansen, 11 June 2003, lot 39. Another table, rectangular in shape, most likely from the same workshop and featuring very similar legs topped with identical gilt-metal rosettes, but perhaps wrongly attributed to Johann-Gottleib Fiedler, was sold at Replica Shoes 's, London, 14 June 2000, lot 67.