A RUSSIAN DIRECTOIRE 1790'S WRITING TABLE ATTRIBUTED TO CHRISTIAN MEYER.
Mahogany and mahogany veneer. Gilt brass and brass mounts and mouldings. The upper part doors in front of mirror glass and sixteen small drawers, half of which are hidden drawers and mirror glass. Underneath a secret drawer in the form of stairs. The corners with door in front of shelves, next to pullout candlestick of gilt brass in the form of urn. The frame with fold out writing flap and four drawers. Underneath two drawers. Fluted round legs. Key enclosed. Length 135, width 71, height 150 cm.
The top décor part missing.
Provenance
Gunnar Jacobsson Collection. Thence by descent.
In the autumn sale 2010 Bukowskis sold a section of the collection formed in the 1920´s and 30´s by Gunnar Jacobson comprising mainly Russian art and antiques. Gunnar Jacobson (1882-1967) came as a young engineer in the 1910´s to Russia. In 1911 he started to work for the Nobel Brothers in Baku eventually becoming head of the oilfield Emba by the Caspian Sea. The outbreak of the revolution in 1917 forced him to move back to Sweden, but his love for Russia had by then evolved. After some years at home he got an employment with AGA in 1925 at their factory LUX in Moscow and became managing director in 1929. Once back in Russia Gunnar Jacobson started to buy antiques. Having remarried he bought a villa in 1929 in the Stockholm area. He now started collecting in earnest, according to family tradition, always carrying a measure stick and plans of the house in search for objects. He filled his apartment in Moscow, but the main part of his purchases was sent to Stockholm. A large part of the collection was formed in the years 1928-1931. In that year he sent a large shipment by train to Sweden. The transport documents show that it consisted of 71 crates requiring two train wagons for the goods which went all around the Baltic. A further large shipment in 1934 went by ship over Riga. Gunnar Jacobson went on buying until 1937 when the Soviet government took over the factory and once again he had to pack up and leave Russia.
Literature
Chenevière, Antoine: Russian Furniture, the Golden Age 1780-1840, London 1988, page 94-95, compare similar writing table.
More information
CHRISTIAN MEYER - THE CABINET MAKER OF THE RUSSIAN IMPERIAL FAMILY
Christian Meyer, about whom little is recorded, was clearly well-established in St. Petersburg by 1784 as he gave carpentry lessons to the young Grand Dukes Alexander and Constantine, the sons of Emperor Paul I and Empress Maria Feodorovna. And within a decade he had supplied an enormous amount of furniture to the Imperial family - between 1793 and 1795 he delivered ninety-nine pieces of case furniture to the Hermitage alone. Many other pieces went to furnish Paul's favorite St. Petersburg residence, the Mikhailovsky Palace, and to Paul and Maria's cherished retreat at Pavlovsk. His furniture is characterized by restrained design, fine quality of veneers and ormolu mounts. Meyer was obviously influenced by his celebrated furniture of David Roentgen, who dazzled not only the courts of Western Europe as ébeniste mécanicien of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, but Catherine the Great, as well, on his visits to St. Petersburg. The furniture supplied to Roentgen's Russian clients, deceptively simple designs of rich mahogany and extremely refined ormolu mounts , had an enormous influence on locally produced pieces which lasted well into the 19th century. But, thanks to recent archival research, Meyer's reputation has been largely resuscitated now that we are able to identify the many important pieces supplied by Meyer to the court - most of which had traditionally been attributed to Roentgen.