662 - An exceptional pair of mirrored escritoires

An exceptional pair of mirrored escritoires Walnut, burr walnut and plum on softwood; engraved brass fittings, mirrored bevelled glass. A deux corps. Both writing desks with a kneehole, flanked on either side by four drawers beneath a sloping fall-front writing surface. Two-door upper cabinet above a row of three drawers. The upper section with numerous drawers and compartments, as well as a pull-out writing surface. With professionally restored earlier insect damage. Height 199.5, width 103, depth 75.5 cm. Attributed to Vienna, around 1720 - 30. This pair of writing cabinets belongs to a small group of similar pieces of furniture that were probably produced in a Viennese workshop during the first half of the 18th century. They follow the strictly rectilinear English "bureau bookcase" of the Queen Anne period, a writing cabinet with a chest-of-drawers base, a writing compartment with a sloping fall-front, and a two-door upper section. The distinctive features of the Viennese furniture in this group, including the kneeholes, bandwork marquetry on a light burr-wood ground, and the externally mounted engraved angle fittings for the doors, can be observed on all of the pieces. A comparable piece of furniture with veneered rather than mirrored door panels, made for Prince Adam Franz von Schwarzenberg (1680-1732), is in the collection of the MAK Vienna, inv. no. LGH 2027. Another example, likewise attributable to this Viennese group, is in the collection of the Palais Rohan in Strasbourg.