Koller View 1/21

10 Preview of the Fine Furniture, Porcelain and Decorative Arts auction on 25 March 2021 Prussian grandeur Two stately chests of drawers in the March auction (ill. 1) once graced Trebschen Castle in present-day Poland, as inventory stamps on the insides of the drawers attest. The art treasures, furniture and fur- nishings assembled there came under the auction hammer in Berlin in 1928. It is likely that they entered the noble collection through Count Heinrich IX Reuss zu Kösteriz, who was Royal Prussian High Court Mar- shal andMinister of State in the service of the Prussian King Frederick II. The authorship of the pair by cabinetmaker Johann Friedrich Spindler is uncontested. He and his step- brother Heinrich Wilhelm Spindler came from Bay- reuth and followed the king’s summons to Potsdam in 1765, where he entrusted them with furniture pro- jects for the Neues Palais. The floral marquetry in wal- nut, plum wood, hornbeam and maple depicts pasto- ral scenes with a castle as well as imaginative fountain architecture, after engravings by Nicolas Berchem and Francois Cuvilliés in the ‘Livre de cartouches à divers usages’ of 1738. Stylistically comparable pairs of chests of drawers from Spindler’s workshop, but employing different woods, can be found in the Neu- es Palais as well as in the Dutch museum Huis Doorn. These are all important examples of the naturalistic Rococo style, which flourished under Frederick the Great in the fields of architecture, the fine arts and in- terior design. The swan clock ‘à cercles tournants’ (ill. 3) also has a notable provenance, which can be traced back to the collection of the French politician François-Ma- rie Taillepied. How Taillepied came into possession of the Swan clock, however, remains an open question. Its first sale was likely handled by the marchand-mer- cier Dominique Daguerre, who supplied the Parisian 1 A pair of German Rococo marquetry chests of drawers, from the Gebrüder Spindler workshop. Potsdam, circa 1760/65. 134 × 66 × 82.5 cm. Estimate: CHF 150 000/250 000 2 A n important Meissen porcelain tankard. Circa 1723/24. Attributed to Johann Gregorius Höroldt. H 19 cm. Ducret Collection. Estimate: CHF 18 000/22 000 3 A Louis XVI clock, ‘cygnes à cercles tournants’. Paris, circa 1780. H 52 cm. Estimate: CHF 100 000/150 000 aristocracy with luxury items by the most important bronze makers of the time. It is possible that the clock then entered into Taillepied’s possession by inher- itance. The architect and furniture designer Charles de Wailly provided the model for the pair of swans, which symbolise the ancient dualistic concepts of love and friendship, femininity and masculinity. 1 2 3 FOR FURTHER INFORMATION FURNITURE & DECORATION Stephan Koller skoller@kollerauctions.com ONLINE CATALOGUES www.kollerauctions.com