Braunschweiger Barock Schreibschrank
206.5 x 118 x 58.5 cm.
Brunswick, c. 1740/1750.

softwood corpus with light and dark walnut, ash, root and fruitwood veneers. Over pressed spherical feet the triple-curved base, above it the slightly protruding writing part with sloping flap and two drawers. The flap with inlaid wide mountainous landscape with castles, in the foreground a pedestal with vase on it, a tree in the typical manner of Johann Grade and a shepherd with billy goat. The writing part inside softwood with four veneered drawers. The drawers in the middle section with dark walnut veneer, which is also found on his writing cabinet owned by the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, framed by narrow band inlays, these are finished with typical Brunswick C-swings. The upper part is triaxial, slightly receding. In the middle is a wide and higher central section with a door, closed at the top by a wide ledge. The door inlaid with a landscape and garden picture, in it a tree, a pedestal with vase and a soldier with lance. To the left and right of it five slightly curved drawers each, at the height of 5/7 of the central part, with central locking through the central door. Upper and lower part laterally with walnut veneer and surrounding band of ash veneer. Waxed and smoothly polished (according to Fuhse corresponds to the Brunswick furniture surfaces of the 18th century). Spherical feet, original fittings, two keys available.
other pieces of furniture by Johann Grades and literature excerpts.literature:
Andrea Winter, masterpieces of the Brunswick carpenters' guild. Diss., 1995, Braunschweig, p. 101-105, p. 156.
F. Fuhse, Vom Braunschweiger Tischlerhandwerk, 1925.
E. Hein, Braunschweiger Möbel des 18. Jahrhunderts, Diss., 1950.
Kreisel/Himmelheber, Die Kunst des deutschen Möbels. 1983.
black, antique German furniture: bourgeois and rustic furniture in Germany, 1700 to 1840, Wuppertal 1977.

enclosed
Illustrations of other furniture by Johann Grad and literature excerpts.

Note:
The Duke Anton Ulrich Museum in Braunschweig owns a veneered baroque writing cabinet, which is inscribed and dated "made by Johan Graden in Braunschweig on 12 August 1766" in a drawer. It shows quite idiosyncratically inlaid marquetry pictures, formed by large pieces of veneer of various kinds and apparent giant trees, which represent wild mountain and garden landscapes enlivened with buildings and figures. The works of Johann Grade, a hitherto little-known Braunschweig cabinetmaker of the Baroque and Rococo periods, are characterized by the composition of landscape inlays, composed of very different and mostly large pieces of veneer, whereby the master occasionally creates very high, rounded or rocky mountain massifs in the background, while the foreground is dominated by idiosyncratically designed giant trees, which often reach the height of the mountain massifs. The treetops are always cloud-like. In between he places architectural pieces, buildings or entire townscapes, pedestals with monuments, shepherds, farmers, soldiers, gods and the like. These idiosyncrasies of inlaid pictures can be found in all his works with landscape inlays. They allow us to ascribe to Johann Grade a number of furniture in museum collections, in literature and in catalogues. Johann Grade regularly offered his valuable furniture at the Brunswick fairs for almost twenty years and described it in his advertisements in the Brunswick advertisements "Bey dem Tischler Mstr. Joh. Grade on Schöppenstedter Str. a mirror cabinet fournirter of exquisite foreign woods, curved according to a modern facon and neatly worked out with some dainty history pictures". Where Johann Grade came from and when he came to Braunschweig is unknown, but he died there in 1770. Furniture by Johann Grade can be found in the Braunschweig Municipal Museum, in the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg, in the German Mining Museum in Bochum, in the Castle Museum in Bernburg a. d. Saale, in the Detmold Residence Castle (shown in Kreisel-Himmelheber, Vol. 2, No. 926, where it is wrongly described as Lippe); a particularly beautiful example from an auction is shown in W. Schwarze, Antike deutsche Möbel, No. 201, there also erroneously called "lippisch"; a cabinet by Grade was offered in the Important Private Collection from Hanover auction of Sotheby`s Amsterdam in March 2007 under No. 407, two chests of drawers with landscape paintings in the auction house Kastern, Hanover, see there. (1221742) (13)


Baroque Brunswick escritoire
206.5 x 118 x 58.5 cm.
Brunswick, ca. 1740-1750.

softwood structure, veneered with light and dark walnut, ash wood, burl and fruitwood.

Literature:
A. Winter, masterpieces of the Brunswick joinery guild. Diss., 1995, Braunschweig, pp. 101-105, p. 156.
F. Fuhse, Vom Braunschweiger Tischlerhandwerk, 1925.
E. Hein, Braunschweiger Möbel des 18. Jahrhunderts, Diss., 1950.
Kreisel/Himmelheber, Die Kunst des deutschen Möbels, 1983.
Schwarze, Antike deutsche Möbel: bürgerliche und rustikale Möbel in Deutschland, 1700 bis 1840, Wuppertal 1977.

Enclosed:
Illustrations of