A Brunswick tea table "à la chinoise" - image-1
A Brunswick tea table "à la chinoise" - image-2
A Brunswick tea table "à la chinoise" - image-3
A Brunswick tea table "à la chinoise" - image-1A Brunswick tea table "à la chinoise" - image-2A Brunswick tea table "à la chinoise" - image-3

Lot 932 Dα

A Brunswick tea table "à la chinoise"

Auction 1152 - overview Cologne
29.05.2020, 14:00 - Decorative Arts
Estimate: 14.000 € - 16.000 €
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A Brunswick tea table "à la chinoise"

Lacquered oak and softwood table with coloured glass beads on canvas. With one large drawer and curved supports with carved acanthus clasped knees, terminating in hoof feet. The top with glass bead embroidery in a repeating pattern. Some minor losses. H 62, W 47, D 38 cm.
Attributed to the van Selow workshop, third quarter 18th C.

The décor of this table was made by threading beads onto strings before laying them down. Andreas Flöck describes the use of this technique in the van Selow manufactory. It was more usual for the loose glass beads to be impressed into a paste made from “dried oil mixed with chalk and a small amount of lead white, as well as resin, animal glue and plant gum” (p. 47). However this paste dried quickly, which meant that the artisans needed to work fast. It was much easier to apply the beads when they were already threaded. The threads were usually removed afterwards, but in this table they have been left.

Provenance

Private collection, Copenhagen.

Literature

For more on Selow's technique, cf.: Flöck, Die Manufaktur van Selow aus Braunschweig, in: Braunschweiger Rokoko, Braunschweig 2005, p. 44 ff.