The design of this secretaire is very advanced for the date of 1814 which is inscribed under one drawer. The severe, abstract shape of this piece is related to the monumental forms of the Empire style which dominated design throughout Europe in the first 20 years of the 19th century. However, the oval shape is one of the more fanciful shapes, such as lyres and globes, which were favoured for secretaires in Vienna in the succeeding decade and which became a mark of the emerging Biedermeier style. The carefully matched veneers, the sparse, gilded mounts and the penwork that decorates the interior of the secretaire, were all typical of Biedermeier design. The dated drawer also carries the signature of the cabinet-maker Franz Steindl. He worked in Budapest from the 1820s, but the shape of the secretaire suggests that Steindl may have learnt his skills in Vienna at least seven years earlier.
Physical description
A fall-front secretaire of oval form, raised on a socle. Veneered in mahogany on birch(?), with gilt-bronze mounts, the interiors decorated with penwork and mirrors
Place of Origin
Vienna, Austria (probably, made)
Date
1814 (made)
Artist/maker
Steindl, Frantz (designer and maker)
Materials and Techniques
Mahogany, with gilt-bronze mounts, the interior with a mirror, and with composition and penwork ornament
Marks and inscriptions
'FRANTZ STEINDL 1814 IM 30TM DECEMBER'
Dimensions
Height: 145 cm, Width: 81 cm, Depth: 35 cm
Historical context note
This form continued to influence design well into the 1830s (see Heidrun Zinnkann, Mainzer Möbel der ersten Hälfte des 19 Jahrhunderts. Frannkfurt, Historisches Museum, 1985, p. 334 for a vitrine with similar form)
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Jervis, Simon (intro.). Art and Design in Europa and America 1800-1900, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1987, pp. 34-35.
Labels and date
SECRETAIRE
W.22-1981
'American and European Art and Design 1800-1900'
Signed under a drawer 'Franz Steindl 1814 30tm December'. This may refer to Franz Steindl, who later became a leading cabinet-maker in Budapest, and may have been executed when he was serving under Anton Sebastian Vogel. The form of the secretaire is based on an antique lyre. Many variations on this theme were produced in Vienna; this is one of the most radically abstract. [1987-2006]
Europe and America, 1800-1900, room 101
SECRETAIRE IN THE EMPIRE STYLE
1814
Austria, Vienna, or Hungary, Budapest; made by Franz Steindl
Mahogany veneer on a carcase of birch; gilded bronze mounts
Inscribed in German, 'Frantz Steindl 30 December 1814'
Museum no. W.22-1981
Each European country interpreted the Empire style in its own way. This secretaire is puzzling. Its austere, almost abstract form is very advanced for 1814 but typical of the Biedermeier furniture popular in 1820s and 1830s in the Austro-Hungarian empire. Franz Steindl is recorded in Budapest in the 1820s, but he may been in Vienna some years earlier. [2006]
Production Note
A Franz Steindl is known to have worked in Hungary for some time but the shape of this secretaire is Viennese.
Materials
Ink; Mahogany; Gilt bronze; Mirror glass; Composition (material)
Techniques
Drawing (image-making); Gilding; Veneering; Cabinet making; Silvering
Collection code
FWK
