Estate / Collection: Property From a Manhattan Apartment Decorated by David Kleinberg

Circle of Lorentz Wilhelm Lundelius, Stockholm, Circa 1815-1820

Centered at the top by a cupboard fitted with a secret compartment flanked by white marble columns with gilt-bronze Corinthian capitals flanked by a one-door compartment at either side and galleries surmounted by two-handled neoclassical urns and quivers, all above a sliding writing compartment applied with ebonized arrows and acanthus leaves inlaid with green stained Sycamore and Satinwood, opening to reveal a fitted interior with a central wide drawer above a pigeonhole flanked by a door and three drawers at either side, the whole above three wide drawers applied with ringed lion mask handles and raised on giltwood lion paw feet.

Height 55 inches (139.5 cm), width 46 3/4 inches (111.2 cm), depth 25 1/4 inches (64.1 cm)

Comparative Literature: An Empire Desk, one of a pair commissioned by Crown Prince Carl Johan. Masterpiece of Lorentz Wilhelm Lundelius designed by him in 1817 and completed in 1818 is illustrated in Hakan Groth, Neoclassicm in the North, Swedish Furniture and Interiors 1770-1850,Thames and Hudson, London, 1990, p. 211, ill.39.

A slightly related Bureau-Cabinet, possibly by Lorentz Wilhelm Lundelius with white marble Corinthian columns has been sold: Christie's, London, September 10, 2013, lot 308

Lorentz Wilhelm Lundelius (1787-1859) was a Swedish cabinetmaker and one of the more significant furniture makers in the Swedish Empire style.

Lundelius began his career in his father's workshop. With his father, the master carpenter Anders Lundelius, Lorentz Wilhelm became an apprentice in 1808 and a journeyman in 1810. He became master in Stockholm's carpentry trade in 1818 and a supervisor at the guild in 1829 and an elder in 1831. He has been considered one of the most employed cabinetmakers of the new royal dynasty of Karl XIV Johan, and during the years 1818–1843 delivered a large number of tables, sofas, chairs and secretaries to Rosendal Castle. The Royal Palace also has furniture by Lundelius.