Property from a Distinguished New York Private Collection

Attributed to Heinrich Gambs, circa 1790

The rectangular swiveling mirror capped by a raised tablet with circular églomisé panel of a music-playing maiden and dancing putto, possibly representing Cupid and Psyche, on splayed feet, the mirror and frame with ribbed brass panels, the frame with brass inventory disk, inscribed: Г.Э. (Государственный Эрмитаж / State Hermitage) / 8113, the reverse of the mirror with a black painted inventory number З.Д. (Зимний Дворец / Winter Palace) IX N 1282 and a red painted inventory number И.З.Д. (Императорский Зимний Дворец / Imperial Winter Palace) No. 11, and with remnants of a Winter Palace paper inventory label; the églomisé possibly later.

Height 79 ¾ inches (202.5 cm), width 37 inches (93.8 cm), depth 20 ½ inches (52 cm).

Provenance:

Imperial Winter Palace, St. Petersburg

State Hermitage, St. Petersburg

Christie’s, New York, 18 October 2002, lot 610

Christie’s, New York, 21 May 2003, lot 321 (as an after-sale).

Footnote:

For a similar model, see Christie's Important European Furniture, Sculpture and Carpets Including the Beit Collection of Early European Bronzes, December 7, 2006, lot 212.

A related example is preserved in the State Hermitage Museum and published in its digital collection (https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/digital-collection/1165466?lng=en)

Heinrich Gambs 

Heinrich Gambs (1765-1831) began his career in Germany under the renowned cabinetmaker David Roentgen before relocating to Russia, where by 1793 he had established himself among the leading ébénistes of St. Petersburg. His workshop became closely associated with furnishing imperial residences, including Pavlovsk, Tsarskoe Selo, and the Winter Palace. By the late eighteenth century, Empress Maria Feodorovna (1759-1828), widow of Emperor Paul I (1754-1801), had become one of his most significant patrons. 

Gambs’s work is often associated with the Russian Jacob style, a local interpretation of the mahogany furniture produced by the celebrated French cabinetmaker Georges Jacob (1739-1814). Russian adaptations are distinguished by their use of solid mahogany or mahogany veneer, enriched with brass stringing, inlay, and rosette mounts. Although Gambs did not sign his furniture, scholars attribute works to him through the recurring use of verre églomisé panels and distinctive bronze mounts. 

The Winter Palace 

The Winter Palace itself was first commissioned by Peter the Great (1672-1725) in 1711, shortly after the founding of St. Petersburg. The original two‑story structure was expanded by Georg Johann Mattarnovi and Domenico Trezzini, then underwent a major reconstruction under Bartolomeo Rastrelli beginning in 1732. Completed in 1760, the palace evolved into a vast complex of approximately 1,500 rooms. By 1827, it encompassed roughly 400,000 square feet and housed more than 2,000 residents. 

Catherine II (1729-1796) was known to purchase furniture for her apartments in the Winter Palace at her own expense. As noted by Tamara Rappe, the Empress lamented that “the court was so ill‑equipped with furniture that the same mirrors, beds, chairs, tables, and chests of drawers that were usually used in the Winter Palace followed us when we traveled to the Summer Palace and then to Peterhof and then to Moscow.”("The History of Furniture Collections in the Hermitage," Furniture History 29 (1993), pp. 206) The 1784 inventory records twenty‑two pieces acquired from David Roentgen, which remain among the most exquisite works in the Hermitage’s collection. 

Gambs’s reputation in St. Petersburg allowed him to cultivate close ties with the imperial family. In 1795, he and his business partner Johann Ott submitted to Catherine II a three‑part memorandum outlining the organization of their workshop, their commitment to furnishing the apartments of Grand Duke Alexander at Tsarskoe Selo, and their proposal to restore Roentgen furniture in the Hermitage. The Empress approved their work, and by 1796, archival records document payments for furniture delivered to the Winter Palace. 

Catherine’s taste may have been further shaped by the influence of her daughter‑in‑law, Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna, who traveled to Paris with Paul I in 1782 under the pseudonyms comte and comtesse du Nord. There, they encountered the latest French fashions in furniture and decoration. Upon returning to Russia, Maria Feodorovna began furnishing Pavlovsk in the Parisian style, helping introduce French Neoclassical aesthetics into the Russian imperial residences. 

A full-length cheval mirror in the Hermitage (ЭРМб-1870), dated 1790, reflects these evolving tastes and displays characteristics associated with Heinrich Gambs and related St. Petersburg workshops (Natalya Guseva and Tatyana Semyonova, Russian Eighteenth Century Furniture in the Hermitage Museum [St. Petersburg, 2015], pp. 312–15). The mirror is set within a swiveling mahogany frame enriched with alternating matte and polished brass bands. Its vertical mirror plate is bordered by verre églomisé panels decorated with antique motifs, while the arched cresting echoes the design of the present mirror, featuring a central medallion with allegorical figures. Together, they reveal a moment when Russian artisanship, imperial patronage, and European influence converged to produce some of the most distinctive furniture of the era. 

Pavlovsk Palace 

Pavlovsk Palace stands as a quintessential example of Russian Neoclassical architecture of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Initially designed by Charles Cameron (1782–1786), the palace was later expanded by Vincenzo Brenna, who added numerous rooms, including a gallery, chapel, and new state apartments. After the death of Paul I, Maria Feodorovna continued to develop the palace well into the 1820s, collaborating with leading architects such as Carlo Rossi, Giacomo Quarenghi, Andrey Voronikhin, and Thomas de Thomon. 

In 1793, Maria Feodorovna—widow of Emperor Paul I—commissioned from Gambs an exceptional desk featuring a verre églomisé panel depicting the Grand Duke painted en grisaille. Several additional pieces decorated in this technique followed. Maria Feodorovna and Gambs developed a long‑standing artistic rapport. The Empress—herself an accomplished artist who painted on glass, engraved on steel, worked in amber, and turned ivory—trusted Gambs to create furniture worthy of displaying her own creations. In 1793, she commissioned from him a suite of carved and giltwood furniture for the Valet de Chambre Room, one of her favorite spaces in the palace. The most notable piece was a desk exemplifying the Russian Jacob style, incorporating a verre églomisé panel of the Grand Duke painted en grisaille, along with several similarly decorated elements.