The most recent research indicates that there were three Zwiener brothers from Herdon, Germany. The eldest brother Joseph had by the 1880s established a substantial workshop in the city of Breslau in Silesia, now in Western Poland. His younger brothers Emmanuel and Julius were by the same time working in Paris, establishing themselves as premier haut luxe cabinetmakers of the period culminating in their being awarded a gold medal at the 1889 Paris Exposition universelle. In 1895, on receiving an important royal commission from Kaiser Wilhelm II of Prussia, Julius returned to Berlin to set up his own workshops and the same year his brother Emmanuel retired.
Gilt-bronze mounts on furniture incised ‘Z’ or ‘ZN’ have been traditionally attributed to Emmanuel Zwiener, and mounts incised ‘ZJ’ to Julius. Further confusion has been caused by attributions of the ‘ZJ’ mark to Maison Jansen who bought the old Zwiener workshop at 2, rue de la Roquette, and much of the stock, on Emmanuel’s retirement in 1895.
Similar examples of this model have been sold Christie's, New York, 19 April 2016, lot 35 ($22,000), and Christie's, London, 29 September 2005, lot 47 (£9,600).