Each with bowed stepped top above two long drawers, each inset with rippled brass bandings, centred by roundels between fluted angles, on offset square tapering legs
33 ½ in. (85 cm.) high; 41 ¾ in. (106 cm.) wide; 23 in. (59 cm.) deep

Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 29 October 2008, lot 248.
Christie's, London, 14 March 2018, lot 209,
where acquired by the present owner.

Comparative Literature:
A. Chenevière, Russian Furniture, London, 1989.

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This lot is offered by Christie Manson & Woods Ltd

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Lot Essay

This elegant pair of commodes has been made after a design by Heinrich Gambs (1765-1831), cabinet-maker to the Russian court. They follow designs by the court architect and designer Andrei Voronikhin (1759-1814), notably to their pieces supplied to Pavlovsk around 1803-04.
The German cabinet maker Heinrich Gambs (1765 - 1831) had been a pupil of David Roentgen to whom the style of Gambs is strongly indebted. After accompanying Roentgen on his last journey to St Petersburg in 1789, Gambs settled there and established a rapidly growing workshop. He was a great favorite of the Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna and under her patronage he became the pre-eminent cabinet-maker of the last twenty years of the 18th century. The cabinet-maker who was greatly influenced by Roentgen's work, executed many commissions for the Imperial Court.