Beschreibung:

A GERMAN BRASS-MOUNTED AND SATINE-CROSSBANDED CHERRYWOOD CABINET CONTAINING FORTY-EIGHT WAX RELIEFS THE CABINET ATTRIBUTED TO THEODOR COMMER, THE WAX RELIEFS BY KASPAR BERNHARD HARDY, COLOGNE, CIRCA 1795 The wax reliefs realistically modelled in high relief and mounted in deep, glazed, giltwood frames; the upper part of the cabinet with panelled doors, each with deep internal recess and hooks to hang twelve wax reliefs, the interior of the cabinet divided into a further two bays each with four shallow drawers with later steel ring handles and hooks to hang a further twelve reliefs to each bay; the base of the cabinet with rising cylinder inlaid with the initials ' JWN' enclosing an architectural fitted writing compartment with three arched pigeon holes, each with stepped base forming a concealed drawer, over an olive leather-lined sliding writing surface, above six drawers on tapering square section legs, remnants of printed paper label to the reverse of the base and with further paper transit labels to the interior of the mechanism, various numbering to the drawers and around the hooks, minor restoration and replacement 88 ¾ in. (225.5 cm.) high; 57 in. (145 cm.) wide, closed or 105 ½ in. (268 cm.) wide, open; 24 ¾ in. (64.5 cm.) deep Provenance Canon Johann Wilhelm Neel (1744-1819), Cologne. Collection of the Jansen family, Cologne. Collection of the sculptor Michael Lock, Cologne/Berlin. Collection of the physician Dr. Hanson, Cologne. Collection of the Baron von Gwinner, Haus im Dol, 46 - 48, Berlin, since 1926 and by descent until, sold from The Collection of a German Countess, Sotheby's, London, 24 February 2015, lot 93; when illustrated with thirty wax reliefs with further period wax reliefs by Bernhard Hardy subsequently added to complete the interior. With Walter Padovani, Milan. With Georg Laue, Munich, from whom acquired.