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Lot Essay
This spendid and rare games table can be attributed to the Mainz Hofschreiner Heinrich Ludwig Rohde (1683-1755) based on the comparison with a documented group of marquetry furniture he executed for the Electors Lothar Franz von Schönborn (r. 1695-1729), Ludwig von Pfalz-Neuburg (r. 1729-1732), Philipp Karl von Eltz (r. 1732-1743) and finally Johann Friedrich Karl von Ostein (1743-1763) (H. Zinnkann, Meisterstücke Mainzer Möbel des 18. Jahrhundert, Frankfurt, 1988, pp. 13-19).
Rodhe can first be traced in Mainz in 1715, and initially collaborated with the Franconian cabinet-maker Ferdinand Plitzner (1678-1724), who executed furniture for Schloss Pommersfelden, seat of the Schönborn family. Rohde's earliest known piece is an ivory-inlaid marquetry bureau-cabinet in the collection of the Princes of Liechtenstein in Vaduz, which he executed in 1725-'26. This splendid piece already demonstrates his speciality of rich ivory inlays within intricate marquetry patterns of various woods, a technique which he perfected in the 1730s.
This games table is one of Rohde's most accomplished works and a tour de force of his marquetry skills. It is closely related to a commode executed by him around 1735, which is in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nürnberg. It incorporates various nearly identical motifs in the marquetry such as the strapwork patterns and ivory foliate sprays and lambrequins. A further related example is a games table with an intricately-inlaid top and a carved base, formerly in the Schlossmuseum in Berlin. Executed circa 1743, Rohde was probably only responsible for supplying the marquetry top, while the base, which demonstrates a different hand, was made by a specialised carved. However, on the present table, top and base were conceived together, and various marquetry motifs, such as the lambrequined shell motifs filled with red and gold-speckled green composition, appear throughout (ibid., p. 63, fig. 57 and pp. 104-105, no. V).
Rodhe can first be traced in Mainz in 1715, and initially collaborated with the Franconian cabinet-maker Ferdinand Plitzner (1678-1724), who executed furniture for Schloss Pommersfelden, seat of the Schönborn family. Rohde's earliest known piece is an ivory-inlaid marquetry bureau-cabinet in the collection of the Princes of Liechtenstein in Vaduz, which he executed in 1725-'26. This splendid piece already demonstrates his speciality of rich ivory inlays within intricate marquetry patterns of various woods, a technique which he perfected in the 1730s.
This games table is one of Rohde's most accomplished works and a tour de force of his marquetry skills. It is closely related to a commode executed by him around 1735, which is in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nürnberg. It incorporates various nearly identical motifs in the marquetry such as the strapwork patterns and ivory foliate sprays and lambrequins. A further related example is a games table with an intricately-inlaid top and a carved base, formerly in the Schlossmuseum in Berlin. Executed circa 1743, Rohde was probably only responsible for supplying the marquetry top, while the base, which demonstrates a different hand, was made by a specialised carved. However, on the present table, top and base were conceived together, and various marquetry motifs, such as the lambrequined shell motifs filled with red and gold-speckled green composition, appear throughout (ibid., p. 63, fig. 57 and pp. 104-105, no. V).