bavarikon4UDescription
The tower-style double writing bureau is a functional piece of furniture of impressive architectural design, manufactured by the Munich "Galanterie und Clopaturkistler" (fancy cabinetmaker) Johann Puchwieser.
On the main side, the bureau appears as a massive cupboard with drawers, crowned by a hutch with a tower of drawers and a clock. The drawers in the hutch are, however, part of a rotating insert. If it is turned, a mirror appears.
The foldout writing desks are mounted on the sides. Additional drawers are hidden behind the desk flaps. Above each of the desks, there is a small cupboard; underneath them is room for the feet.
The architectural design is supported by carved decoration and by the lively walnut burl veneer with ribbon ornaments made of different wood types. An ingenious detail is the flooring of the foot well with a perspectival checkerboard pattern.
The double cabinet was purchased in 1969 from a Bavarian aristocratic family for the Neues Schloss Schleißheim. At the Neues Schloss Schleißheim, two other high-class double writing cabinets by Johan Puchwiser, now part of the holdings of the Bayerisches National Museum, are documented in the inventories for the Baroque period. Instead of walnut veneer, these luxury pieces of furniture have Boulle marquetries, otherwise they are identical in their shape and in their conversion mechanism with a rotating insert to the double writing cabinet discussed here. Thus, this piece of furniture is an example of a "successful model", which nonetheless only few clients could afford.
Author
Cordula Mauß