Heinrich GAMBS (ca. 1765-1831), Corner sideboard cabinet in Empire style

construction - coniferous wood, veneer - mahogany, 137 x 102 x d. approx. 55 cm;
St. Petersburg, ca. 1810-1815.
Two-piece with straight sides, bulging front, with low, narrow settee, placed on a wide base, supported on granular legs, front legs converging downwards, veneered mahogany, decorated on the edges of the front with blackened stripes
with vein-encrusted stylized decorations in the form of braids, rosettes, tendrils, floral branches. The body of the settee is widened on the sides with walls - arms embracing the bulging full wings of the door. The wings of the base have a frame construction with a panel. Inside the base there is a shelf.

The cabinet was most likely made in the workshop of Heinrich Gambs (ca. 1765-1831), an ebenist from Durlach in Baden, a pupil of David Roentgen. He made luxury furniture commissioned by European aristocrats and Russian tsars. His furniture was characterized by classical shapes, typical of the furniture making of the Classical, Empire and Biedermeier eras, and was decorated richly with brass castings (sphinxes, griffins, eagles) or veining, dots and stripes with patterns cut or arranged in waves, zigzags, dots and initials.