Redőnyös íróasztal

The desk stands on eight splayed, prismatic legs ending in pilaster strips with cannelures at the top. In the bottom part there are two side drawers enclosing a middle drawer. The table is equipped with a shutter that rolls up when the flap is drawn out. The shutter is divided into three parts by embedded, rectangular inlays. There are five small drawers and four open shelves inside. A superstructure of three drawers is placed on top of the desk, the middle one rising above the others all three are covered with prismatic tops in tiers. The stand is decorated with guilt bronze cannelures and disks, while the middle part is enriched with broad bronze straps. The inlays of the drawers and the sides are enframed by a string of pearl laths the keyholes are covered with flip-up octagonal bronze pulls.

This type is fairly common among late 18th century pieces from the Neuwied workshop of David Roentgen (+1807). The typical characteristics are: heavy structure, a stand of eight legs with a curved aperture, a cresting of tiered, prismatic tops, moderate decoration of broad, fluted bronze straps, round disks and framing strings of pearl lathes to balance the brightness of the veneer. Therefore when listed in the inventory the desk was assumed to be "probably made in the Roentgen workshop of Neuwied, at the end of the 18th century" (Batári). However, during later restoration a handwritten paper note was found glued to the inside, with the following inscription: Dieser Schrib-diehs (sic!) ist verd ingtig In Hersbruck bey dem Meister Fiedel, Schreiner Gesell Andreas Fiedel hat in vervordiegt (sic!) den 6 ten July Ao 1792. (This desk was ordered at Master Fiedel in Hersbruck, and was made by Andrew Fiedel journeyman on 6th of July in 1792.)

This marking proved that the piece was made by a yet unknown cabinetmaker, in Hersbruck, Bavaria, in the family's workshop probably owned by his father. It is, however, striking that the desk faithfully follows the late style of David Roentgen. It cannot therefore be excluded that Andreas Fiedel has worked at the Neuwied workshop for a while, and it is even more probable that he learned about Roentgen's furniture from the contemporary magazines, which often described his pieces, and included engravings depicting them. According to the last owner the desk was inherited by his family. Count Ferenc Hunyady had inherited it from his great-grandfather, Karl Ferdinand Graf von Buol-Schauenstein (1797-1865), an Austrian diplomat and states-man, whose wife was Caroline Prinzessin zu Ysenburg-Birstein. The person who commissioned the piece must therefore have been either Johann Rudolf Graf von Buol-Schauenstein (1763-1834), or someone of a previous generation in the Ysenburg-Birstein family.