Around 1800. HOFFMANN, Friedrich Gottlob (1741 - 1806)

Mahogany or walnut veneered and burl veneered, single-ply oak, pear? marked. Approx. 85 x 90 x 44 cm (unfolded Ø approx. 89.5 cm).

Rare transforming table "No.5": Description from the 1789 goods catalog "[...] In a household, the greatest possible use, the most precise saving of space, the greatest perfection is indisputable. [...] is the table folded and closed in a half circle, as it stands on three feet in a room. If you pull out the fourth leg and open the top leaf, you have a completely round game table with a queen and chess board. If you open the second hand, you have a table for playing cards. Finally, if you open the third hand, you have a desk covered with green cloth with a dinette barrel and sandbox. If one lifts a cover attached here, this section of the table becomes a toilet.". Old restored with additions, veneer scratched and dry cracked.

The Leipzig Electoral Saxon court cabinetmaker Friedrich Gottlob Hoffmann was considered one of the most important furniture makers of early classicism in Germany alongside Abraham and David Roentgen; his "multifunctional furniture" is characterized by astonishing versatility in design and material. This individual design allowed for different price categories that met the different needs of customers from the bourgeoisie and nobility. In 1789, he published the world's first illustrated "goods catalog", which ensured the distribution of his furniture and a wide range of buyers.

Literature : Sulzbacher / Atzig (2014), p. 124ff, cf. fig. 8 p. 127.

Dispatch on request.