Viennese Biedermeier secretary
Bourgeois elegance: smooth light surfaces of cherry or pear and an architectural form.
In Vienna after the Napoleonic Wars the middle class wanted comfortable, well-made furniture without courtly splendour. Josef Danhauser ran a large furniture factory that spread the style. Secretaries of this kind are in the Hofmobiliendepot and the MAK in Vienna.
Materials: Cherry, pear or walnut veneer, ebonised details
Manufacture: Book-matched veneer mirroring the grain; small drawers behind a fall-front writing flap.
The grain of the veneer mirrored at the centre – the pattern is the decoration.
Black columns or mouldings against the light wood, and hardly any mounts.