Neoclassicism - Sweden

The leading Swedish cabinet-maker of the Neoclassical period was Georg Haupt (1741 - 1784), who was born in Stockholm. He was the son of a carpenter from Nuremberg and was apprenticed in Germany until 1763. He then worked in Holland for a time before moving on to Paris, where a piece of non fitted furniture, a desk at the Institut Geographique bears an inscription stating that he made it in 1767. In 1769 he visited London, returning in the same year to Stockholm. In 1770 he submitted his masterpiece to the guild - a splendid writing-table topped with a cartonnier at one end. The table stands on square tapered legs and has a generally severe outline, relieved with restrained marquetry decoration with its main feature a panel depicting books, pens and scattered papers. This became the property of the new King, Gustav III (reigned 1771 - 1792) and is still in the royal Palace, Stockholm. In 1773 - 1774, Haupt made an equally magnificent cabinet for a mineralogical collection for the king to give to the Prince de Conde. It is preserved at the Musee Conde, Chantilly.

The Swedish court continued to adopt, quite consciously, the Louis XVI style but at less august levels, German and English influences were also felt. In the early 1790s Gotlob Iwersson, who had been a follower of Haupt's style, began to adopt a more severe manner with an English flavour to it; his bureaux however, have drawer-fronts with a framed effect achieved with wide beadings, much more pronounced than the English style of cock-beading. The feet on his carcase pieces are turned and tapered and look too delicate for the weight they have to support.

Oval chair-backs, certainly, of the late 1790s are reminiscent of the Hepplewhite style, but a characteristic Swedish feature, a transverse channel cut into the seat rails, is seen on many of them. The same detail is found on various other items of handmade furniture. Chairs made in Stockholm after 1765 were required by the guild to bear a stamped label but this has survived on comparatively few examples.