209. LORENTZ NORDIN (court shatullmaker in Stockholm 1743, office master 1752-1773), chest of drawers, high-class Stockholm work in early Rococo, painted signature N:2 L:N:, veneered with amaranth, jacaranda and mahogany, burnt-gilt fittings in bronze.

Curved shape, co-composed front with inlaid friezes and fields in the form of a cartouche, high quality fittings in the form of rocailles and plant ornamentation, pull handles in naturalistic form, front sinks of drawers covered, curved side pieces with cartouches, legs with herringbone laying, corners with brass bands and closing foot fittings, disc of disc red limestone with rounded edge, height 84, 134 x 64 cm

PROVENANCE: Bureau manager Karl Erik Landström (1866-1930), Stockholm
then inherited within the family

LITERATURE: AB H. Bukowskis Konsthandel, Julauktionen, Nos. 248, 1924, no 97, compare three-row chest of drawers with inlaid cartouche by Lorentz Nordin
Marshall Lagerquist: Rococo furniture, Stockholm 1949, plan IX-XI, compare chest of drawers with frame by Lorentz Nordin and inlays by Carl Petter Dahlström 1755
Svenskt Möbellexikon, band 2, Malmö 1961, plansch 3 under Lorentz Nordin, compare intarsia cartouche on dresser in Röhsska kunstslöjdmuseet in Gothenburg

At first glance, the agency gives the appearance of being of French manufacture, through its international design language, it is unusual for Swedish furniture by its two-tier structure. This type of storage furniture did not have much impact in Sweden, despite the fact that the model was popular on the continent. Unlike French furniture, whose blind wood consists exclusively of oak, the dresser has essential elements of pine and alder, two types of wood that are considered typical of Swedish furniture production during the 18th century.

On closer analysis of materials, technical details and fittings, a more nuanced picture emerges of a high quality work done by a Swedish ebenist with good knowledge of the French craftsmanship in the middle of the 18th century. By the completion of Stockholm Castle, the court superintendent Carl Hårleman and the chief superintendent Carl Gustaf Tessin had engaged French artists and craftsmen to work on the interior of the new royal palace. The castle building project became, in many respects, crucial for the emergence of a new indigenous generation of artisans and artists. Several of the Swedish Ebenist sisters went abroad, especially to Paris, which at the time was the main source of inspiration for many of the building projects carried out during the Rococo period. Castle carpenter Johan Wolff, for example, travelled with Hårleman in 1745 to train in the modern art of furniture. Previously Samuel Pasch and Lorentz Nordin had simultaneously undertaken their journeyman trek to Paris, Pasch found himself for a period with his compatriot Lars Lorentz, who was active as a freemason in Paris in the 1730s. Back in Stockholm, Nordin came to make bureau frames for another Paris-educated Swede, Carl Petter Dahlström, whose two-lobed intarsia dressers for Crown Prince Gustav (III) were entirely marked by the works of the Paris masters.

Lorentz Nordin (1708-1786) born in Västmanland, was apprenticed in 1726 to Eric Örn, master carpenter in Stockholm. Nordin was one of the first Swedish missionaries in Paris. In 1743, he returned to Sweden after more than ten years abroad, and was immediately admitted as a defence charl at court (craftsman in individual service and without master's letters). When Nordin returned home, it was high time to decorate Stockholm Castle with furniture of the latest French cut and Chief Superintendent Carl Hårleman was in dire need of skilled carpenters. In 1743 Nordin was authorized as Queen Lovisa Ulrika's schatullmaker and also became master of the carpenter's office without a master piece. In the 1740s Nordin resided at Norrtullsgatan, but moved at the beginning of the 1750s to the house Slottsbacken 8.

Nordin's workshop was of considerable size with its largest capacity between the years 1754-1767. Among his most famous pieces of furniture should be mentioned; eight cabinets that would house Crown Princess Lovisa Ulrika's coin and medal collection (today in Kungl. The Mint Cabinet), two cabinets made for Queen Lovisa Ulrika's naturaliekabinet at Drottningholm. Nordin's production has been varied; chests of drawers, secretaries, various kinds of tables and shatull, but also seating furniture has been made in his workshop. Over the course of a decade, Nordin's workshop came to occupy one of the leading roles among Stockholm's manufacturers of finer veneer furniture.

Torsten Sylvén writes: “A characteristic feature of Nordin's furniture is that he primarily veneered large fields with whole pieces of veneer on the curved rococo surfaces. It is technically difficult to apply relatively thick and rigid veneer pieces to concave and convex substrates.“The auction agency is an excellent example of this craftsmanship.