Fall front secretary desk, Russian Rococo

107 x 92 x 57 cm

garnished with carved rocailles, flowers und foliage; drop leaf, behind that small drawers and compartments made of walnut, cabriole legs

Provenance: Originates from the so-called "Russian Estate" at Horsens. In 1780 Queen Juliane Marie (born Princess of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel) (1729-1795), the second wife of Frederik V invited four Russian aristocrats namely Katharina (1741-1807), Elisabeth (1743/1744-1782), Peter (1745-1798) und Alexej (1746-1787) to stay in Denmark. The young Grand Princes and Princesses were the children of her brother and had been imprisoned at that point in Cholmogory close to Archangelsk in Russia for 35 years. The reason for their imprisionment was the simple fact that Tsarina Elisabeth, daughter of Tsar Peter the Great, as well as her successor Tsarina Katharina the Great, regarded them as a danger to their reign after having illegally dethroned their elder brother Tsar Ivan VI in 1741.
At Horsens the exiled aristocrats lived on a large estate with 46 servants. Later known as "Palais in Horsens" and even later as ’Jørgensens Hotel’.
Grand Princess Katharina, who outlived her siblings, died in 1807 and was buried in the Cloister of Horsens. After her death the property of the four was sold and the secretary desk ended up not far away at Rathlousdal Manor, where it was acquired by Poul Claudius Nielsen (1893-1943). His widow married consul Henry V. Boye (1896-1974) in whose family the beautiful piece of furniture stayed until recently.