97.00cm wide   169.00cm high   25.00cm deep (38.19 inches wide  66.54 inches high  9.84 inches deep)

Attribution: The extraordinary quality and outstandingly stylish design of this pair of cabinets has led to speculation that they could have come from somewhere as elevated as even Carlton House or The Royal Pavilion in Brighton. At the sale of the contents of Hadspen House, Castle Cary, Somerset (Sotheby’s on the premises 29-31 May 1996), the home of the Hobhouse Family, a pair of cabinets with the original bill and accompanying correspondence between Heinrich Ludwig Goertz and his client Wesley Oldham were offered. Although in Mahogany the cabinets had identical brass galleries to this pair and the doors also featured brass grilles and silks. Again these were also very high quality and in an exceptionably fashionable style. The bill was dated April 19th. 1824 and that also helps to date the above pair of Secretaire cabinets to this period. If anything the above have a slightly earlier feel to them though both pairs featured internal fittings and both pairs also featured rounded front corners.

Heinrich Ludwig Goertz was born in Hanover but emigrated to England around 1800 where he quickly established himself as a leading cabinetmaker and upholsterer employed by the Royal Family for over a quarter of a century. By 1814 he had been appointed Upholsterer to Queen Charlotte at Frogmore House and he subsequently held the posts of Upholsterer in Ordinary to King George IV and Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer in Ordinary to King William IV. Together with his son who joined him prior to 1837, Goertz opened showrooms in Windsor and the firm went on to supply furniture and other goods both to Queen Victoria and her Mother, The Duchess of Kent. Edward Joy has the firm working for the Royal Family throughout the 19th Century.
Over the years Goertz was involved in the furnishing and decoration of Windsor Castle, Cumberland Lodge and The Cottage as well as The King’s Lodge, Hampton Court, Brighton Pavilion, Carlton House and Buckingham Palace. In 1824, the year the Oldham Cabinets were produced, Goertz was also at work at both Carlton House and the Pavilion where among other items he supplied “two rosewood cylinder bookstands” and a japanned “hyacinth stand” fashioned in imitation of bamboo with blue and white china.

Examples of Goertz’s work outside of the Royal Circle are extremely rare. The size of the Oldham invoice (£50-6/-0d) and the outstanding nature of these pieces suggest that he was a patron of considerable wealth. The accompanying letter proves the idiosyncracies of Goertz’s English as well as the strong personal relationship he appears to have cultivated with his clients.

His German background would have struck a sympathetic chord with that of the Hanoverian Monarchs.

A superb quality and extremely rare PAIR of Regency Period Rosewood and Gilt Brass Mounted Secretaire Bookstands attributed to Heinrich Ludwig Goertz. These are surmounted by three galleried shelves supported by elaborate gilt brass turnings and with elaborate gilt brass gallery to the top, the fall fronts opening to reveal fitted interiors above cupboard doors fitted with silks and gilt brass grilles, the whole raised on intricately chased gilt brass stylised acanthus leaf feet. Ca. 1810