Christopher Tietze
A Swedish Rococo commode by Christopher Tietze (master in Stockholm 1764-1791).
Veneered with rosewood and fruit tree. Mounts of gilded brass. Top of reddish limestone. Three drawers. Marked on the back "C. TIETZE". Marked with Stockholm Joiner's stamp in top drawer. Marked under limestone top in the carcass "C TIETZE 8". Width 73.5, depth 44, height 78.5 cm. Key included.
Veneer damages, one bigger damage of carcass on left side. Partly with repalcements of back and back legs. Partly worming. Wear. Dry cracks, also in drawers. Keys included.
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Christopher Tietze, master in Stockholm 1764-1791. Like so many other craftsmen in Sweden during the 1600s and 1700s, he was born in Germany. Probably he came as a journeyman with the guild brother Christian Willkom from Saxony in 1753. They were initially journeymen in Stockholm in the workshop of Lorentz Nordin, who was one of Sweden's foremost rococo joiner. Journeyman signatures of Tietze and Willkom on furniture signed by Lorentz Nordin shows what an important role these two journeymen had in Nordin's workshop. The late restorer Torsten Sylvén writes in his book Masters’ furnitures "Many of Tietze commodes are strongly influenced by Nordin’s furniture in shapes and details. Tietze had since his learning years in Saxony solid professional skills and he performed high quality furniture." Tietze's signatures also appears on the sofas. He could also mark his commodes "C Tietze 8 or CT8". Numbers between 1-8 has been found on his commodes. What these numbers mean is unknown, but possibly it was a system for combining standardized measures of stone slabs which would be combined with the right size of the commode.