Important Winter Sale Presents A Swedish Baroque Royal Writing Desk

A Swedish Baroque Royal Writing Desk – A Unique Furniture in Every Sense of the Word

In 1683, the year in which the desk in the auction was commissioned from “His Royal Majesty’s Cabinetmaker” Hindrich van Hachten, renovation works were underway in the Dowager Queen’s apartments in Stockholm’s old castle, Tre Kronor. This is the first time van Hachten’s name appears in Sweden, and he had likely been summoned from Germany to meet the demand for a skilled craftsman of veneered furniture. The Queen Dowager followed Continental fashions closely, and, as Stina Odlinder Haubo points out in her text, the design of the desk must be regarded as being of the very latest style when it was delivered to her apartments.

As Hedvig Eleonora possessed her own income—separate from the court’s, by way of her livgeding, consisting of revenues from a number of counties that financed her household—it was important that her property be clearly marked. The distinct inscriptions, HERS (Hedvig Eleonora Regina Sueciae), STOCK HOLM, and 1683, make the desk not only the oldest Swedish-made piece of furniture that can with certainty be attributed to a named craftsman; it is also the only known piece of furniture—besides Queen Christina’s silver throne—to have stood in the Tre Kronor Castle prior to the fire of 1697.