Rococo commode from the 18th century in the style of Mathias Ortmann around 1740

Ortmann furniture is of exceptional quality and represents the best in the Rococo field in Northern Europe. What really sets Ortmann apart from the leading modern furniture manufacturers is his habit of signing his works. Thus, Ortmann's name became immortal, and his work became a much-sought after, but rarely reported collector's item.
Collector's Guarantee

Mathias Ortmann (around 1700-1757) was born in Sweden as a son of a carpenter. The family moved to Copenhagen to open a workshop in Nyhavn, and Mathias Ortmann became a student at a young age in the rapidly growing workshop of his father, who recognized brother Frederik IV, Prince Carl, as a client of his palace in Charlottenborg. Mathias's mother continued to operate after his father died in 1723, and two years later Ortmann passed his exams and became a citizen in 1727. As a furniture maker.

During his studies as an apprentice throughout Europe, mainly in France, Ludwig XV, Ortmann learned the benefits of autographing his furniture. Since then, his label has become a collector's guarantee for the real Ortmann. But not all of Ortmann's works actually bear his valuable signature, because he only used it between 1745 and 1757, and some of his productions date from that period. There are also many elements from this era that can almost certainly be attributed to Ortmann because of their recognizable style.
Main feature

The main feature of Ortmann's style when it comes to dressers is the inspiration derived from his trip to France, but it's not entirely French. Some purely local aspects only occur in Schleswig-Holstein and Denmark. Where French furniture was often made using exotic wood, Ortmann mainly used walnut imported from Italy.

Another distinctive feature is its corner ornaments made of gold-plated lead. Unlike most furniture manufacturers at the time, who made their corner decorations from gilded wood sculptures or - in the French style - gilded bronze fittings, Ortmann was happy to carve out his pedestals and used gilded brass castings for keys and door handles.

Early Ortmann chests had straight sides, but later he developed his bomb-shaped model with a gilded, carved pedestal and legs.

The typical Ortmann look also includes the gilded edges of the drawer and the gilded gypsum frieze with delicate slats under the gilded overhang. This gold bracelet is placed just below the marble top that covers the label. A frieze of this kind was not a feature of French dressers, but it has origin from Northern Europe.