The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Table resembling a globe, with a spherical, dark brown with orange undertones top supported by a curving, black-legged tripod. A light brown band runs horizontally around the globe's center with a keyhole in the middle and black, stylized floral patterns across it. Where the tripod meets the globe is marked with faces with light brown wood hair and pointed ears, and black ebony wood faces. The tripod ends in claws on a triangular base.

Globe Work Table (Globustisch)

c. 1810–15

Austria, Vienna

Burl walnut veneer, mahogany, ebony, satinwood, gilt wood, painted wood; mirrored glass; metal
Overall: 90.2 x 45.5 cm (35 1/2 x 17 15/16 in.)
Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift 2020.199
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

The top half of the globe rotates upward to reveal hidden compartments for sewing tools, threads, and unfinished fabric pieces.

Description

Work tables resembling globes were the usual form for a lady's sewing or writing table around 1800 in Austria. Combining moving parts, secret compartments, and highly finished decoration, these tables were also a way for the cabinetmaker to show off his skill. The tripod supports and temple-like architectural quality of both the exterior and interior decoration reflect the fashionable taste for neoclassical style, or Biedermeier as it was called in Austria, where Vienna was the center of such elaborate furniture production.
  • by 2004
    Private Collection, Switzerland, sold to Bernd Goeckler Antiques
    by 2004
    (Bernd Goeckler Antiques, Inc., New York, NY, sold to Hiedemann Fine Art)
    December 2004
    (Hiedemann Fine Art, Richmond, VA, sold to Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley)
    2004–2020
    Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley, Cleveland, OH
    2020
    Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley, Cleveland, OH, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2020–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Ducamp, Emmanuel. "Austrian and French Decorative Arts." In The Keithley Collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art, edited by Heather Lemonedes Brown, 46-49, 60-61,150-151,184-185. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2022. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 46-49; Mentioned: p. 254
  • Impressionism to Modernism: The Keithley Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 11, 2022-January 8, 2023).
    No exhibition history
  • {{cite web|title=Globe Work Table (Globustisch)|url=false|author=|year=c. 1810–15|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2020.199