ATTRIBUTED TO EDWIN OPPLER (1831-1880) OAK ARMCHAIR, CIRCA 1860 with later upholstered back, seat and arm pads, with a pierced and carved crest centred by the initial 'G', inscribed with the mottos 'ERNST IST DAS LEBEN' and 'HIETER DIE KUNST' (58.5cm wide, 98cm high, 56cm deep) Provenance: Possibly Georg V (1819–78) Footnote: Note: The letter ‘G’ in the shield on the chair’s top rail may indicate its provenance. Georg V was the son of Ernst August I. In 1857 he commissioned Conrad Wilhelm Hase to build the gothic Schloss Marienburg, near Hildesheim, as a gift for his wife Queen Marie. In 1864, Hase was succeeded by his pupil Edwin Oppler. Oppler also designed ‘modern gothic’ chairs for Marienburg and these show the influence of Georg Gottlob Ungewitter. The projecting leaf carving on the present lot can be compared to that on a bookcase for Marienburg, and an unpublished desk chair, photographed at Schloss Marienburg, has features in common with the present example. The quotation ‘Ernst ist das Leben / Heiter die Kunst’ (life is serious, art is cheerful) is from Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805), Wallenstein, 1800.