Through the output of the Vogel factory a simpler version of the Empire style spread widely in Hungary.

Hungarian joiners used indigenous woods instead of expensive foreign ones, substituting - for example - yew for mahogany. Of the yew-wood furniture in our exhibition, this needlework table stands out by virtue of its unusual, spherical, shape. Its execution required technical bravura of a high level.

The table rests on a base embellished with three lion's heads. Forming a spherical shape when closed and supplied with a lock, it is girded round by the Signs of the Zodiac. When opened, however, it displays different compartments that can be lifted out. An example is the storage part resembling a small theatre-stage.

According to the present state of our knowledge, it was in Hungary that this type of needlework table first appeared. Gábor Kornis (1777-1840), a cabinetmaker in Debrecen, submitted a spherical needlework table to the Debrecen cabinetmakers' guild as his masterwork (the sketches are kept in Debrecen's Déry Museum). However, one year later George Remington patented a spherical-shaped writing desk in England. In Austria, too, there are works made between 1815 and 1825 that are similar to this needlework table.

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