So, the famous master of the Rontgen Neyvuda, hereditary cabinetmaker, workshops which supplied furniture to the royal courts of France and Germany, and for some time now and sumptuous imperial court of the new Russia, arrived in Petersburg with the next transport of furniture for the metropolitan elite. This time he was accompanied by a student, a talented young artist who was destined to play a crucial role in the history of Russian art furniture. His name was Henry Gumbs. Prospects for the furniture market "Northern Palmyra" were endless. Living in debt is considered good form, the secular court committed the match vanity, and loans are not counted. For Gambs, like many of his happiest predecessors, it was a good chance to settle in life.
A career as a young man in a while, though, and now, to make two things: money and connections. Regarding the first, Gumbs found an investor in the face of the Austrian merchant Jonathan Ott. On equal footing, they founded a furniture factory in Kalinkina bridge. Factory named 'Ott and Gumbs' But when won the patronage of Henry 'small court' Pavel Petrovich and Maria Feodorovna. Wife of the heir especially fond of mechanics and the decorative arts, said she even took lessons in furniture craftsmanship Gambs, and George Koenig taught her to stone carving, and Leberecht – medal art … Maria Feodorovna was ordered Gumbs Ladies writing desk mahogany and gilt bronze and painted glass, and later played for her master, and a screen-screen, just out of mahogany and bronze.