THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN
AN AMARANTH AND MARQUETRY BUREAU DE DAME by Abraham and David Roentgen, of serpentine bombé outline with sloping flap inlaid with delicately defined clusters of flowers linked by scrolls with perching birds, crossbanded with fruitwood, the kingwood interior with six cedar-lined drawers framing a central tambour shutter composed of false book-spines, the frieze with a long serpentine drawer above the central arched kneehole flanked each side by a walnut-framed drawer dividing in the middle and enclosing further small kingwood drawers, inlaid with delicate scrolls and flower clusters, on cabriole legs mounted with pierced ormolu angles cast with strapwork ending in hoof feet headed by ormolu collars, circa 1765-1770

Details
AN AMARANTH AND MARQUETRY BUREAU DE DAME by Abraham and David Roentgen, of serpentine bombé outline with sloping flap inlaid with delicately defined clusters of flowers linked by scrolls with perching birds, crossbanded with fruitwood, the kingwood interior with six cedar-lined drawers framing a central tambour shutter composed of false book-spines, the frieze with a long serpentine drawer above the central arched kneehole flanked each side by a walnut-framed drawer dividing in the middle and enclosing further small kingwood drawers, inlaid with delicate scrolls and flower clusters, on cabriole legs mounted with pierced ormolu angles cast with strapwork ending in hoof feet headed by ormolu collars, circa 1765-1770
44in. (112cm.) wide; 40in. (102cm.) high; 23in. (58.5cm.) deep
Provenance
Schloss Hausenstamm
Anonymous sale, Christie's London, 4 December 1980, lot 70 (The Property of a Nobleman)
Literature
Heinrich Kreisel, Möbel von Abraham Roentgen, Darmstadt, 1953, figs. 16-18
Josef Maria Greber, Abraham und David Roentgen, Möbel für Europa, Starnberg, 1980, vol. 1, p.98 and vol. 2, fig. 232

Lot Essay

Greber (loc.cit.) illustrates a group of similar bureaux including this piece, dating from the late 1760's and varying only in small details. A particularly close parallel is in Schloss Favorite bei Rastatt (fig. 226), which has the same unusual tambour shutter composed of book-spines. Like this bureau, all the bureaux illustrated by Greber have the same unusual constructional features adopted by Roentgen - the legs are made as a totally separate element instead of being an extension of the angles in the framework of the carcase; the resulting joints are disguised by the mounts. This device may have necessitated the pronounced bombé outline of the bureau and the high hipped profile of the legs


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