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Lot Essay
David Roentgen (1843-1807), maître 1780, Ebèniste-mécanicien to Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.
The gilt-bronze mounts possibly supplied by the Parisian maître-doreur François Rémond (c.1747-1812); the table possibly supplied via Roentgen’s Parisian agent, Jean-Gottlieb Frost (1746-1814), maître in 1785.
This splendid table à écrire, along with the following three lots (88-90), conceived in the antique manner popularised by Louis XVI and the court of Versailles, embodies the distinctive strict neoclassical form and decoration and the technical excellence that were characteristic of the superb objects produced by the Roentgen workshop during the 1780s.
David Roentgen trained under his father, Abraham, the most adept German cabinet-maker of his generation. Abraham’s reputation for excellence was unsurpassed but his influence rarely stretched further than the borders of his own region. David, however, recognised the opportunities that lay beyond and seized them, securing introductions to, and patronage from, the most significant Royal courts of continental Europe including that of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, Frederick the Great and Catherine the Great.
The bold design, excellent craftsmanship, superb timber, distinctive brass inlay and milleraies, disc, and beaded ormolu-mounts are all recognisable characteristics of the younger Roentgen’s distinctive oeuvre and all appear on various documented Roentgen pieces, such as the closely related oval table acquired circa 1785 by William Cavendish, Duke of Devonshire (d. 1811) (Koeppe, op. cit., p. 170, no. 48). This table also incorporates another very distinctive mechanical ‘Roentgen’ feature – removable legs. This elegant solution, typical of the ingenuity for which both Roentgens were so well known, was devised and employed regularly by David to ease the problem of transportation of such pieces across vast distances from Neuwied. A related table, with the same detachable legs, featured in the 2012 exhibition of the Roentgens work at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (ibid., p. 164, no. 45). A closely related table à écrire was sold Christie’s London, 1 December 2005, lot 184 (£90,000); two further closely related oval tables from the collections of the Princes Reuss were sold, Christie’s house sale, Gera, 26-27 May 1998, day one, lots 225 & 226 (672,000 DM and 330,000 DM respectively).
David had visited Paris in 1774 where he was exposed to the new neoclassical style then evolving from the gôut grec of the preceding decade. This would have an immense impact on the forms and decoration of the works he produced. It is thought that his association with the ciseleur-doreur François Rémond dates to this visit. Rémond supplied much ormolu to the Roentgen workshop in the ensuing years, including some of the spectacular mounts for the furniture Roentgen supplied to Catherine the Great, and may well have supplied mounts for this very table and/or any of the three following lots. David recognised that Paris was not only a source of inspiration but also a fertile market for his distinctive products. In 1779 he was awarded the titles of Ebèniste-mécanicien to Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette (dual titles, separately awarded, for both King and Queen), to whom he supplied spectacular mechanical furniture; the only previous holder having been great ébéniste François Oeben. It was that year that he would secure the sale of his magnificent secretary cabinet to the French king, which would remain the most expensive piece of furniture ever purchased by the French royal household (ibid., pp. 33 & 140). Roentgen was finally elected maître in 1780, allowing him to establish his own Parisian operation and he appointed Jean-Gottlieb Frost as his Parisian representative. This allowed him to capitalise on the publicity generated by the sale of the royal secretary and gain direct access to the fertile markets emanating from the French court. This table is typical of the furniture supplied both via Frost and from Neuwied directly, but it is also conceivable that it could have been produced in Paris under Frost to Roentgen's designs. In 1785 Roentgen withdrew from Paris and Frost announced that he had acquired Roentgen’s Paris business, however, a strong link with Neuwied was apparently maintained, and it is probable Frost continued to import significant amounts of stock from Neuwied before ceasing to trade in 1789.
In 1784 Roentgen travelled to Russia and was admitted at the Court of Czarina Catherine II, on the recommendation of Friedrich Melchior, Baron von Grimm, who had described the entrepreneurial cabinet-maker to the Empress in glowing terms. This introduction would not only prompt the production of some of Roentgens most spectacular furniture, much of which survives in the Russian state collections, but also would introduce a style of cabinet-making to Russia which was so widely adopted that it is now one of the most recognisable facets in the history Russian decorative arts.
Following Roentgen’s retirement circa 1790, he sent out his most talented pupils to set up independent workshops attendant on various European important courts: in 1793 Johann David Hacker was dispatched to serve the Prussian court in Berlin; in 1793, Johannes Klinkerfuss departed for Stuttgart and in 1795 Heinrich Gambs moved to St. Petersburg. These highly skilled craftsmen were just a few of the many who emerged from the Neuwied workshops and would continue to produce exemplary furniture commensurate with their training and to disseminate the designs and workshop practices of the premier German cabinet-makers into the 19th century (Fabian, op. cit., 1996, p. 266).
The gilt-bronze mounts possibly supplied by the Parisian maître-doreur François Rémond (c.1747-1812); the table possibly supplied via Roentgen’s Parisian agent, Jean-Gottlieb Frost (1746-1814), maître in 1785.
This splendid table à écrire, along with the following three lots (88-90), conceived in the antique manner popularised by Louis XVI and the court of Versailles, embodies the distinctive strict neoclassical form and decoration and the technical excellence that were characteristic of the superb objects produced by the Roentgen workshop during the 1780s.
David Roentgen trained under his father, Abraham, the most adept German cabinet-maker of his generation. Abraham’s reputation for excellence was unsurpassed but his influence rarely stretched further than the borders of his own region. David, however, recognised the opportunities that lay beyond and seized them, securing introductions to, and patronage from, the most significant Royal courts of continental Europe including that of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, Frederick the Great and Catherine the Great.
The bold design, excellent craftsmanship, superb timber, distinctive brass inlay and milleraies, disc, and beaded ormolu-mounts are all recognisable characteristics of the younger Roentgen’s distinctive oeuvre and all appear on various documented Roentgen pieces, such as the closely related oval table acquired circa 1785 by William Cavendish, Duke of Devonshire (d. 1811) (Koeppe, op. cit., p. 170, no. 48). This table also incorporates another very distinctive mechanical ‘Roentgen’ feature – removable legs. This elegant solution, typical of the ingenuity for which both Roentgens were so well known, was devised and employed regularly by David to ease the problem of transportation of such pieces across vast distances from Neuwied. A related table, with the same detachable legs, featured in the 2012 exhibition of the Roentgens work at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (ibid., p. 164, no. 45). A closely related table à écrire was sold Christie’s London, 1 December 2005, lot 184 (£90,000); two further closely related oval tables from the collections of the Princes Reuss were sold, Christie’s house sale, Gera, 26-27 May 1998, day one, lots 225 & 226 (672,000 DM and 330,000 DM respectively).
David had visited Paris in 1774 where he was exposed to the new neoclassical style then evolving from the gôut grec of the preceding decade. This would have an immense impact on the forms and decoration of the works he produced. It is thought that his association with the ciseleur-doreur François Rémond dates to this visit. Rémond supplied much ormolu to the Roentgen workshop in the ensuing years, including some of the spectacular mounts for the furniture Roentgen supplied to Catherine the Great, and may well have supplied mounts for this very table and/or any of the three following lots. David recognised that Paris was not only a source of inspiration but also a fertile market for his distinctive products. In 1779 he was awarded the titles of Ebèniste-mécanicien to Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette (dual titles, separately awarded, for both King and Queen), to whom he supplied spectacular mechanical furniture; the only previous holder having been great ébéniste François Oeben. It was that year that he would secure the sale of his magnificent secretary cabinet to the French king, which would remain the most expensive piece of furniture ever purchased by the French royal household (ibid., pp. 33 & 140). Roentgen was finally elected maître in 1780, allowing him to establish his own Parisian operation and he appointed Jean-Gottlieb Frost as his Parisian representative. This allowed him to capitalise on the publicity generated by the sale of the royal secretary and gain direct access to the fertile markets emanating from the French court. This table is typical of the furniture supplied both via Frost and from Neuwied directly, but it is also conceivable that it could have been produced in Paris under Frost to Roentgen's designs. In 1785 Roentgen withdrew from Paris and Frost announced that he had acquired Roentgen’s Paris business, however, a strong link with Neuwied was apparently maintained, and it is probable Frost continued to import significant amounts of stock from Neuwied before ceasing to trade in 1789.
In 1784 Roentgen travelled to Russia and was admitted at the Court of Czarina Catherine II, on the recommendation of Friedrich Melchior, Baron von Grimm, who had described the entrepreneurial cabinet-maker to the Empress in glowing terms. This introduction would not only prompt the production of some of Roentgens most spectacular furniture, much of which survives in the Russian state collections, but also would introduce a style of cabinet-making to Russia which was so widely adopted that it is now one of the most recognisable facets in the history Russian decorative arts.
Following Roentgen’s retirement circa 1790, he sent out his most talented pupils to set up independent workshops attendant on various European important courts: in 1793 Johann David Hacker was dispatched to serve the Prussian court in Berlin; in 1793, Johannes Klinkerfuss departed for Stuttgart and in 1795 Heinrich Gambs moved to St. Petersburg. These highly skilled craftsmen were just a few of the many who emerged from the Neuwied workshops and would continue to produce exemplary furniture commensurate with their training and to disseminate the designs and workshop practices of the premier German cabinet-makers into the 19th century (Fabian, op. cit., 1996, p. 266).