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Lot Essay
David Hacker was recorded in Roentgen's Neuwied workshop in 1779 as 'from Mecklenburg'. Shortly afterwards in 1791 when Roentgen was in the process of strategically placing a hand-picked group of his men in cities throughout Europe, Roentgen successfully petitioned the Prussian administration to grant Hacker permission to establish a workshop in Berlin where he was registered through 1802. Ever the astute businessman, Roentgen of course maintained chief financial control of each of his subsidiary workshops, including Hacker's in Berlin. During his tenure in Berlin, Hacker supplied a free-standing bureau plat to the King Friedrich Wilhelm III (d.1797) for 450 thaler. A year later in 1795, he supplied a bureau à la cylindre for 480 thaler along with a number of commodes to the newly constructed Marmor Palace in Potsdam (built 1786-91).
A number of innovations can be attributed to Hacker, differentiating his oeuvre from that of the rest of the Neuwied workshop. One of the more characteristic practices of Hacker was his integration of Wedgwood or Jasparware plaques into the surfaces of his commodes, as seen in both the present commode and in another in the Neues Palace, Potsdam (illustrated in H. Kreisel, Die Kunst des deutschen Möbels, Munich, 1973, vol. 3, fig. 273). His use of particularly heavy marble tops for commodes, is seen in one in the Staatliche Vervaltung der Schlösser und Gärten, Potsdam (illustrated in H. Huth, Roentgen Furniture, New York, 1974, fig. no. 160), and another attributed to Hacker with that offered from the Estate of Marie Worms, Christie's New York, 21 May 1997, lot 624.
A number of innovations can be attributed to Hacker, differentiating his oeuvre from that of the rest of the Neuwied workshop. One of the more characteristic practices of Hacker was his integration of Wedgwood or Jasparware plaques into the surfaces of his commodes, as seen in both the present commode and in another in the Neues Palace, Potsdam (illustrated in H. Kreisel, Die Kunst des deutschen Möbels, Munich, 1973, vol. 3, fig. 273). His use of particularly heavy marble tops for commodes, is seen in one in the Staatliche Vervaltung der Schlösser und Gärten, Potsdam (illustrated in H. Huth, Roentgen Furniture, New York, 1974, fig. no. 160), and another attributed to Hacker with that offered from the Estate of Marie Worms, Christie's New York, 21 May 1997, lot 624.