With its elaborate mechanism designed to accomodate a whole spectrum of domestic activities, this table shows Roentgen at his cleverest. It belongs to a small group of identically fitted examples from 1785-1790 which differ slightly in their exterior decoration: one in the Schloss Ludwigsburg; one in the collection of the Dukes of Saxe Coburg Gotha in Coburg; one from the collection of the Duchess Amalia of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach in the Wittumspalais, Weimar; and an example on the German art market with a 19th century French royal inventory marque au feu (D. Fabian, Roentgen Möbel aus Neuwied, 1986, pp. 68-72, figs. 104-108 and 117-120). Sylistically, this table resembles most closely the Coburg example. However, it shares the mechanical inventiveness and top quality construction and materials characteristic of Roentgen's best work. Other examples have been sold at Sotheby's Monaco, 23 June 1985, lot 753 and Sotheby's New York, 27 November 1984, lot 238.