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Lot Essay
For twenty years, beginning in the mid-1750's, the Roentgen workshop in Neuwied had been producing furniture in the rococo style, mainly for the local German princely courts, and had become well-known for their extremely high quality marquetry work. In 1772, legal ownership was transfered from Abraham (d. 1793) to his son David (1743-1807), who began an ambitious campaign to expand the family business abroad. Roentgen traveled to Paris in 1774 to present a desk to Queen Marie-Antoinette (now in the Marjorie Merriweather Post Collection, Hillwood Museum). Begun in 1770, the desk with its rococo elements would have been considered slightly old-fashioned by the time it reached the French court four years later. This would have been immediately clear to Roentgen, who then spent his time in Paris studying the nascent neoclassical style and by the late 1770's his furniture shows him to have adopted this new style entirely.
In 1779, David returned to Paris and his success was immediate. Both Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, the King's brother the Comte d'Artois, and Catherine the Great's Parisian representative Baron Grimm all ordered furniture. In contrast with his earlier pieces, these are extremely simple, almost severe in design with planes of finely-figured mahogany and high-quality but minimal ormolu mounts. The draped, swagged handles of the present lot have become almost a trademark of his later pieces. When David started selling furniture, however, he did have problems with the rigid Parisian guild restrictions, of which he was not a member. In Neuwied, both Abraham and David Roentgen had long avoided the local guilds. His application to sell furniture directly to his French patrons was refused and in May 1780, at considerable expense, he was forced to join the guild. This obligated him to stamp his furniture D. ROENTGEN and after submitting it to the guild for inspection, they were supposed to add their own JME stamp of approval. It appears he may have circumvented these controls because, excepting the present lot, there is only one other piece stamped D. ROENTGEN (formerly in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection) and neither is stamped JME (see H. Huth, Roentgen Furniture, Abraham and David Roentgen: European Cabinet-makers, London, 1974, pp.18-19 and ill. no.61).
In 1779, David returned to Paris and his success was immediate. Both Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, the King's brother the Comte d'Artois, and Catherine the Great's Parisian representative Baron Grimm all ordered furniture. In contrast with his earlier pieces, these are extremely simple, almost severe in design with planes of finely-figured mahogany and high-quality but minimal ormolu mounts. The draped, swagged handles of the present lot have become almost a trademark of his later pieces. When David started selling furniture, however, he did have problems with the rigid Parisian guild restrictions, of which he was not a member. In Neuwied, both Abraham and David Roentgen had long avoided the local guilds. His application to sell furniture directly to his French patrons was refused and in May 1780, at considerable expense, he was forced to join the guild. This obligated him to stamp his furniture D. ROENTGEN and after submitting it to the guild for inspection, they were supposed to add their own JME stamp of approval. It appears he may have circumvented these controls because, excepting the present lot, there is only one other piece stamped D. ROENTGEN (formerly in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection) and neither is stamped JME (see H. Huth, Roentgen Furniture, Abraham and David Roentgen: European Cabinet-makers, London, 1974, pp.18-19 and ill. no.61).