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Lot Essay
The architectural form, raised panel frieze, fluted angles as well as the quality of construction on this small desk exemplify the vocabulary employed by David Roentgen in the late 18th Century. In contrast with his earlier pieces, these pieces are extremely simple, almost severe in design with planes of finely-figured mahogany and high-quality but minimal ormolu mounts. The current example is furthermore virtually identical to a table by Roentgen in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, and illustrated in R. Baarsen, German Furniture, Amsterdam, 1998, p.86.
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.
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 for extremely few known examples virtually most of his pieces are unstamped. (see H. Huth, Roentgen Furniture, Abraham and David Roentgen: European Cabinet-makers, London, 1974, pp.18-19 and ill. no.61).
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.
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 for extremely few known examples virtually most of his pieces are unstamped. (see H. Huth, Roentgen Furniture, Abraham and David Roentgen: European Cabinet-makers, London, 1974, pp.18-19 and ill. no.61).