An early cylinder bureau by David Roentgen
Mahogany veneer on solid mahogany, oak, pine, cherry, ormolu and brass mountings, iron and brass locks. Writing desk designed to stand against a wall on serpentine supports. The cylinder top opens when the writing surface is pulled out to reveal a central compartment framed by four drawers in two rows. The apron with five drawers in two rows surrounding a central knee hole. The supports of square section screw-mounted to the piece at knee height. H 111, W 115, D 66 cm.
Neuwied, mid-1770s.
This desk belongs to a group of identical pieces of furniture that are counted among David Roentgen's early works. The first verifiable desk with a cylinder mechanism is dated 1773. It was probably made for Electress Maria Anna and is currently in the Munich Residenz. Two other desks from the Residenz with higher cylinders like this one date from 1773 to 1775. The form of the gallery surmount, the sweep of the legs, and the distribution of the drawers did not change during the initial years of production. It was not until the 1780s that David Roentgen first moved towards his angular, classicist style.
This cylinder bureau originally belonged to a pair that Frank C. Möller presented at the Maastricht Art Fair in 2014. The working parts of both bureaux are marked either with number 1 or number 2, mostly in pencil. The furniture presented here has, among other things and most easily traceable annotation, a 1 on the back of all drawers. This order ensured that the elements of the pairs of furniture produced at the same time were not interchanged.
Provenance
Frank C. Möller, Hamburg.
Westphalian ownership.
Literature
The parallel piece (the second of the original pair) sold by Villa Grisebach Orangerie on 2nd June 2014, lot 340.
Cf. Fabian, Abraham und David Roentgen. Das noch aufgefundene Gesamtwerk ihrer Möbel- und Uhrenkunst in Verbindung mit der Uhrmacherfamilie Kinzing in Neuwied. Leben und Werk, Verzeichnis der Werke, Quellen, Bad Neustadt 1996, no. 222, the same form and same gallery rim from 1775.
Exhibitions
Exhibited in Maastricht TEFAF March 2014.