A chest of drawers by David Roentgen
Mahogany veneer on oak and solid mahogany (front) corpus, ormolu and brass mountings. Three-drawered corpus resting on tapering supports of square section. The top with horizontal veneer surrounded by a broad, angular band of brass stringing. With fine, continuous vertical veneers to the front and sides. The drawer fronts with bands of beading. The narrow upper drawer with a milleraie escutcheon, two rosette mountings and wreath-shaped drawer pulls. The two lower drawers with pulls formed as bundles of drapery. The long, narrow apron formed as two flat acanthus leaves flanking a central rosette. The angles designed as fluted pilasters inlaid with brass below Neoclassical tendril motifs within elliptical reserves. The fronts and outer faces of the front legs and the outer faces of the back legs with horizontal milleraie appliques. The panelled back of the piece with two (presumably original) metal bars to prevent shrinkage. H 83.5, W 112.5, D 57 cm.
Neuwied, around 1780 – 85.
Similar chests of this type can be found in the following collections:
- Wied palace, princes of Wied.
- Former estate of Otto Carl Friedrich von Schönburg-Waldenburg, Waldenburg palace and later Lichtenstein palace in Saxony, then the museum and art collection of Hinterglauchau palace.
- Former estate of Carl-August of Saxony Weimar, now the decorative arts museum in Berlin.
- Former palace museum of Pavlovsk.
Provenance
In the possession of David and Katharina Roentgen since its production, then that of their eldest son.
Philipp Jacob Roentgen (1777 – 1785), then his son.
Philipp Heinrich August Roentgen (1817 – 1878), then his daughter Ida Wenck, née Roentgen (1858 - 1926).
By descent to Gertrud Williger, née Matthiessen, passed on by her to Heinrich Römer, Frankfurt in 1938.
Sold by Römer as part of the Roentgen estate in 1942.
Auctioned by Christie's in London on 6th December 2012, lot 100.
The Oberkirch collection, Majorca.
Auctioned by Demessieur Düsseldorf on 27th June 2015, lot 8.
Private collection, Rhineland.
Literature
Illus. in: Greber, Abraham und David Roentgen. Möbel für Europa, vol. 1, Starnberg 1980, p. 269 (reproduction of the photograph from the Roentgen estate in the house of Ida Wenck in Herrnhut in 1920, captioned by Greber: “The furniture was destroyed in the war.”) For the text, see ibid. p. 267 f.
Illus. in 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. 309, there described as: "Provenance: David Roentgen, by descent to Wilhelm Wenk, Herrnhut, lost in Frankfurt during the war".