A tea caddy by Abraham Roentgen
Rosewood and oak veneer on softwood, brass and iron mountings, later textile lining. Oblong box with a sloped gable surmounted by a folding handle. Veneered throughout with fine vertically grained rosewood divided horizontally with wood and brass borders. The protruding base resting on four curved bracket feet. With a finely engraved cartouche-form lockplate. Fitted with three brass tea caddies, the central one with a hinged lid and two interior compartments, the outer two with slip lids. With a shallow secret drawer in the right that can be opened via a hexagonal button in the right side of the box. The underside with a later veneered surround to stabilise the base. Short shrinkage cracks to the veneer, some cracks to the reverse, the original spring mechanism of the front lost. H with handle folded down 6.5, W 22, D 14 cm.
Neuwied, around 1755 - 60.
Provenance
Private collection, Lower Rhine Region.
Literature
Cf. Fabian, Roentgenmöbel aus Neuwied, Bad Neustadt 1986, no. 656 f.
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. 564, for an almost identical tea caddy with the same dimensions in the Museum für Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt, inv. no. 15411, also aquired by the previous owner, a Frankfurt collector, in the USA.
Cf. also Zinnkann, Roentgenmöbel aus dem Bestand, Frankfurt 2005, no. 2.