A desk from the workshop of Abraham Roentgen
Cherry and plum veneer on oak, later leather writing surface, brass mountings, iron locks. Bombé-form serpentine apron with a kneehole, drawers on either side and a wide drawer above with leather-covered writing surface over compartments and a secret compartment. The four curved legs originally screw-mounted. With fine vertical veneers and contrasting, darker veneer at the angles. The veneers partially dry with shrinkage cracks, discolouration due to use of wax, minor losses. The earlier, folding surface replaced, a repair to the front right leg, no longer removable. H 80.5, W 88, D 63 cm.
Largely last third 18th C.
The elegant lines of the serpentine apron and legs correspond to the multi-functional tables produced in Abraham Roentgen's workshop in the early 1770s. The quality of the veneers also speaks for an attribution to the workshop in Neuwied.
Provenance
Private ownership, Rhineland, acquired in 1961 from L. Bernheimer, Munich.
Literature
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, illus. 31 ff.
Cf. Büttner/Weber-Woelk/Willscheid (Hg), Edle Möbel für höchste Kreise. Roentgens Meisterwerke für Europas Höfe, Neuwied 2007, cat. 31.3., a work and silhouette table from Homburg Castle.