Lot 405 D α

David Roentgen, born on 11th August 1743 in Herrnhaag and died on 12th February 1807 in Wiesbaden, was one of the most successful and innovative cabinetmakers of the latter half of the 18th century. Supported by his membership of the Herrnhut Brethren congregation, who financially secured the ventures of the Roentgen workshop to a certain extent, Abraham and later his son David were able to act much more freely than other cabinetmakers, and they were one of the first workshops on German soil to work independently of a princely court. Simultaneously, freed from the constraints of guild membership, they were free to employ specialists from individual trades, which enabled them to build furniture of the very highest standards.



In May 1780, David Roentgen acquired the expensive master's right of the Parisian Guild of Ebenists for almost 1,000 livres (approx. 330 guilders) and was henceforth able to sell his furniture under his own name. As an advertisement from January 1781 and his business card show, he ran his shop in the Rue de Grenelle near the elegant Saint-Honoré and offered a wide range of products: "desks of various shapes, cabinet chairs, toilette tables, safes, mechanisms, pianos, quadrillet tables, tricot tables and others". The pieces were of "dernière perfection", followed the new taste and were "carefully executed in mahogany and polished like marble." In December 1785, David Roentgen handed over the business to Gottlieb Frost, who moved it to the Rue Croix des Petits-Champs. Frost ran a workshop there with ten workers and continued to sell "furniture much sought after for its shape and polish" until his bankruptcy in the summer of 1789. The stamp on this table thus proves that it was made between 1780 and 1785.

The form of this table only appears very late in the literature. Neither Hans Huth, Josef Maria Greber nor Dietrich Fabian mention this type. Fabian lists several tables that were made by Abraham Roentgen in 1745 - 50 and are completely in the English tradition of the "tripod table". They are characterised by a central baluster shaft on three curved legs, which supports a top that is usually foldable. The top of the table offered here is not foldable, which is probably due to the weight of the marble.



Wolfgang Koeppe describes a table with an almost identical structure and a grey-blue marble top as a dining table. A similar example can be seen in Eduard Gaertner's watercolour, a depiction of the writing room of Prince Wilhelm and Princess Marianne in Berlin Palace, accompanied by a swivel chair, also from Roentgen's workshop.