A box by Abraham Roentgen
Mahogany veneer on mahogany and oak, ormolu, brass, iron lock. Oblong box design with tiered hinged lid and stirrup handle above. Protruding base on four curved bracket feet. Finely engraved cartouche-form lock plate that can be opened by means of a compression spring, with the keyhole behind it. Compartmentalised interior with removable lid. A secret drawer in the right-hand base that can be opened via a push button in the right-hand wall. Fine brass stringing around the sides and lid. The inside of the lid lined with marbled paper. Dimensions with handle folded down H 19, W 26, D 16.5 cm.
Neuwied, around 1750-1760.
The production of boxes had probably been part of Abraham Roentgen's day-to-day work since the founding of the Herrnhagen workshop in 1742. He had become familiar with this design of box, elegantly veneered with precious woods, during his travels to the Netherlands and London. The English used them to store the expensive tea imported from India and China in similar containers that were galvanised on the inside and could be locked. They were called caddy sets, a word that referred to the Chinese unit of measurement ‘kati’. Abraham Roentgen modified the appearance and function of the colonial caddy and thus created a very unique and eye-catching design for his smallest product.
Millimetre-sized, precisely matched pieces of veneer were set onto a cherry wood or oak corpus. Brass stringing emphasises the contours, while gilded bronze feet and sophisticated inlays enhance the impression of a miniature masterpiece. The flat side drawers in the base, which pop out at the push of an inner button, became something of a trademark, as did the small square doors in the lock fitting, which spring open by means of a push button in the base and release the lock so that the key can be inserted. Manufactured in series, each one had its own individual features, a speciality such as the small, finely engraved brass cartouche on the lid. The caskets were offered in several sizes and were not intended exclusively for tea, but for any valuable contents.
Today, around 100 of these precious caskets are still preserved, although most of them are the small format tea chests. Until the Hamburg lottery of 1769, their purchase was reserved exclusively for the aristocratic clientèle of Abraham Roentgen. It was not until the tea tax was levied at the end of the 1760s and the change in taste towards classicism that the demand for these elaborate boxes fell.
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, p. 245 ff.