​Roentgen Bureau up for Auction in September 2016

Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers presents a beautiful bureau from c. 1780 at this autumn’s auction in Copenhagen. The bureau was made by the renowned cabinetmaker David Roentgen (1743-1807), who created exquisite furniture for some of the most famous royal figures in European history.

During the 18^th century David Roentgen creates some of the most inventive and interesting high quality furniture, and he is still known across Europe for his remarkable abilities with inlay techniques. He is born in 1743 in the city of Herrnhag and begins his career as an apprentice at his father’s workshop in Neuwied near Koblenz in Germany. During David Roentgen’s career he makes furniture for royal figures such as Frederick the Great of Prussia, Marie Antoinette of France and Catherine the Great of Russia. In 1768, Louis XVI of France appoints him Ébéniste-mécanicien du Roi et de la Reine. Later Roentgen is also appointed royal cabinet-maker for Frederick William II of Prussia. After a prosperous career with a magnificent list of clients, Roentgen passes away in Wiesbaden in 1807.

Chinoiserie Marquetry á la Mosaïque

“The Roentgen marquetry workshop, led by Johann Michael Rummer (1747-1821), continuously explored new ways of refining the inlay techniques, which the bureau up for auction is a beautiful example of. The result was the lush painterly quality of marquetry à la mosaïque’ – as Roentgen termed it,” says Anders Fredsted, Bruun Rasmussen’s expert in antiques.

“The technique includes the scorching of pieces of wood in hot sand to achieve the effect of shading. No engraving was employed, but the full design was executed as a mosaic of small pieces of wood, as an intricate jigsaw puzzle. Roentgen first mentions this technique when describing a bureau that was offered as first prize in a lottery of the company's furniture, which was organized in Hamburg in 1768. It is interesting to note that the desk from the lottery was already decorated with Chinoiserie scenes.”

A slightly later bureau from around 1771-72, an early form of roll-top desk made for the Margrave of Baden, demonstrates that by this time Roentgen had developed a highly sophisticated repertoire of Chinoiserie scenes that he was able to employ over and over again. They appear to have mainly been derived from engravings by the French artist Jean Pillement (1728-1803) as well as those of the Augsburg engraver Martin Engelbrecht (1684-1756). After 1775, the Chinoiserie scenes became more precise and gained a recognizably neo-classical equilibrium, as demonstrated in the bureau up for auction.

The Bureau Up Close

Bruun Rasmussen is delighted to present this German gilt bronze mounted marquetry cylinder bureau by David Roentgen.Its top consists of a pierced brass gallery and three drawers, where above a solid cylinder is inlaid with Chinoiserie scenes. The scenes depict three boys fishing and a lady with an umbrella in the centre, flanked by a mother and a child to the left and a man with a lantern to the right. The bureau was made in Neuwied around 1780. The provenance of the bureau includes a private French collection as well as the Kunsthandel Albrecht Neuhaus in Würzburg. It has most recently been part of a Danish collection, and a similar bureau can be seen at The David Collection in Copenhagen.

International Auction

The Roentgen bureau will be up for auction at Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers of Fine Art, Bredgade 33 in Copenhagen this autumn on Wednesday 21 September.

Preview: 15-19 September

Auction: 20-29 September

View the Roentgen bureau