David Roentgen

The finest, most innovative and commercially driven cabinet-maker of the 18th century created furniture that still remains unparalleled in quality.

It is unlikely that David Roentgen would have achieved his level of fame without the influence of his father, Abraham, who produced handmade furniture combining superb craftsmanship with technical complexity. David began as Abraham's apprentice, and eventually took over his Neuwied workshop, near Koblenz in Germany, in 1768.

Increasingly influenced by French design, David travelled to Paris in 1774 to present a desk to Queen Marie-Antoinette. Realising that his work was old-fashioned, he began to study the latest Neoclassical styles he saw in the city. By the late 1770s, his furniture showed the results of this study in its more austere shapes, the decoration reduced the veneering in plain timbers, usually mahogany, with gilt-bronze or brass mountings. Such was his success in Paris that he joined the Guild of Ebenistes. His stamp was D.ROENTGEN, although most of his pieces were unstamped.

Roentgen set up depots for his fitted and non fitted furniture in Paris, Berlin, and Vienna, enabling him to promote his designs, gain commissions, and supply furniture more quickly without losing control  of his Neuwied workshop. This innovative thinking and commercial acumen also allowed him to keep up with the latest fashions, through pattern books and prints.

Roentgen's Furniture
Initially, Roentgen worked in wood, which he engraved, but by the late 1760s he was using stained and tinted woods. After 1770, delicate pictorial marquetry became a speciality of his workshop, the designs for which were often taken from paintings by Januarius Zick. This resulted in extraordinarily realistic renditions of floral sprays, arrangements of garden utensils, musical instruments, and, after his first trip to Paris, pastoral idylls and architectural scenes.

Towards the end of the 1770s, Roentgen was producing a range of furniture in the Louis XVI style. He was also noted for his writing desks, produced in the later years of the Neuwied workshop, which features ingenious mechanical devices that were operated by moving a section of the piece.

In 1783, Roentgen visited Russia with his first consignment of furniture, which included dressing tables, chests of drawers, a revolving armchair, and desks at which one could write seated or standing. Following this visit, he received several commissions from Catherine the Great. Roentgen's main customers were the French king and court. Louis XVI had purchased a writing table in 1779 and subsequently appointed David Ebeniste-mecanicien - he was already cabinet-maker to Queen Marie-Antoinette.

Over the next ten years he supplied the French court with furniture that was noted both for its intricate marquetry and its ingenious mechanical construction.
In 1791, Roentgen was appointed Court Furnisher to Frederick William II of Prussia and by this time he was recognised as the most celebrated cabinet-maker in Europe. However, the French Revolution seriously weakened his business and he never regained his former status. David Roentgen died in Wiesbadan while on his travels in 1807.