An Imperial dressing table by David Roentgen (master 1780-1807) Neuwied ca 1785-1790, Louis XVI

David Roentgen (1743-1807) is considered by many to be perhaps the foremost ébéniste during the neoclassical era at the end of the 18th century. He was the son of the German cabinet-maker Abraham Roentgen (1711-1793) who had settled in Neuwied near Coblenz and opened a workshop. He became famous for his rococo furniture with a distinctive painterly marquetry, intricate locks and hidden drawers. In 1757 David joined his father's workshop. After he took over running of the workshop around 1770, it expanded to be perhaps the foremost in Europe at the time. David combined a flair for design, mechanical solutions and craftmanship with an entrepreneurial spirit and innovative marketing. The workshop's specialty, furniture with intricate mechanical functions, was also noted by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe during a visit around 1774-75. Court after court in Germany became customers and by setting up a network of representatives with stock, deliveries could be made quickly. The furniture was designed accordingly, for example with removable legs like on the auction table, to simplify transport.
In 1774, David Roentgen visited Paris. He encountered there the neoclassical currents which he completely absorbed and transformed into the neoclassical style we associate with him, of which the auction table is a typical example. Roentgen quickly realizes that Paris is also a profitable market to conquer, which his furniture in its distinctive style came to do. In 1779, he was awarded the dual titles of Ebèniste-mécanicien to Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette respectively, earlier only previous awarded to the great François Oeben. In the same year, he delivers his famous secretary cabinet to Louis XVI, the most expensive piece of furniture the French royal household came to buy. In 1780, Roentgen was elected maître and was thus able to establish himself in the French capital. In Paris he met and began a collaboration with the ciseleur-doreur François Rémond, who came to supply much of the ormolu mounts over the years to Roentgen workshop.
After conquering Paris, Roentgen set his sights on perhaps the biggest, most discerning, and most important customer of the time, the Empress Catherine II and the Russian market. In 1783, Roentgen heads to Russia, bringing with him a specially composed secretary for the empress, which he hopes to sell to Catherine the Great. After a lavish letter of introduction from Friedrich Melchior, Baron von Grimm, Catherine receives Roentgen in St. Petersburg. She is overjoyed and buys the spectacular secretary on the spot. The empress came to be David's most important customer and over the next few years made a large number of orders. In all, Roentgen made five trips with deliveries to St. Petersburg between 1783 and 1789. The list of goods from 1786 has been preserved and among all the different types of tables there is, among other things, as number 19: "Quatre tables en forme de commode avec tiroirs et tablettes chaque pièce 128-45 [roubles]” which probably describes the model of the table now on offer.

The auction's table, which is newly discovered and never published, belongs to this type of multifunctional table, which in addition to being a dressing table could also be used for reading, writing, drinking coffee and socializing. The model seems to have been one of Roentgen's more popular ones. Several tables are known in public and private collections, the majority are described by Dietrich Fabian in his book about Abraham and David Roentgen, for example in Pavlovsk Palace there is the table of the Russian Grand Duchess (later Empress) Maria Feodorovna (1759–1828). Another table is preserved in the Hermitage's collections. All these tables are similar in design and mechanics, but the decorative mounts are varied. Roentgen's characteristic ornament with grooves, so-called "milleraies" appear on legs and framework. On the auction table, the entire front frieze is framed, without interruption, by a “milleraies” molding, something that seems to be a unique feature that does not occur among other known examples of this type of table.
The auction table has two labels underneath. One is a handwritten label that dates back to when the first inventory of the Hermitage's furnishings was compiled, ca. 1796-1811. "The Hermitage" is clearly written in Cyrillic and the numbers, "No 35" and "No XXXII". A parellel label is on a similar table that is still in the Hermitage, but with the numbers: "31" and "XX". No research has been done on these markings and how they should be interpreted have be left to future studies.
The second label, with preprinted headings, from 1897, indicates that the auction table remained in the Imperial collections and was intended for the palace of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich (1876-1938). As the label is not filled in, it is not possible to say with absolute certainty whether this happened. Grand Duke Kirill was a second cousin of the last Tsar Nicholas II and came after the revolution to become the head of the Romanov family in exile.