A German neoclassical ormolu-mounted mahogany rolltop desk David Roentgen Neuwied, circa 1785

with the ivorine plaque engraved D. Sherratt & Co, 61 Bridge Street Row, Chester.

Mahogany of gallery with restored cracks, minor chips, and small breaks, not extensive; gilding inset on gallery with rubbing and oxidation; reverse of central solid mahogany panel with 1 inch by 1.5 inch triangular patch; top with some cracks and surface restorations; one area of restoration with water damage and now is slightly flaking. Top section with some chips; scattered small patches and losses to veneer on reverse; brass mount on reverse with small 1/2 cm loss; two ribbon mounts on front with small 1/2 inch loss; one on one of the bottom drawers, one on the top long drawer. Central bottom drawer with top long brass mount detached but present. Central section with some cracks and old restorations. Back can be removed in order to service mechanism; leather inset is probably original and with cracks and some losses, lifting, and marks. Spring mechanism on right stepped drawer requires servicing; roll top with small 1/2 inch by 1/4 inch loss at edge and small patch to one corner approximately 1/2 inch by 1 and 1/2 inch in size. Lower section with age and construction cracks with largest being on reverse and running vertically. Few small patches and chips to veneer with largest being a 2 by 2 inch triangle on left side. Right side with some sun fading. Top and bottom veneers are from the same piece of mahogany. Lacquered mounts on lower section with some minor dents and lifting; one pulley to one lower drawer is lost; pulleys have left corresponding dents to the back of the drawer. Fluted inlays in interior are slightly misaligned and lifting; some small losses to mounts on reverse of lower section; lower section also with small areas of infill; legs can be unscrewed and have scratches, dents, and abrasions consistent with age. One back leg lacking one mileraies panel, one front leg with mileraies panel possibly later. Overall in good, honest condition and could benefit from some attention.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

During the last decade of the eighteenth century, rolltop desks were among David Roentgen’s most celebrated and sought-after creations. Throughout the 1780s, he executed a number of such pieces for some of the most discerning and noble clients, such as Catherine the Great, King Louis XVI, the Landgravine Philippine von Hessen-Kassel and William Cavendish, fifth Duke of Devonshire, among others. The present desk shares a number of similarities with not only the bureaux executed for the abovementioned clients, but also with other pieces found in different private and public collection around the world. With its undivided rolltop, this desk is closely related to a piece delivered for the Duke of Devonshire and now at Chatsworth House, see Wolfram Koppe, Extravagant Inventions: The Princely Furniture of the Roentgens, New York, 2012, p. 167, and one sold Christie’s London, June 10, 2004, lot 116. For the rolltop or slant front of most of his desks David Roentgen used a large continuous sheet of mahogany veneer so the wood’s natural figuring could be fully appreciated. Roentgen then often divided this area with variously cast ormolu bands into smaller planes. Examples of desks decorated this way include the aforementioned bureau for Elisabeth the Great and the Hessen-Kassel family, a desk in the Bestand Museum, Weimar and one formerly in the Chateau de Malmaison and now in collection of the US State Department, see ibid. pp. 182-185 and 154-157, Andreas Büttner and Ursula Weber-Woelk, David Roentgen: Möbelkunst und Marketing im 18. Jahrhundert, Regensburg, 2009, p. 73 and Hans Huth, Roentgen Furniture, London and New York, 1974, fig. 64, respectively. The removable legs of the present desk are mounted with ormolu mileraies panels, which many consider hallmarks of Roentgen’s fully developed oeuvre, to which this lot can be assigned. This type of ormolu mount is found on numerous works by Roentgen from clocks to caskets and was eventually adapted by other furniture makers. A small, but very specific decorative component on this desk that can be found on other bureaux by Roentgen is the small voluted arch in the kneehole. This design element appears on two rolltop desks at the Ermitage, Saint Petersburg and another one delivered for King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia, see Josef Maria Greber, Abraham und David Roentgen: Möbel für Europa, Vol. II, Starnberg, 1980, figs. 663, 667, and Achim Stiegel, Präzision und Hingabe: Möbelkunst von Abraham und David Roentgen, Berlin, 2007, p. 99, respectively. In overall form, decoration and design concept, these two desks are the most similar to the lot offered here. Interestingly, the piece once belonging to the King of Prussia and the Chatsworth House desk are both inset with small brass roundels above the brass-inlaid fluted pilasters just like this lot. With the two large square drawers flanking a long narrow drawer the front of the lower section of the desk offered here is arranged identically as the King’s bureau, one of the abovementioned Ermitage desks and one delivered for the French court in 1784 and now at Versailles, see Greber, op. cit., fig. 660. The large square drawers open sideways to reveal smaller drawers fitted with Chippendale-style drawer pulls identical to those found on a rolltop desk by David Roentgen, now in the Metropolitan Museum, see Koppe, op. cit., p. 125. Besides these small drawer pulls, the large handles incorporated into the ormolu band of the pull-out writing surface are again a Roentgen trademark and can be seen on a number of the aforementioned bureaux. The interior of this lot is fitted with a central compartment flanked by stepped platform-shaped drawers, which can also be found in the Christie’s examples as well as the desks of King Wilhelm II, the one at Versailles, the Chatsworth House desk and one in the collection of Ruth Ann Stanton, New York, see ibid., p. 192. The ormolu mounts on the desk offered here are of excellent quality and could have come from the workshop of the famed Parisian bronzier François Rémond, who supplied mounts to Roentgen’s workshop after they met during Roentgen’s visit to Paris in 1774.