A LOUIS XVI GILT-BRONZE MOUNTED MAHOGANY ROLL-TOP DESK ATTRIBUTED TO JOHANN GOTTLIEB FROST, CIRCA 1790 |

veneered on all sides, adorned with gilt-bronze flutes and pearls, the top opening with three drawers, the cylinder revealing six drawers and three fake drawers, the lower part opening with five drawers and one door, on eight feet

Comparative literature : C. Baulez, David Roentgen et François Rémond, in L'Estampille, septembre 1996, p. 96-118.

The French style locks (not inlaid along the drawer's edge) and Roentgen's unusual feet suggest a rather French production, that of Jean-Gottlied Frost. A cylinder desk very similar to ours and stamped by Frost is kept in the Ludwigsburg Residential Palace (inventory no. Sch L. 1903). Retailer and maybe a subcontractor for Roentgen, he then established himself as a cabinetmaker in 1789 and stopped in 1792. He worked in the lineage of his master and introduced himself as follows: "Sir Frost, successor to Sir David Roentgen, cabinetmaker-mechanic to the King and the Queen, now manages, Rue des Croix-des-Petits-Champs, the department store for the Ebénisterie that the latter had above on Rue de Grenelle-Saint-Honoré, and continues to sell furniture much sought after for their form and polish "(Pierre Kjellberg, Le mobilier français du XVIIIe siècle, Dictionnaire des ébénistes et des menuisiers, Les éditions de l'amateur Paris, 1989, pp. 331-332). He had a fine aristocratic clientele as well as Menus Plaisirs as indicated by his ledger kept in the Archives of Paris. Cylinder desks, writing stands and tables are mainly listed. Christian Baulez writes :"David Roentgen had a compatriot in Paris, whose role is not so far well clarified and to which we sometimes attribute the most Parisian part of work by roentgen, up to the use of marquetry panels by Neuwied: The documented works of Frost are too rare to judge of his way or his ways. He was [like Roentgen] client of Remond after 1782 [...] David Roentgen having provided his clients some mahogany seats adorned with gilt bronze and the only bronzes for seats provided by Remond that belonged to frost, it can be argued that the latter was one of the manufacturers for David's account. " (1) 

Among the late cylinder desks attributed to this ebenist, we cite:

Collection Hélène Rochas, auction Christie's Paris, 27 September 2012, lot 86 - Collection of Château of Groussay, auction Sotheby's Paris, 2 June 1999, lot 406 (very similar model to ours).