A bombé form box by Abraham Roentgen

A bombé form box by Abraham Roentgen

Burr walnut, kingwood and cherry veneer on solid oak and cherry with fire-gilt bronze, brass and steel mounts. Of rectangular shape with hinged top and handle. The larger base resting on four curved bracket feet. A finely engraved cartouche-shaped lock plate opens by pushing a button which activates a spring mechanism to reveal the keyhole. The box contains a shallow removable tray with two cherry-veneered compartments (which show a horizontal crack) above a large compartment and a shallow secret compartment in the right side of the base which can be opened by pushing a button placed in the inner right side. The exterior is veneered in sheets of large-grained veneers framed by strips of brass and dark palisander stringing. The edges and base highlighted by brass mounts. H 18.5, W 23.3, D 15 cm.
Neuwied, around 1755.

Certificate

Dr. Dietrich Fabian, 18th January 1997.

Provenance

Private Collection, South Germany.
Private Collection, Central Rhine Region

Literature

The only other known bombé form box of this kind in the collection Mittelrhein-Museum Koblenz (inv. no. Kg 6014) published in: Greber, Abraham und David Roentgen. Möbel für Europa, vol. 2, Starnberg 1980, illus. 106 f.
Fabian, Roentgenmöbel aus Neuwied, Bad Neustadt 1986, illus. 659 f.
Fabian, Abraham und David Roentgen. Das noch aufgefundene Gesamtwerk ihrer Möbel- und Uhrenkunst in Verbindung mit der Uhrmacherfamilie Kinzing in Neuwied. Leben und Werk, Verzeichnis der Werke, Quellen, Bad Neustadt 1996, no. 567.