Desk by David Roentgen
A desk full of springs and secret compartments, with pictures laid in wood.
David Roentgen (1743–1807) ran a workshop at Neuwied on the Rhine and sold to the courts of Paris, Berlin and St Petersburg. His mechanical desks were demonstrated almost like theatre. One is in the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
Materials: Maple, pearwood and other veneers in marquetry, gilt bronze, steel
Manufacture: Pictorial marquetry with woods stained and shaded by scorching; mechanisms of springs and gears.
The marquetry pictures have shadows and depth like paintings, yet nothing is painted.
At the touch of a button drawers and compartments spring out.