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RONTGEN, DAVID

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 694 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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RONTGEN, See also:DAVID , sometimes called DAVID DE See also:LUNEVILLE (1743-1807), See also:German See also:cabinet-maker, eldest son of See also:Abraham Rontgen, was See also:born at Herrenhag. In 1753 his,See also:father migrated to the Moravian See also:settlement at Neuwied, near See also:Coblenz, where he established a See also:furniture factory. He learned his See also:trade in his father's workshop, and succeeded to the paternal business in 1772, when he entered into some See also:kind of See also:partnership with the See also:clock-maker Kintzing. At that See also:time the name of the See also:firm appears already to have been well known, at all events in See also:France; but it is a curious circumstance that although he is always reckoned as one of the little See also:band of See also:foreign cabinet-makers and workers in See also:marquetry who, like See also:Oeben and See also:Riesener, achieved distinction in France during the superb floraison of the See also:Louis Seize See also:style, he never ceased to live at Neuwied, where apparently the whole of his furniture was made, and merely had a See also:shop, or show-See also:room, in See also:Paris. We have, as it happens, a See also:record of his first See also:appearance there. The engraver Wille enters in his See also:journal of See also:August 30, 1774, that " M. Rontgen, celebre ebeniste, etabli a Nieuwied, pres de Coblenz, m'est venu voir, en m'apportant une lettre de recommandation de M. Zick, peintre a Coblenz . . . Comme M. Rontgen connaissait personne a Paris, je lui fus utile en lui enseignant quelques sculpteurs et dessinateurs dont it avait besoin." Rontgen was first and foremost an astute See also:man of business and it is not improbable that the moving cause of this opening up of relations with Paris was the See also:accession to the See also:throne of See also:Marie Antoinette, whose See also:Teutonic sympathies were only too well known. Before very See also:long she appointed him her ebenistemechanicien.

He appears, indeed, to have acquired considerable favour with the See also:

queen, for on several occasions she took See also:advantage of his journeys through See also:Europe to See also:charge him with the delivery of presents and of dolls dressed in the Paris fashions of the moment—they were intended to serve as patterns for the dressmakers—to her See also:mother and her sisters. He appears at once to have opened a shop in Paris, but despite, and perhaps because of, the favour in which he was held at See also:court, all was not See also:plain sailing. The powerful trade See also:corporation of the maitres-ebenistes disputed his right to sell in Paris furniture of foreign manufacture, and in 1780 he found that the most satisfactory way out of the difficulty was to get himself admitted a member of the corporation to which all his See also:great rivals belonged. By this time he had attracted a See also:good See also:deal of See also:attention by the introduction of a new style of marquetry, in which See also:light and shade, instead of being represented as hitherto by burning, smoking or See also:engraving the materials, were indicated by small pieces of See also:wood so arranged as to create the impression of pietra dura. We have seen that Rontgen had been appointed ebeniste-mechanicien to Marie Antoinette, and the See also:appointment is explained by his fondness for and proficiency in constructing furniture in which See also:mechanical devices played a great See also:part. The See also:English cabinet-makers of the later eighteenth See also:century often made what was called, with obvious allusion to its See also:character, " See also:harlequin furniture," especially little dressing-tables and washstands which converted into something else or held their essentials in concealment until a See also:spring was touched. David was a past See also:master in this kind of See also:work, and unquestionably much of the otherwise inexplicable reputation he enjoyed among contemporaries who were See also:head and shoulders above him is explained by his mechanical See also:genius. The extent of his fame in this direction is sufficiently indicated by the fact that See also:Goethe mentions him in Wilhelm Meister. He compares the See also:box inhabited by the See also:fairy during her travels with her mortal See also:lover to one of Rontgen's desks, in which " at a pull a multitude of springs and latches are set in See also:motion." For a See also:desk of this kind Louis XVI. paid him 8o,000 livres. Outwardly it was in the See also:form of a commode, its marquetry panels symbolizing the liberal arts. A personification of See also:sculpture was in the See also:act of engraving the name of Marie Antoinette upon a See also:column to which See also:Minerva was See also:hanging her portrait. Above a See also:riot of architectural orders was a musical clock (the work of the partner Kintzing), surmounted by a See also:cupola representing See also:Parnassus.

The interior of this monumental effort, 11 ft. high, was a marvel of mechanical precision; it disappeared during the First See also:

Empire. Rontgen did not confine his activities to Paris, or even to France. It has been said that he travelled about Europe accompanied by furniture vans, and undoubtedly his aptitude as a commercial traveller was remarkable. He had shops in See also:Berlin and St See also:Petersburg, and himself apparently twice went to See also:Russia. On one of these visits he sold to the Empress See also:Catherine furniture to the value of 20,000 roubles, to which she added a See also:personal See also:present of 500o roubles and a See also:gold See also:snuff-box—in recognition, it would seem, of his readiness and ingenuity in surmounting a secretaire with a clock indicating the date of the See also:Russian See also:naval victory over the See also:Turks at Cheshme, See also:news of which had arrived on the previous evening. This See also:suite of furniture is believed still to be in the See also:Palace of the Hermitage, the hiding-See also:place of so much remarkable and forgotten See also:art. To the See also:protection of the queen of France and the empress of Russia David added that of the See also:king of See also:Prussia, See also:Frederick See also:William II., who in 1792 made him a Commerzienrath and commercial See also:agent for the See also:Lower See also:Rhine See also:district. The See also:French Revolution and the See also:Napoleonic See also:Wars which so speedily followed, eclipsed Rontgen's See also:star as they eclipsed those of so many other great cabinet-makers of the See also:period. In 1793 the Revolutionary See also:government, regarding him as an emigre, seized the contents of his show-rooms and his personal belongings, and after that date he appears neither to have done business in Paris nor to have visited it. Five years later the invasion of Neuwied led to the closing of his workshops; prosperity never returned, and he died See also:half ruined at See also:Wiesbaden on the 12th of See also:February 1807. Rontgen was not a great cabinet-maker. His forms were often clumsy, ungraceful and See also:commonplace; his furniture lacked the artistry of the French and the English cabinet-makers of the great period which came to an end about 179o.

His bronzes were poor in See also:

design and coarse in See also:execution—his work, in See also:short, is tainted by commercialism. As a marqueteur, however, he holds a position of high distinction. His marquetry is bolder and more vigorous than that of Riesener, who in other respects soared far above him. As an adroit deviser of mechanism he fully earned a reputation which former generations rated more highly than the See also:modern critic, with his facilities for comparison, is prepared to accept. On the mechanical See also:side he produced, with the help of Kintzing, many long-cased and other clocks with ingenious indicating and registering apparatus. Rontgen delighted in architectural forms, and his marquetry more often than not represents those scenes from classical See also:mythology which were the dear delight of the 18th century. He is well represented at See also:South See also:Kensington.

End of Article: RONTGEN, DAVID

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