David Roentgen, Cabinet Maker to the Kings and Queens of Europe with luxury furniture

This is the life-story of the German furniture craftsman, David Roentgen (1743-1807), who created mahogany bureaus and desks with marquetry and secret compartments; and marketed them to the Kings and Queens of Prussia, France, and Russia (i.e. ancient regime). The video focuses on the techniques used to personalize each piece of furniture, and transport the Roentgen products across the dirt roads of 18th Century frontier. I am indebted to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the State Hermitage Museum for their videos and animations to illustrate the hidden drawers and compartments that so impressed the 18th century royalty, and guaranteed the Roentgen workshop would be returning again and again to Potsdam, Paris and St. Petersburg with additional international furniture orders. To me, looking over the prior patronage of Michelangelo in Italy and Chippendale in England in earlier times, David Roentgen stands out - for he had to travel hundreds of miles to a capital he had never lived and acquire repeat furniture orders. And his luck to be born in the age of kings; and quitting and selling his workshop - just before the French revolution and the guillotine death of Queen Antoinette. We also see that his workshop used one design and developed at least one basic and another sophisticated version of desks and bureaus (with different ornamentation and wood species). It may be the reason that David Roentgen called his workshop a “manufactory’. Timeline 0:23 David’s Furniture Apprenticeship 2:45 Annual Frankfurt Furniture Trade Show 6:30 Intro of Small Oval Writing Table 11:35 Going to Paris 13:34 MET Automaton to Queen Antoinette 16:33 Going to St Petersburg 23:50 Credits We hope you enjoy this video and will offer likes and subscriptions. I thank all content creators for their recordings and photos used in this video, and hope that they understand my amateur non-profit, fair-use, educational mission.