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The Roentgens' Dressing Table (Poudreuse)

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Art Object
Program Information

The Roentgens' Dressing Table (Poudreuse)

Program information

See how this desk converts into a dressing table.

When closed, this table may not seem like one of the most complex pieces of European furniture ever made. However, once opened, its concealed drawers and hidden features are exposed, and the entire piece transforms into a dressing table, orpoudreuse. Scholars believe it was commissioned as a wedding gift from Abraham (1711–1793) and David Roentgen (1743–1807) by Friedrich August III, Elector of Saxony, to his bride in 1769.

This table, from Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt, is featured in the exhibition Extravagant Inventions: The Princely Furniture of the Roentgens (on view October 30, 2012–January 27, 2013).

Images courtesy of Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt.

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Relief mounted as a mirror frame

Wenzel Jamnitzer  (German, Vienna 1507/8–1585 Nuremberg)

Date:
ca. 1568
Culture:
German, Nuremberg
Medium:
Gilded silver, ebony, mirror plate
Dimensions:
H. 11 5/8 x W. 9 1/8 in. (29.5 x 23.2 cm)
Classification:
Metalwork
Credit Line:
Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
Accession Number:
17.190.620

This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 520

  • Description

    Wenzel Jamnitzer was the greatest Mannerist goldsmith in the German-speaking areas. As an imperial goldsmith to the Habsburg court, he served no fewer than four emperors. Much of his fame was based on highly inventive objects and mounted naturalia for princely curiosity cabinets. The design of this relief frame, with personifications of four of the seven liberal arts-Arithmetic, Geometry, Perspective, and Architecture-was adopted from the title page of Jamnitzer's treatise Perspectiva corporum regularium (1568). The ovoid mirror with faceted edges is distinguished by a crowning lion in repoussé silver-a clear reference to Jamnitzer's maker's mark, the letter "W" above a lion's head. A portrait of the artist or of a princely first owner may have been mounted in the oval below. The object was the inner part of a precious silver book cover that was subsequently reconfigured as a mirror.

  • Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

    Inscription: (on scroll on inner border, by each figure of woman, respectively) ARITHMETICA, GEOMETRICA, PERPECTIVA, ARCHITECTVRA; (on scroll by each amorino, respectively) INCLINATIO, DILIGENTIA

    Marking: [1] N in circle (Nuremberg town mark 1550–1700); [2] W over mask (maker's mark); [3] AI in hexagonal shield (mark of Bureau of Control of Vienna for imported silver, used 1872–1901); Location of marks: Mark [1] in lower corner, marks [2] and [3] in lower right corner.

  • Provenance

    J. Pierpont Morgan (until 1917; to MMA)

  • See also
    Who
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    Where
    When
    In the Museum
    Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
    MetPublications
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