The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Time Ravishing Youth and Beauty

Art Object

Program Information

Demonstration of 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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CANCELED: Exhibition Tour—Plain or Fancy?: Restraint and Exuberance in the Decorative Arts
June 20, 2013
Gallery Talk and Demonstration—Roentgen Furniture
July 12, 2013
Summer Sketching—European Sculpture (Ages 11–18)
July 24, 2013
Exhibition Tour—Plain or Fancy?: Restraint and Exuberance in the Decorative Arts
July 25, 2013
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August 2, 2013
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August 6, 2013

Time Ravishing Youth and Beauty

Date:: first half 18th century
Culture:: German or Austrian
Medium:: Ivory
Dimensions:: H. 11-3/16 in. (28.4 cm.)
Classification:: Sculpture
Credit Line:: Purchase, Blumka Gallery, Alexis Gregory, and Alexis Gregory Foundation Gifts, and Promised Gift of Alexis Gregory, 1998
Accession Number:: 1998.116

This artwork is not on display

120025588