Rolltop desk

David Roentgen

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

David Roentgen’s rolltop desks are perhaps the best-known style icons of his oeuvre. This one is likely the “small Cylinder-top writing desk of yellow wood costing 250 rubles, plus 90 [for transport and packing]” listed in an invoice dated March 23, 1786, and delivered to Empress Catherine II. The desk’s distinctive yellow color comes from the veneers of exotic hardwood, called yellowheart, or pau amarello (Euxylophora paraensis). When splashed with sunlight, the wood glows with an almost mystical radiance. The veneers are complemented by finely chased gilt-bronze mounts that may have been supplied by François Rémond from Paris. The top rolls up and disappears into the desk, exposing a central open compartment with two adjustable shelves. It is flanked on either side by a pigeonhole with stepped platforms that conceal spring-operated secret drawers. A leather-lined slide extends the space for writing; below it are three large drawers.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art