Characteristic features of a group of furniture produced in Warsaw on the turn of 18. and 19. century by joiners from Neuwied

On 17 November 1775 a group of 8 joiners came to Warsaw from David Roentgen’s manufactory in Neuwied, among them Andreas Siemmler, Johann Otto Nennecke, Friedrich Stierzing, Christian Duerchs and Michael Rummer. The last one came back to Neuwied after a year and was preparing famous mosaics in wood for Roentgen. There are many written evidences that these joiners produced furniture in Warsaw and its surroundings but no signed piece was left. Their furniture was “simple”, “taken for English ones” and often veneered with mahogany. There is a group of furniture left in polish museums and private collections that has in common many features of form, decoration and construction and can be described in the same way as the production of these joiners from Neuwied was. They also resemble a group of furniture form Neuwied that was produced since ca 1775 year. In those years Roentgen’s furniture was still decorated with marquetry but David wrote himself in a letter from 11 November 1775 to his client Margravine Karoline Louise von Baden-Durlach about his new design of furniture veneered only with mahogany. In this article there are some features discussed that are common for the mentioned group and are also to be found on some pieces from Neuwied. These features may be a kind of signature of the joiners that came to Warsaw from Neuwied and these pieces of furniture that have these features may be defined as belonging to the “Roentgen’s circle”.