David Roentgen

David Roentgen (1743-1807) was a German cabinetmaker whose furniture, featuring complex mechanical devices and marquetry panels, was prized by the courts of Europe. Born in Herrnhaag to a Moravian family, he took over his father Abraham's workshop in Neuwied and expanded it into the most commercially successful furniture enterprise of the 18th century.

Roentgen's pieces are famous for their hidden mechanisms: secret drawers that spring open, writing surfaces that rise at the turn of a key, and automated musical devices. His pictorial marquetry panels rival paintings in their detail. Marie Antoinette, Catherine the Great, and Frederick William II of Prussia were all clients. The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds several of his most impressive pieces.