Tea chest ca. 1750-55 Abraham Roentgen German Beginning in 1742, when he started to work, Abraham Roentgen impressed the small princely courts and the landed gentry around Herrnhaag, as well as the rich patricians in nearby Frankfurt, with his brass-inlaid tea tables, gueridons, chairs, and tea chests in the "English Manner" (see fig. 3, p. 5).1 Furniture of such high quality and so inventive in its design and execution was a novelty, and the demand for such objects increased rapidly.2 One of Abrahams’ first tea chests was made in Herrnhaag for the princely house of Isenburg-Birstein. The appearance of that luxurious object in the prince’s drawing room would have informed his guests that he and his family were familiar with the latest fashions and social pastimes.3The interior of the present example is partitioned to hold a pair of caddies for black and green tea. Between those spaces was a lidded box where sugar (or candies) could be stored or where tea leaves could be mixed. Th