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If you have experienced the "The Room" series, you will be impressed by its wide variety and well-designed parts such as machine boxes, clocks and even writing desks.

The office table in "The Room", which transforms furniture into complex transmission machinery, is not entirely the artistic processing of games. In Europe in the 18th century, it once became the most classy collection of court aristocrats.

Not long ago, a precision office table from the Italian royal family became popular on domestic social platforms, allowing many people to see this strange furniture for the first time, which is far more complex than the part shown in the game.

Although it is only a beautifully made wooden table in appearance, there are dozens of drawers of different shapes alone, and they are opened in different ways, and fully implement the principle of "nesting dolls"--

There are drawers in the drawer, and there are buttons inside the drawer, which will trigger other hidden boxes after pressing, and the keys in the hidden boxes can open other hidden doors. If you do not grasp the correct opening order, ordinary people may not be able to find the jewelry inside all day.

This desk with built-in ingenious organs has a long history in Europe, and you can find it in a variety of film and television works and games.

For example, in the Assassin's Creed: the Revolution, this kind of desk was placed in the 18th century Paris court:

In Shame 2, it can also be found in the Imperial Palace of Dunworth:

In the Apocalypse of Devil Hunter 3, this kind of drawer and hidden furniture become the best desk for the owner of the old house:

Even in the treasure hunt film National Treasure 2, the century-old desk "resolute desk" in Buckingham Palace has been artistically crafted into a wooden desk with complex gears.

"National Treasure 2" in the resolute desk, hidden in the treasure map of this kind of furniture with complex internal structure in foreign countries there are many names, of which "Secretary Desk" (secret table) is a highly accepted one, the name comes from the French combination of "secretary" and "writing desk", and it is rumored that the earliest secret table was born in France in the 18th century.

The German craftsman named "Jean-Francois Oeben" is said to have created the first standard secret table. At that time, he was already the royal "cabinet maker" of the French royal family, making a lot of furniture for the then king Louis XV and his mistress Madame Pompadou.

At present, the well-preserved office table, which is considered to be one of Oeben's most famous works, was tailored to the needs of Mrs. Pompadou when he was working for the French royal family.

This gold-rimmed table belongs to a "folding mechanism table". Although it has only one drawer structure, through the sliding and folding of the roof, it can be subdivided into three different sizes of space and a dresser with embedded mirrors. through such a mechanical structure, the surface area of the whole table and drawers can be doubled, which is also the proof that Oeben has mature agency technology at that time.

The concealed compartments of these wooden tables can not only store valuable jewelry, but also hide some important or sensitive letters in the court environment at that time, coupled with their beautiful appearance, which requires a lot of manpower cost to be customized. therefore, it has become a popular furniture among aristocrats, but also a luxury collection.

At that time, even Louis XV himself instructed Oeben to make a "roll-top" office desk according to his needs. Although it changed hands several times later, because it is royal furniture, this desk has been preserved to this day and is currently on display in Versailles, France.

The desk has a special roll-top structure, and only the king is qualified to open the slide. there are special windows on both sides for servants to replenish paper and ink for office use, and special keys are inserted into the organs. it can also open six hidden drawers and a double-sided mechanical clock.

And like its complicated design, building such a table took unimaginable time and labor costs at the time. Oeben, the royal craftsman mentioned earlier, only designed the basic structure of the table and assembled a 1:9 wax model, which died before it was finished.

It was not until nine years later that an apprentice from Oeben joined hands with workers from 14 industries, including carpenters, blacksmiths, watchmakers, and so on, to build the precision furniture, which only existed in the design drawings.

Although it took a lot of time and labor to build such furniture at that time, this penchant for precision objects was passed on to Louis XVI, the next king of France.

When Louis XVI was crown prince, he showed great interest in objects such as machinery and locks, and even improved the structure of the guillotine used to execute prisoners, and such a king was naturally attracted by the strange structure of the office table at that time.

Like his predecessor Louis XV, Louis XVI had a skilled royal craftsman, David David Roentgen, who and his father, Abraham Rontgen, were regarded as the most influential craftsmen in Germany in the 18th century.

The difference between David Roentgen's portrait and ordinary craftsmen is that in addition to the basic furniture production, Roentgen and his son also mastered complex "fine wood mosaic" techniques, not through burning and carving, but using mosaic to show the light and dark effect of the pattern on wooden furniture, which also made him favored by Queen Mary at that time.

Roentgen draws furniture patterns through "fine wood mosaics". Therefore, Roentgen, who learned carpentry skills from his father, combined his own unique pattern drawing skills into furniture production and produced a number of works with unique functions. The famous Roentgen Game Table was his popular work at that time.

This game table is collected in the Metropolitan Museum. This rectangular table has built-in foldable legs and desktops. Its function is no longer the office, but as a "game platform" for aristocratic entertainment. Through a special metal axis, the desktop can be flipped three times in a row. Different desktops represent a different game.

Not only that, Roentgen even took into account the "portability" of the furniture. In addition to the game board, the four table legs can also be removed and put into the internal space, which is only the size of a wooden box after being completely folded.

In addition to both exquisite and portable toys, Roentgen can also develop extremely luxurious royal special versions of ordinary furniture such as bookcases, such as the "Berlin secretary cabinet", which is known as Germany's national treasure furniture.

Although the name is "bookcase", this behemoth takes into account the functions of a desk, a storage room, a clock, and so on. It will change its structure by pressing the corresponding button without the need for additional power sources:

The back of the bookcase and the shell are all painted by Roentgen's "fine wood mosaic" technology, making the bookcase one of the most complex and expensive furniture in Europe in the 18th century.

Roentgen himself was famous for his endless office furniture, and even Goethe, a famous writer at that time, lamented: "the cabinets produced by Roentgen furniture are as beautiful as castles in Wonderland." To this day, Germany still has the Abraham and David Roentgen Award named after them to award to outstanding designers in the field of furniture.

As mentioned in the Metropolitan Museum's Guide to 18th Century French Furniture, neoclassical furniture often has four characteristics-specific functions, complex mechanical structures, lacquer panels and mahogany. It can be seen that this kind of "office furniture" has become a unique style in France at that time.

Unfortunately, after the heyday, it was the beginning of the decline of "office furniture".

Because of the high cost and time needed to make such products, only aristocrats and palaces could enjoy them at that time, and the gorgeous appearance and high cost of these objects just became a symbol of royal extravagant life.

During the French Revolution, Louis XVI and Queen Mary, who loved Roentgen, were executed. Although Roentgen himself was not directly involved, like other craftsmen who made furniture for the royal family, his furniture workshop completely lost the French market. In 1793, the government regarded him as an exile and confiscated all the goods and property in his workshop. Roentgen fled back to Germany. Five years later, France invaded Germany, Prussia and Austria, which forced the closure of Roentgen's furniture workshop and eventually died in 1807.

Although the office furniture of Roentgen and other craftsmen bear witness to the history of royal luxury, there is still no denying the artistic value of these well-made objects. Today, these surviving handmade works, has also become a regular visitor to museums and collectors' showcases.

A Roentgen machine table sold for 370000 euros, even if it is the same antique, the value behind it is changing all the time. In the past, these desks were both witnesses to royal history and proof of craftsmanship in the eyes of craftsmen; now they are excellent materials for literary and artistic creation and high-quality collections in museums, just like the shape and function of these desks. it's always changing.

This article is from the official account of Wechat: game Research Society (ID:yysaag).

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