[6] The elder Roussel's father was a simple compagnon, a journeyman cabinetmaker working for a master ébéniste.
[8] From modest beginnings, by the 1760s Roussel worked himself to the top of his profession: he was appointed a juré in 1762 and by 1780 and had held other offices in the Corporation des Menuisiers-Ébénistes.
[10] At the time of his death, the inventory was compiled by a noted ébéniste, Jean-François Leleu and Jean-Baptiste Cochois.
Roussel's son Pierre-Michel established himself as a furniture dealer in fashionable rue St-Honoré.
Pierre II Roussel, "le jeune" inherited the family shop from his mother, who had continued to run it after her husband's death, using the same stamp,[12] but in 1792 he closed it, to deal exclusively in exotic timbers and veneers.