Lot Essay
The X-form or curule stool, based on the Roman name, "sella curulis," extends back in history with its use as a folding stool documented in Egypt by 2000 B.C. Images and furniture depict that stools with crossed legs placed at the sides were made through the middle ages; it was during the Carolingian period of 751-987 that legs were placed at the front, and the stool developed into a chair with arm supports extending up from the crossed legs. Curule seats were traditionally reserved for religious or government officials as a place if honor; the form was readily adapted and used indiscrimantly by the fashion conscience designers of the mid-eighteenth and particularly the early nineteenth centuries who looked to antiquity for inspiration. See Jonathan Cox, A Geneology of the Curule Seat, (Art History Paper, Winterthur Museum, 1976).
Two of the earliest images signifying the revival of the X-form base include an alter painting by Lagrenee painted in 1764, and plate 224 of M. Roubo's, 1772 Le Menuisier en Meubles, which depicts folding stools of curule form (Cox, pp. 29,30). The French artist Jacques Louis David, in 1785 was the first artist to design furniture directly from antique prototypes, and by 1787, after designs by Hubert Robert, the French ebenisté, Georges Jacob, made a curule stool, or tabouret, for Marie Antoinette's dairy at the Chateau De Rambouillet (Lorraine Waxman, "French Influence on American Decorative Arts of the Early Nineteenth Century", (Master's thesis, University of Delaware, 1958); Woodside, "French Influence on American Furniture" " (Dissertation, University of Chicago, 1986), pp. 37, 77-78, 144).
It was not until the ninteenth century, however, that the curule base became widely recognized and integrated into furniture by designers and cabinetmakers alike. In 1802, Pierre de La Mésangère illustrated in plate 13 of his Meubles et Objets de Gout, a stool based on a Roman curule base. Over the ensuing years he added more designs, such as plate 201 in 1806, for a "Tabouret d'Apartment." Thomas Sheraton followed suit in his 1803 Cabinet Dictionary, in which he used the X-form as a base of several chair designs (vol. I, pl. 31; vol. II, pl.47). In 1807, Pericer and Fontaine, the official archietect-designers for Napoleon, published their yearly installments of designs, which included an "X-stool" in plate 39; they eventually published this with other plates in 1812 as Recueil de Décorations Intérieures. Also in 1807, Thomas Hope published designs for both types of stools represented to the right with a lapped version as the upper stool and a swepped version as the lower stool on the right (Designs for Houshold Furniture, plate 12 and 39). Hope also gave instruction for interior decoration, and depicted the arrangement of curule stools in a room setting, upholstered with fringe and lined up in rows before sofas. In 1808, George Smith published designs for "Drawing Room X-Seats," which he described as "An article adapted to elegant apartments, intended as ornamental and extra Seats in elegant Drawing Rooms" (A Collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration (London), pl. 53). Rudolph Akermann followed suit with a "Drawing Room Tabouret" in his Repository of Arts, 1809, plate 5
The design sources pictured to the right, are from the 1808 Supplement to the London Chair-Makers' and Carvers' Book of Prices. The stool on the upper right with the lapped base as illustrated in Plate 4, no. 1, is described in the price book as a "Grecian Stool" with "side lapped at the centres to form Grecian crosses...a turned rail framed into centres with turned pins; the seat, a square frame (for stuffing over)...0.6.9 [six shillings and nine pence]." Each additional embellishment was an extra cost, and the description and charges were also outlined, "Each extra turned rail framed across the stool...0.0.3. SINKING square tablets...into the front of the centres...to project above the surface, with the edges sweeped to the shape of crosses, each tablet...0.0.6"
The stool on the lower right is based on Plate 6, no.4, and is also called a "Grecian Stool." The stool is described with "each side formed with four sweeped pieces framed at the centres with tongue tenons...to form Grecian crosses;...a turned rail framed into the centres, with turned pins; straight seat-rails (for stuffing over)....0.8.11."
Two of the earliest images signifying the revival of the X-form base include an alter painting by Lagrenee painted in 1764, and plate 224 of M. Roubo's, 1772 Le Menuisier en Meubles, which depicts folding stools of curule form (Cox, pp. 29,30). The French artist Jacques Louis David, in 1785 was the first artist to design furniture directly from antique prototypes, and by 1787, after designs by Hubert Robert, the French ebenisté, Georges Jacob, made a curule stool, or tabouret, for Marie Antoinette's dairy at the Chateau De Rambouillet (Lorraine Waxman, "French Influence on American Decorative Arts of the Early Nineteenth Century", (Master's thesis, University of Delaware, 1958); Woodside, "French Influence on American Furniture" " (Dissertation, University of Chicago, 1986), pp. 37, 77-78, 144).
It was not until the ninteenth century, however, that the curule base became widely recognized and integrated into furniture by designers and cabinetmakers alike. In 1802, Pierre de La Mésangère illustrated in plate 13 of his Meubles et Objets de Gout, a stool based on a Roman curule base. Over the ensuing years he added more designs, such as plate 201 in 1806, for a "Tabouret d'Apartment." Thomas Sheraton followed suit in his 1803 Cabinet Dictionary, in which he used the X-form as a base of several chair designs (vol. I, pl. 31; vol. II, pl.47). In 1807, Pericer and Fontaine, the official archietect-designers for Napoleon, published their yearly installments of designs, which included an "X-stool" in plate 39; they eventually published this with other plates in 1812 as Recueil de Décorations Intérieures. Also in 1807, Thomas Hope published designs for both types of stools represented to the right with a lapped version as the upper stool and a swepped version as the lower stool on the right (Designs for Houshold Furniture, plate 12 and 39). Hope also gave instruction for interior decoration, and depicted the arrangement of curule stools in a room setting, upholstered with fringe and lined up in rows before sofas. In 1808, George Smith published designs for "Drawing Room X-Seats," which he described as "An article adapted to elegant apartments, intended as ornamental and extra Seats in elegant Drawing Rooms" (A Collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration (London), pl. 53). Rudolph Akermann followed suit with a "Drawing Room Tabouret" in his Repository of Arts, 1809, plate 5
The design sources pictured to the right, are from the 1808 Supplement to the London Chair-Makers' and Carvers' Book of Prices. The stool on the upper right with the lapped base as illustrated in Plate 4, no. 1, is described in the price book as a "Grecian Stool" with "side lapped at the centres to form Grecian crosses...a turned rail framed into centres with turned pins; the seat, a square frame (for stuffing over)...0.6.9 [six shillings and nine pence]." Each additional embellishment was an extra cost, and the description and charges were also outlined, "Each extra turned rail framed across the stool...0.0.3. SINKING square tablets...into the front of the centres...to project above the surface, with the edges sweeped to the shape of crosses, each tablet...0.0.6"
The stool on the lower right is based on Plate 6, no.4, and is also called a "Grecian Stool." The stool is described with "each side formed with four sweeped pieces framed at the centres with tongue tenons...to form Grecian crosses;...a turned rail framed into the centres, with turned pins; straight seat-rails (for stuffing over)....0.8.11."