Lot Essay
These elegant giltwood tabourets, stamped ‘ES’ and with the Stockholm chair-makers brand, are superb examples of the innovative neo-classical style developed by the celebrated Court chair maker Ephraim Stahl (d. 1820) circa 1800. The design with crossed legs terminating in beaks, relates to Antique examples in bronze, found in Herculaneum and drawn up by the Swedish architect Jean Eric Rehn (d. 1793) following his visit to Italy in 1756. There is a small group of virtually identical examples of tabourets stamped by Stahl, illustrated in E. Norderfelt, ‘Ephraim Stahl’, Stockholm, 2007, pp. 154-157. His first Royal commissions date from the turn of the Century and he supplied to the Royal Place for the use of the Dowager Queen Sofia Magdalena ‘fauteuils in the antique fashion with sculptures to be used in the Queen’s bathroom’; and no less than 72 armchairs for Crown Prince Gustaf’s apartments in the Palace in 1803. His work appears in most Royal residences in Sweden, besides the Royal Place, also at Gripsholm, Tullgarn et Rosersberg, which he supplied to King Gustaf IV Adolf, Karl XIII and Karl XIV.