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Lot Essay
Pierre-Else Langlois, maître in 1774.
Jean-François Leleu, maître in 1764.
This extensive set of dining chairs was conceived in the sober, unadorned taste of the late 18th Century known as the goût anglais, which used simple functional forms undisturbed by gilt-bronze mounts and was often based directly on English prototypes.
An interesting light is shed on the taste for furniture à l'anglaise among sophisticated Parisian patrons by a series of letters between the Marquis de Marigny, brother of Madame de Pompadour, and from 1751-1773 Directeur Général des Batiments, Jardins, Arts, Académies et Manufactures Royales, and the ébéniste Pierre Garnier, one of the first cabinet-makers to explore the new Neoclassical style. Marigny praised the virtues of mahogany and ordered a set of 36 fauteuils from Garnier, as well as other furniture of a similar restrained style (see S. Eriksen, 'Some letters from the Marquis de Marigny to his cabinet-maker Pierre Garnier', F.H.S.J., 1972, pp. 78-85).
Both Langlois and Leleu supplied furniture to the fabulously wealthy Jean-Joseph, Marquis de Laborde (1724-1794) who in 1784 acquired the Château de Méréville and decorated it in the latest neoclassical taste, with à l'antique mahogany furniture and gardens designed by Hubert Robert.
Jean-François Leleu, maître in 1764.
This extensive set of dining chairs was conceived in the sober, unadorned taste of the late 18th Century known as the goût anglais, which used simple functional forms undisturbed by gilt-bronze mounts and was often based directly on English prototypes.
An interesting light is shed on the taste for furniture à l'anglaise among sophisticated Parisian patrons by a series of letters between the Marquis de Marigny, brother of Madame de Pompadour, and from 1751-1773 Directeur Général des Batiments, Jardins, Arts, Académies et Manufactures Royales, and the ébéniste Pierre Garnier, one of the first cabinet-makers to explore the new Neoclassical style. Marigny praised the virtues of mahogany and ordered a set of 36 fauteuils from Garnier, as well as other furniture of a similar restrained style (see S. Eriksen, 'Some letters from the Marquis de Marigny to his cabinet-maker Pierre Garnier', F.H.S.J., 1972, pp. 78-85).
Both Langlois and Leleu supplied furniture to the fabulously wealthy Jean-Joseph, Marquis de Laborde (1724-1794) who in 1784 acquired the Château de Méréville and decorated it in the latest neoclassical taste, with à l'antique mahogany furniture and gardens designed by Hubert Robert.