.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Incorporating bold Ionic fluted columnar legs, Corinthian columnar uprights and splats carved with attributes of the arts, this colorful suite of complex and imaginative design recalls the oeuvres of two of the foremost menusiers of this period; Georges Jacob (maître in 1765) and Jean-Baptiste Sené (maître in 1769). These celebrated menusiers dominated the market for furniture production in Paris during the last years of the Ancien Régime. Their principal clients were the royal couple, and between 1785 and 1791 they provided furniture for Fontainebleau, the Tuileries, Versailles, and particularly Saint-Cloud. These chairs were almost certainly made by the same maker as a canapé and a pair of fauteuils featuring the same legs, uprights, seat rails, and color scheme, sold Christie’s, Paris, 29 October 2024, lots 211-212. Our chairs were most likely created en suite with the above lots, or were at least part of the same commission. The confident carving to the legs of these chairs also relates this lot to a pair of console tables formerly in the Collection of the Duke of Sutherland at Stafford House, that are attributed to Georges Jacob. They were probably acquired by the first Duke of Sutherland between 1790-1792, during his tenure as Ambassador to France; he was known at this time to have acquired pieces of Royal provenance from the château de Saint-Cloud. The Stafford pair is identical to a further pair of console tables, probably conceived en suite, sold Christie’s, London, on 14 December 2005, lot 72 (£254,500).
The suite and these chairs also relate to the celebrated group of furniture by Jean-Baptiste Sené, delivered to the château de Saint-Cloud in 1788 for Marie-Antoinette's Cabinet de Toilette. The suite, featuring similarly elegant legs modelled as Ionic columns, comprised four fauteuils, a daybed, a bergère, a fire screen, and a footstool and incorporated the same ‘classical vocabulary, elegantly arranged’ (B. Pallot, Furniture Collections in the Louvre, Vol. II, 1993, Dijon, p. 167). Part of the suite is now housed in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (acc. no. 41.205.1, 2, 3a, b).
The suite and these chairs also relate to the celebrated group of furniture by Jean-Baptiste Sené, delivered to the château de Saint-Cloud in 1788 for Marie-Antoinette's Cabinet de Toilette. The suite, featuring similarly elegant legs modelled as Ionic columns, comprised four fauteuils, a daybed, a bergère, a fire screen, and a footstool and incorporated the same ‘classical vocabulary, elegantly arranged’ (B. Pallot, Furniture Collections in the Louvre, Vol. II, 1993, Dijon, p. 167). Part of the suite is now housed in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (acc. no. 41.205.1, 2, 3a, b).