AN LOUIS XV PARCEL-GILT AND POLYCHROME-PAINTED LEATHER SEDAN CHAIR

Details

AN LOUIS XV PARCEL-GILT AND POLYCHROME-PAINTED LEATHER SEDAN CHAIR
MID-18TH CENTURY

Of typical form with close-nailed domed leather top fitted with ormolu and scrolling finials above a door fitted with a sliding glazed window, the interior fitted with emerald green cut velvet, the sides similarly fitted, the angles with scrolling chutes decorated with scenes from the myth of Daphne and Apollo, and a the coat-of-arms of Ducal on a later close-nailed brown leather plinth-72½in. (104cm.) high, 31in. (79cm.) wide, 38¼in. (97cm.) deep

Provenance

Sotheby and Co., Toronto, 17-19 October 1967, lot 389.

Lot Essay

The arms are those of de la Tour impaling Coriolis. The scenes depicted on this sedan chair are undoubtably from the myth of Apollo and Daphne. The vignettes show the river nymph and her father trying to escape the Sun God's advances by the creation of maritime disasters. The rear of the chair shows Apollo's chariot's arrival, dispelling the storms. Daphne prayed to Zeus, however, and was turned into a laurel tree, thus escaping Apollo. The myth symbolizes the triumph of Chastity over Passion.

A related sedan chair is illustrated in H. Huth, Lacquer of the West, 1971, pl. 254.