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Lot Essay
Nicolas-Quinibert Foliot, matre in 1729
This corner bergre, of basically Rococo form but incorporating certain neo-classical features, exemplifies the Transitional style of the early 1760s as reflected in the late production of Foliot's workshop. While Foliot's role in the introduction of neo-classicism is difficult to assess, due to the lack of surviving seat-furniture, the use of acanthus leaves on the seat-rail joints and scoll feet, berried laurel swag on the cresting and overlapping leaves and rosettes point to the carver's acquaintance with the most recent stylistic changes.
The carver of this corner bergre may well have been Foliot's brother, Toussaint, with whom Nicolas-Quinibert worked on several occasions, most notably for the Garde-Meuble. An as yet untraced suite of seat-furniture, commisioned for the Petit Trianon and executed in collaboration with Toussaint certainly suggests that Nicolas-Quinibert worked in a more traditional Louis XV idiom, whilst his brother was responsible for the introduction of more innovative neo-classical carving. Unfortunately, none of these chairs has been identified, although the description in the contemporary accounts of the Garde-Meuble clearly indicates that, whilst the frames were of a Louis XV form, the carving done was executed in a truly neo-classical vein (S. Eriksen, Early Neo-Classicism in France, London, 1974, p. 335).
The provenance of the Alexander bergere remains tantalisingly unidentified, but it was certainly part of an important order and several pieces with identical carving, also stamped by N. Q. Foliot and undoubtedly from the same suite, are recorded. Of these, a fauteuil en confident, canap and two armchairs were with Patridge in 1950; and a pair of fauteuils en cabriolet and a canap was sold from the collection of Sir Alfred Beit, Christie's London, 17 April 1980, lot 110. According to B. G. P. Pallot, two fauteuils la reine and a fauteuil confident, similarly inscribed in ink no. 1306 and 1308 like the Alexander bergere, remain in Sir Alfred Beit's collection at Russborough, Co. Wicklow, Ireland (B. G. P. Pallot, L'Art du Sige au XVIIIe Sicle en France, Courbevoie-Paris, 1987, p. 184).
This corner bergre, of basically Rococo form but incorporating certain neo-classical features, exemplifies the Transitional style of the early 1760s as reflected in the late production of Foliot's workshop. While Foliot's role in the introduction of neo-classicism is difficult to assess, due to the lack of surviving seat-furniture, the use of acanthus leaves on the seat-rail joints and scoll feet, berried laurel swag on the cresting and overlapping leaves and rosettes point to the carver's acquaintance with the most recent stylistic changes.
The carver of this corner bergre may well have been Foliot's brother, Toussaint, with whom Nicolas-Quinibert worked on several occasions, most notably for the Garde-Meuble. An as yet untraced suite of seat-furniture, commisioned for the Petit Trianon and executed in collaboration with Toussaint certainly suggests that Nicolas-Quinibert worked in a more traditional Louis XV idiom, whilst his brother was responsible for the introduction of more innovative neo-classical carving. Unfortunately, none of these chairs has been identified, although the description in the contemporary accounts of the Garde-Meuble clearly indicates that, whilst the frames were of a Louis XV form, the carving done was executed in a truly neo-classical vein (S. Eriksen, Early Neo-Classicism in France, London, 1974, p. 335).
The provenance of the Alexander bergere remains tantalisingly unidentified, but it was certainly part of an important order and several pieces with identical carving, also stamped by N. Q. Foliot and undoubtedly from the same suite, are recorded. Of these, a fauteuil en confident, canap and two armchairs were with Patridge in 1950; and a pair of fauteuils en cabriolet and a canap was sold from the collection of Sir Alfred Beit, Christie's London, 17 April 1980, lot 110. According to B. G. P. Pallot, two fauteuils la reine and a fauteuil confident, similarly inscribed in ink no. 1306 and 1308 like the Alexander bergere, remain in Sir Alfred Beit's collection at Russborough, Co. Wicklow, Ireland (B. G. P. Pallot, L'Art du Sige au XVIIIe Sicle en France, Courbevoie-Paris, 1987, p. 184).