Lot Essay
The chair model is designed in the 'antique' style popularized by C. Percier and P. Fontaine. The Egyptian sphinx caryatid supports relate to designs published in George Smith's A Collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration (1808), pl. 55 and Thomas Sheraton's The Cabinet Dictionary of 1803, vol. I, pl. 7.
A chair of this model with open sides is at the Victoria & Albert Museum,London (access no. W.5-1939) and was reputedly acquired in 1939 from the Duke of Westminster (illustrated in R. Edwards ed., The Shorter Dictionary of English Furniture, 1964, p. 163, fig. 187); another is illustrated in F. Collard, Regency Furniture, 1985, p. 105. An identical bergere to the offered pair was sold Sotheby's London, 15 and 22 February 1991, lot 299.
A chair of this model with open sides is at the Victoria & Albert Museum,London (access no. W.5-1939) and was reputedly acquired in 1939 from the Duke of Westminster (illustrated in R. Edwards ed., The Shorter Dictionary of English Furniture, 1964, p. 163, fig. 187); another is illustrated in F. Collard, Regency Furniture, 1985, p. 105. An identical bergere to the offered pair was sold Sotheby's London, 15 and 22 February 1991, lot 299.