THE PROPERTY OF A LADY
A PAIR OF GILTWOOD BERGERES, each with arched rectangular padded back, arms and squab-cushion covered in ribbon-tied floral tapestry on an ivory ground, the laurel-bound fluted frame above a pair of scrolled channelled arms with stiff-leaf terminals, husk-trails and beading above a fluted ribbon-twist seat-rail and on part-gadrooned, spirally-fluted turned tapering legs, refreshment to gilding, both inscribed 1842, with pencil inscriptions 3-33 and 4-33 respectively, late 18th early 19th Century (2)

Details
A PAIR OF GILTWOOD BERGERES, each with arched rectangular padded back, arms and squab-cushion covered in ribbon-tied floral tapestry on an ivory ground, the laurel-bound fluted frame above a pair of scrolled channelled arms with stiff-leaf terminals, husk-trails and beading above a fluted ribbon-twist seat-rail and on part-gadrooned, spirally-fluted turned tapering legs, refreshment to gilding, both inscribed 1842, with pencil inscriptions 3-33 and 4-33 respectively, late 18th early 19th Century (2)
Provenance
Probably acquired by Ogden Goelet, Long Island, New York.
By descent to his daughter Mary Goelet, who married Henry, 8th Duke of Roxburghe in 1903.
Thence by descent to the 10th Duke of Roxburghe, Floors Castle, Kelso, Roxburghshire, sold Christie's house sale, 17 September 1990, lot 100

Lot Essay

The arched-back bergères with flowered tablets and fluted rails in the 'antique' manner, have richly spiralled-feet, recalling Jupiter's thunderbolt, and relate to those of a chair bearing the brand of the menuisier Sulpice Brizard (maître in 1762) (see: Gismondi Catalogue, Paris, 1988, p. 77).

They are likely to have formed part of the fine collection of French furniture introduced to Floors Castle, Scotland, following the marriage in 1903 of Henry Innes-Ker, 8th Duke of Roxburghe (d. 1932) to Mary Goelet. Much of the collection had furnished her father Ogden Goelet's mansion on Long Island, New York

The legs' form also corresponds to the columnar-supports of a chimneypiece introduced to the exotic Turkish-style apartments of Marie Antoinette at Fontainebleau in 1777 (see: H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol.II, p. 569)

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