A SET OF SIX DIRECTOIRE MAHOGANY DINING CHAIRS

CIRCA 1795

細節

A SET OF SIX DIRECTOIRE MAHOGANY DINING CHAIRS
Circa 1795
In the manner of Bernard Molitor, comprising two armchairs and four side chairs, each with outscrolled turned crestrail above a tablet back with lozenge panel centring a male mask and lotus-carved edge, the padded seat covered in pale green silk, on circular tapering legs with reeded collars and animal paw feet headed by paterae, four chairs with printed paper labels Garde Meuble Public/18 Rue St. Augustin/30259/Bedel et Cie. (6)

來源

Sold in these Rooms, 8 May 1991, lot 131

拍品專文

The distinctive combination of antique masks centring lozenges above a lappet-carved frieze with monopodia legs and a detached baluster-turned crestrail firmly link these elegant, classically-inspired chairs to the documented oeuvre of the Luxembourg-born ébéniste Bernard Molitor (maître in 1787). A virtually identical set of dining chairs was sold in these Rooms, 19 May 1988, lot 195. This latter set was sold together with a pair of day beds which are now firmly attributed to Molitor and identified as having been purchased by the Swiss collector General Nicolas-Antoine-Xavier de Castella de Berlens for his château at Wallenried, near Fribourg, Switzerland (see U.Leben, Molitor, London, 1992, pp.204-5, cat. 156B, also illustrated on front cover). The lappet-carved frieze also appears on a day bed stamped Molitor, sold Sotheby's Monaco, 17 June 1988, lot 667. Following the abolition of the guild system in 1791 ébénistes were no longer restricted to making case furniture and Molitor was one of the first cabinet-makers to profit from this relaxation of the rules to include a wide range of seat furniture in his repertoire in fashionable à l'antique styles.