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Lot Essay
With their distinctive shaped apron, hipped cartouche frame of the back and restrained, plain panel to the top of the channelled cabriole legs which reflects the early stirrings of Neoclassicism grafted onto a Louis XV 'cabriole' frame, these fauteuils - of unusually wide dimensions - are extremely close to the documented oeuvre of the menuisier Jean-Baptiste Lebas (maître in 1756). An extremely closely related fauteuil in walnut, stamped by Lebas and possibly from a design by J.R. Lucotte, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and is illustrated in C. Packer, Paris Furniture by the Master Ebénistes, Newport, 1956, fig.100.
Established in the rue de Cléry at the sign of the Saint-Esprit, Lebas worked for a distinguished and wealthy clientele including the comte d'Artois and Madame du Barry at Louveciennes. This type of 'cabriole' chair proved to be extremely influential on English chairmakers in the 1770's, and were often referred to as 'rout' chairs in contemporary documentation.
Established in the rue de Cléry at the sign of the Saint-Esprit, Lebas worked for a distinguished and wealthy clientele including the comte d'Artois and Madame du Barry at Louveciennes. This type of 'cabriole' chair proved to be extremely influential on English chairmakers in the 1770's, and were often referred to as 'rout' chairs in contemporary documentation.