CIRCA 1740

Details

A SUITE OF EARLY LOUIS XV GILT-WALNUT SEAT-FURNITURE
CIRCA 1740
Comprising: four fauteuils and a canapé, each with an arched square back centered by a rocaille-carved cabochon issuing foliate trails, the shoulders further carved with rocaille and foliage, the padded back, arms and seat upholstered à chassis with burgundy cut-velvet, the downswept arms with scrolled terminals and foliate trails above a cartouche and rocaille-carved seat-rail, on foliate shell-headed cabriole legs terminating in scrolled toes, regilt, variously incised with numbers I-IV and the canape X, inscribed in pencil 'No. 1' through 'No. 5' and variously inscribed with Roman numerals in blue chalk, one fauteuil with blue-bordered paper label inscribed in pencil 'No. 9123' and another fauteuil with pencil inscription, the fauteuils with modern ink numbers '1-4'
62 in. (157.5 cm.) wide, the canape (5)

Provenance

Robert Loewenstein, sold Christie's London, 22 July 1948, lot 137.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

The design of this suite is indebted to the oeuvre of Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier, one of the preeminent designers of the Rococo period. This is particularly apparent in the design for a chair seen in a drawing for a doorway for the Baronness de Bezenval, wife of the Ambassador to the Polish court from 1719 to 1721, which was engraved by Huquier and illustrated in D. Nyberg, L'Oeuvre de Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier, New York, 1969, folio 49, as well Meissonnier's design for a pair of armchairs flanking a trumeau, which was designed for an anonymous Portuguese patron (folio 50).

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