CIRCA 1820-30, POSSIBLY BRUSSELS

Details

A SUITE OF EMPIRE ORMOLU-MOUNTED MAHOGANY SEAT FURNITURE
CIRCA 1820-30, POSSIBLY BRUSSELS
Comprising a set of four fauteuils and a pair of chaises en gondole, each with arched and curved back and drop-in seat covered in dark red fabric, the channelled frame decorated with stylised flower-heads and flanked to the cresting with trailing husks, the fauteuils with square-sectioned arms terminating in foliate scrolls and with leaf-wrapped turned tapering supports, above pannelled rails centred with a floral pattera and trailing foliage, and on turned tapering legs with leaf-wrapped capitals, three fauteuils with paper label inscribed in ink 'Bibliothèque', one chair incised 'B'
32 in. (81.5 cm.) high (the chairs); 34 in. (86 cm.) high (the fauteuils) (6)

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

This elegant and richly-mounted suite of seat-furniture derives from the celebrated furniture designs by Charles Percier (1764-1838) and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine (1762-1853) published in 1801. They are closely related to chairs supplied by Jacob-Desmalter to various foreign courts such as those purchased by Duke Ernst Saxe-Coburg-Gotha for Cobourg circa 1815 (L. de Groër, Les Arts Décoratifs de 1790 à 1850, Fribourg, 1985, p. 131, fig 236). Other related suites of furniture were supplied by Jacob-Desmalter for the Palais Royal in Brussels.

Interestingly, the present chairs have rails in elm, and they may indeed have been executed in Brussles to extend an existing set which had been imported from Paris.

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