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Lot Essay
This elegant set of chairs can be related to the oeuvre of the menuisier Agostino Gerli, who flourished in Milan circa 1769 after training in Paris in the atelier of Honoré Guibert. Gerli is recorded as having supplied furniture to Marie-Antoinette for the Petit Trianon, Versailles and is considered, along with the celebrated ornamental designer Giocondo Albertolli, among the precursors of the neoclassical style in Italy.
A related armchair with outscrolled rectangular back and foliate-carved quiver-shaped legs was made for Eugène de Beauharnais, Viceroy of the Kingdom of Italy and is illustrated in G. Morazzoni, Il Mobile Neoclassico Italiano, Milan, 1955, Pl. CCCV). Among related parcel-gilt and painted walnut examples, a side-chair featuring similar Corinthian capital-headed turned legs is in the Palazzo Reale, Milan (ill. C. Alberici, Il Mobile Lombardo, Milan, 1969, p. 214) and a closely related set of side-chairs with comparable foliate-carved quiver-shaped legs was sold, Sotheby's, London, 4 December 2007, lot 72 (24,500).
A related armchair with outscrolled rectangular back and foliate-carved quiver-shaped legs was made for Eugène de Beauharnais, Viceroy of the Kingdom of Italy and is illustrated in G. Morazzoni, Il Mobile Neoclassico Italiano, Milan, 1955, Pl. CCCV). Among related parcel-gilt and painted walnut examples, a side-chair featuring similar Corinthian capital-headed turned legs is in the Palazzo Reale, Milan (ill. C. Alberici, Il Mobile Lombardo, Milan, 1969, p. 214) and a closely related set of side-chairs with comparable foliate-carved quiver-shaped legs was sold, Sotheby's, London, 4 December 2007, lot 72 (24,500).