Lot Essay
Designed in the Louis XIV 'antique' style popularised by Jean Brain, these pliants are of related character to the celebrated suites of X-frame folding stools supplied almost exclusively to the Garde-Meuble throughout the 18th Century. Of these, amongst the earliest recorded are those supplied for the chambre de la Reine at Versailles in 1737, for the Nouvelle Chambre de Louis XV in 1739 and, subsequently, for the Cabinet Intrieur du Roi. A pair of stools thought to be from the former suite is now at Waddesdon and discussed in G. de Bellaigue, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, Lonodn, 1974, no.50 a & b, pp.72-5.