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A PAIR OF DIRECTOIRE MAHOGANY CURULE-FORM ARMCHAIRS
- CIRCA 1795

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A PAIR OF DIRECTOIRE MAHOGANY CURULE-FORM ARMCHAIRS
CIRCA 1795
Estimate
(Set Currency)
    $20,000 - $30,000

Sale Information

Sale 2350
500 Years: Decorative Arts Europe, Including Oriental Carpets
21 - 22 October 2010
New York, Rockefeller Plaza Buy Catalog





Lot Description

A PAIR OF DIRECTOIRE MAHOGANY CURULE-FORM ARMCHAIRS
CIRCA 1795
After the Antique, each armchair with lion head arm terminals, covered in original silk and wool needlework (2)

Lot Condition Report
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Provenance

Acquired from La Pendulerie, Paris.

Lot Notes

The design of these armchairs after an Antique 'folding stool' or 'tabouret à montants' was derived from the Roman consular curule. The rediscovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum in the earlier part of the 18th century, led cabinetmakers to create archaeologically-inspired forms such as this form of armchair.

This curule form in particular was reinvented by the architects Charles Percier (d.1838), and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine (d.1853) in their Recueil de décorations intérieures, 1801 where similar designs were published (see D. Ledoux-Lebard, Le Mobilier Français du XIX Siècle, Paris, 1989, p. 283). A related mahogany version, attributed to the celebrated ébéniste Franois-Honoré-Georges Jacob Desmalter (d.1814), for whom Percier executed the design, is also illustrated by D. Ledoux-Lebard (ibid. p.283).

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