Armchair

One of a set of six armchairs, four small settees and a sofa, F208-18. Armchair (fauteuil) with a carved and gilt frame of beech, upholstered on a chassis frame and covered with modern coral silk faille.

This set of seat furniture appears to have been made for the duc de Montmorency in the mid 1780s, probably for his principal Parisian residence, the Hôtel de Montmorency in the rue Saint-Marc. The set originally consisted of at least seventeen pieces and, judging from the numbers on the settees, may have been larger still.

Similar ionic pilasters and similarly shaped legs appear in an armchair design published in the 'Cabinet des Modes' in 1786. In other respects this set resembles seat furniture by Georges Jacob (1739-1814), including the arched tops of the armchairs and sofa and the bowed fronts of the whole set, forms favoured by Jacob and found on the miniature armchair submitted as his pièce de maîtrise. The prominent cornice above the legs resembles that on the armchairs made by Jacob for the card room at Saint-Cloud in 1787. The vase-shaped finials on the arms are late-nineteenth-century additions.

Fragments of blue and cream lampas found in 1981 almost certainly represent the original covers, although they were not large enough to identify the pattern. By 1795 the lampas had been replaced by 'perse ananas', a chintz with a design of pineapples. By 1852 the set was covered with Beauvais tapestries.