Sedan chair of painted wood lined with green velvet, French, ca. 1745-1775

Wooden sedan chair, the outside divided into panels of various shapes by carved and gilt mouldings and painted with scrolls, flowers, floral festoons, trophies, figures and landscapes on a brown ground powdered with gold. The door is in front and the windows slide up and down. The interior is lined with yellow velvet woven with a large pomegranate device surrounded by floral and scroll patterns. The top outside is covered with leather and mounted in gilt metal

Purchased from David L. Isaacs, 44 & 46 New Oxford Street, for £100 (Nominal File MA/1/I306, Registered file 1890/84500). It was recorded there that the sedan chair was 'much worn and rubbed, portions missing, no poles'. It was described as 'Louis XIV' but is now thought to date from the middle of the 18th century.

Comments by Stephen Loft-Simpson, letter to Kate Hay, 14 December 2004:
"French, c. 1768--75. Box lid to seat typical of others from Marseille in 1770's. Nailed leather pattern to floor, typical of Savoy and Piedmont. Painted flowers probably 19th c. as none of this type survive. Assumed to be after 1768 when roller blinds were patented by Thomas Laycock, in England. Ornamentation style post rococo, pre neo-classical. 1765--1775. Style of pole lug more common in the north and central France, wooden upper panels are also more normal in central and northern France. Canvas panels (painted) the norm in the South. Not unlike the Denis Diderot 1771 Brouette in upper side profile." [Check meaning of last reference]

675:1 to 3-1890