The drawing shows the design for a ceremonial bench by Hugues Sambin (1520-1601). It was designed for the corner of a room, between a fireplace and a window. In the late sixteenth century, where one sat and what one sat upon was an important expression of social status. A seat with a back and arms in the lightest and warmest part of a room, such as the bench depicted, was appropriate for only the highest status individuals and accorded them the greatest honour.

The context for the drawing is the contract on the same sheet signed on the 10th of August 1588, by which the bench was commissioned by a Jehan Fleutelot, merchant of Dijon, from François Motot, master carpenter, according to the design by Sambin. The contract specifically details Sambin as the designer of the ‘model’. The payment was of twelve écu six sols, a fairly low sum compared to the 122 écu that Sambin received in 1584 for an enclosure in the Palace of Justice in Dijon and the nearby Porte du Scrin. In these cases, however, Sambin was probably both designer and executor, therefore commanding a higher price; in this case, Motot is clearly described as the carpenter and sculptor. The destination of the bench is not given in the contract, but it was probably for a civic building rather than a private one. It has been suggested that it might have been for the Petition Chamber installed in 1588 in the Hotel de Talmay near the Palace of Justice in Dijon. In 1579, Sambin received a payment for a project pertaining to that room.

The bench and its carved decoration is rendered in detail and with a fluent, accomplished hand. The naivety of the drawing in matters of perspective may be the result of another hand having provided the architectural outline, into which Sambin inserted the bench design. The only other reference points for Sambin’s hand as a draughtsman are a number of small-scale prints. The style of the bench corresponds closely to elements in Sambin’s few securely attributed works (though no carved works are signed), including the enclosure and door in the Palace of Justice in Dijon, the Cabinet of Gauthiot d’Ancier in the Palais Granvelle in Besançon, and the Book of Terms of 1572.