Settee
1800-1900 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This small settee is a careful reproduction of a model first made in about 1770 in Paris by the carver and chair-maker Jean-Baptiste Lebas (1729- ca. 1800). The two originals on which it is based are in the collections of the Louvre Museum in Paris.
In the middle of the nineteenth century the fashion for furnishing houses in the French styles of the eighteenth century was dominant. Many such pieces were made, not to deceive purchasers but to create for them ‘Louis XV’ or ‘Louis XVI’ interiors. Some such pieces were very loosely in the style they purported to imitate, but this is a carefully made piece and when it first came to the V&A it was thought, in fact, to date from the eighteenth century.
An engraving of this model of settee was published in 1887 in a dictionary of interior decoration and it may be that publicity that made it popular with makers of reproduction furniture.
The settee is currently on long loan to Cliffe Castle Museum, Keighley, West Yorkshire
In the middle of the nineteenth century the fashion for furnishing houses in the French styles of the eighteenth century was dominant. Many such pieces were made, not to deceive purchasers but to create for them ‘Louis XV’ or ‘Louis XVI’ interiors. Some such pieces were very loosely in the style they purported to imitate, but this is a carefully made piece and when it first came to the V&A it was thought, in fact, to date from the eighteenth century.
An engraving of this model of settee was published in 1887 in a dictionary of interior decoration and it may be that publicity that made it popular with makers of reproduction furniture.
The settee is currently on long loan to Cliffe Castle Museum, Keighley, West Yorkshire
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Carved and water-gilded beech, with upholstery covered in brocaded silk woven with flowers |
| Brief description | A two-seater settee in gilded wood, upholstered in a modern flowered, brocaded silk, French, about 1860-1900, the model based on a design by Jean-Baptiste Lebas (1729-ca. 1800) |
| Physical description | A two-seater settee in gilded wood, upholstered in a modern flowered, brocaded silk, with cabriole legs and arm supports, the rails carved with guilloche ornament. |
| Dimensions |
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| Credit line | Bequeathed by Mr William T. Johnson |
| Object history | Made between 1860 and 1900, either in Paris or London, the design taken from settees by Jean-Bapiste Lebas (1729-ca.1800) made in about 1770 and now in the collections of the Musée du Louvre (inv. nos. OA 5157 abd OA 5158). An engraving of the design was published in Henry Havard, Dictionaire de l'Ameublement, vol I (Paris, 1887), cols. 557-558. Bequeathed to the Museum in 1944 (Registered File 44/487) without any earlier history. A canapé (settee) of similar design, said to belong to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris is illustrated in Seymour de Ricci, Louis XVI Furniture, (Stuttgart, Julius Hoffmann, n.d., 1930s ?), p.220. |
| Summary | This small settee is a careful reproduction of a model first made in about 1770 in Paris by the carver and chair-maker Jean-Baptiste Lebas (1729- ca. 1800). The two originals on which it is based are in the collections of the Louvre Museum in Paris. In the middle of the nineteenth century the fashion for furnishing houses in the French styles of the eighteenth century was dominant. Many such pieces were made, not to deceive purchasers but to create for them ‘Louis XV’ or ‘Louis XVI’ interiors. Some such pieces were very loosely in the style they purported to imitate, but this is a carefully made piece and when it first came to the V&A it was thought, in fact, to date from the eighteenth century. An engraving of this model of settee was published in 1887 in a dictionary of interior decoration and it may be that publicity that made it popular with makers of reproduction furniture. The settee is currently on long loan to Cliffe Castle Museum, Keighley, West Yorkshire |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | W.8-1944 |
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| Record created | June 24, 2009 |
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