Armchair
- Place of origin:
- Date:
- Artist/Maker:
- Materials and Techniques:
Gilded beech, upholstery of rayon damask
- Credit Line:
Bequeathed by Mrs T. R. P. Hole, from the collection of Bettine, Lady Abingdon
- Museum number:
- Gallery location:
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This armchair was made for one of the heroes of Napoleon's army, Marshal Ney (1769–1815). It was made by the largest and best-known furniture-making firm in Paris in the 1800s, Jacob-Desmalter. The firm had been founded in 1765 by Georges Jacob, who supplied carved furniture and chairs for Queen Marie Antoinette (1755-93) before the French Revolution. During the revolutionary years, Jacob took care to maintain favour with whichever government currently ruled France. In 1796 his sons took over the business, and in 1803 the firm of Jacob Frères changed its name to Jacob-Desmalter. The Emperor Napoleon spent huge sums on redecorating the former royal palaces, and the firm undertook much of the work. Its workshops also supplied furniture to members of the new imperial court.
Ney ordered this chair as part of a suite of furniture for his house in Paris, the Hôtel de Saisseval. It stood in the Petit Salon. An inventory of the house, taken after his execution in 1815, listed the furniture of the Petit Salon as of mahogany with upholstery of blue brocaded satin. The current brown upholstery was probably put onto the chair in the 1930s.
Physical description
A fauteuil or armchair of gilded beech. The rails and uprights are mostly of rectangular section, the back legs slightly raked, the front legs carved at the base with lions' paws. The front legs rise to form the arms supports and are carved at the top with winged sphinx heads which are gessoed and gilded. The back uprights carry three channels of fluting, the seat rails are decorated with roundels. Lotus heads are carved at the junctions of the arms and the back. The gilding has undergone restoration and the upholstery is renewed. The webbing is uncoloured, open set in the English fashion.
Place of Origin
Paris, France (made)
Date
1803-13 (made)
Artist/maker
Jacob-Desmalter (maker)
Materials and Techniques
Gilded beech, upholstery of rayon damask
Marks and inscriptions
Not stamped. Carries a paper label on the inside back rail printed with the arms of Stuart and with the ink inscription 'Sir Charles Stuart KB' (over another label), and another, heart-shaped, inscribed in ink 'Seize fauteuils de Bois dor fond vert dessein blanc avec housse. Paris le 20 Aout 1816'.
Dimensions
Height: 92.5 cm, Width: 60.5 cm, Depth: 60 cm
Object history note
These armchairs are a simpler (unstamped) version of the design of W.3a&b-1987 and W.5a&b-1987. As all three groups carry the same paper label referring to a set of 16, they were clearly treated as one set as early as 1816, when they were in the possession of Sir Charles Stuart. The similarity of elements of these armchairs to many other sets of seat furniture supplied to Jacob Freres and Jacob-Desmalter makes identification from inventories and accounts particularly difficult. The motifs were widely used by the firm of Jacob from c. 1800, both for mahogany chairs and for giltwood. These are close to a set of seat furniture now at Malmaison, in the Salon de Compagnie, originally supplied for Saint Cloud.
Descriptive line
Armchair or bergere of mahogany with gilt-bronze mounts, upholstered in brown rayon damask
Exhibition History
Le Corbusier: The Art of Architecture (Barbican Art Gallery 19/02/2009-24/05/2009)
Labels and date
ARMCHAIR
W.7a-1987
'American and European Art and Design 1800-1900'
The label, which makes it clear that this chair is one of a set of sixteen, is dated 'Paris le 20 Avril 1816'. A second label is inscribed 'Sir Charles Stuart KB' with his arms, for the later Lord Stuart de Rothesay (1779-1845), who had been appointed ambassador to Paris a year earlier. The upholstery is modern, although the colour reflects the original.
From the Bettine Lady Abingdon Collection [1987-2006]
Materials
Beech; Gilt bronze; Damask
Techniques
Carving; Gilding; Joinery
Categories
Furniture
Collection code
FWK
