A SET OF FOUR DUTCH MAHOGANY FAUTEUILS

These four chairs are very closely related to a set of chairs supplied to Louis Napoleon by Joseph Cuel (1763-1846) for the officer's salon in the Dam Palace, Amsterdam. Cuel established himself as a tapissier in Holland in circa 1790. He was comissioned to furnish the House Barnaart in Haarlem, in 1806. When Louis Napoleon stayed there in 1807 Cuel must have been brougth to his attention. Starting in 1808 Cuel received several royal comissions to furnish various palaces in the Netherlands. As a tapissier Cuel supplied the soft furnishings and seat furniture. Cuel acquired his seat furniture from both Parisian and Dutch sources; where the French chair would in most cases serve as an example for the Dutch craftsmen. One of the most accomplished chairmakers of this period was Albert Eeltjes Faiseur de Chaises in the Hague. The present set of four show a similar solution for the moulded toprail and rectangular back with relief mouldings to a set attributed to Eeltjes was sold in these rooms, 29 September, 1999, lot 737.