Live Auction 7864500 Years: Decorative Arts Europe
AN EMPIRE GILTWOOD FAUTEUIL
Lot 87 THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN 

AN EMPIRE GILTWOOD FAUTEUIL

BY PIERRE-GASTON BRION, SUPPLIED BY ALEXANDRE MAIGRET, CIRCA 1810

Closed8 July 2010

Price Realised

GBP 8,750

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AN EMPIRE GILTWOOD FAUTEUIL
BY PIERRE-GASTON BRION, SUPPLIED BY ALEXANDRE MAIGRET, CIRCA 1810
The outscrolled back, padded arms and seat covered in burgundy red velvet applied with passementerie, the arms with acanthus-wrapped terminals centred by floral rosettes, on turned tapering and foliate-carved legs with gadrooned collars terminating in toupie feet, stamped 'MAIGRET'
40½ in. (102 cm.) high; 26¾ in. (68 cm.) wide

Probably part of a suite of seat furniture reputedly given by Napoleon Bonaparte to the Ottoman Sultan Selim III or Sultan Mahmud II and subsequently sold, Palais Galleria, Paris, 4 December 1963 (a set of eleven fauteuils).
And possibly part of the suite sold, Palais Galleria, Paris, 13 December 1968.

Specialist note

The present fauteuil probably formed part of a salon suite stamped by both Alexandre Maigret, tapissier-ébéniste, and Pierre-Gaston Brion, maître-sculpteur, sold in Paris 4 December 1963 with the provenance of the Sultan of Turkey and apparently given to the latter by Napoleon. One fauteuil of this suite is illustrated in D. Ledoux-Lebard, Le Mobilier Français du XIXème Siècle, Paris, 2000, p.106.

Maigret -who acted as main supplier to the Emperor in his capacity as tapissier - is also recorded to have provided a plethora of pieces to the Garde-Meuble, among which a closely related suite of seat furniture for the Palais de Saint-Cloud, now in the Grand Trianon, Versailles (ill. Ibid., p. 454).

Chiefly known for the seat furniture ordered by Napoleon and supplied to the Garde-Meuble Impérial in December 1811, Brion is himself perhaps best remembered for the celebrated lit de parade he executed for Charles X after the death of Louis XVIII, now in the Musée du Louvre and illustrated Ibid, pp. 102-103.