A PAIR OF RUSSIAN MAHOGANY ARMCHAIRS

Delicately carved, this pair of mahogany armchairs is characteristic of St. Petersburg chair-making of the 1820s. Closely related examples were part of the furnishings of most of the Imperial palaces during this period, such as those in the study of Tsarevich Alexander at the Winter Palace which was depicted in watercolour by Eduard Petrovich Hau (1807-'87) (E. Ducamp, ed., The Winter Palace, St. Petersburg, 1995, p. 138). A further closely related example is illustrated in G. Loukomski, Mobilier et Décoration des Anciens Palais Impériaux Russes, Paris/Brussels, 1928, fig. 175.