A PAIR OF CLASSICAL CARVED MAHOGANY ARMCHAIRS

This pair of armchairs is likely based on plate 667 of Pierre de la Mésangère's Collections des Meubles et Objets de Goût, a design source published from 1802 and widely copied in America. Labeled in the pattern book a Fauteuil de Salon, the form of these chairs typifies the French Restauration aesthetic, which appealed to the American audience.

The carved lotus motif was integrated into French nineteenth-century furniture designs after Napoleon's 1798 campaign into Egypt and the publication in 1802 of Baron Vivant Denon's Voyage dans la Basse et la Haute Égypte.