AN EMPIRE GILTWOOD CURULE CHAISE

The archaeologically-inspired form of this finely sculpted chaise was derived from the Roman consular curule. The rediscovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum in the earlier part of the 18th century, as well as Napoleon's Egyptian campaigns of 1798, led to a new vocabulary of ornament that was swiftly adopted by architects and Parisian designers. This curule form in particular was reinvented by Charles Percier and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine, architects and designers to Napoleon I. Drawings for several closely related chairs by Charles Percier intended as models for Georges Jacob, and two similar fauteuils signed by Jacob, are illustrated in D. Ledoux-Lebard, Le Mobilier Français du XIXe Siècle 1795-1889, Paris, 1989, p. 283 and 331. A related mahogany version, attributed to the celebrated ébéniste Franois-Honoré-Georges Jacob Desmalter (d.1814), for whom Percier executed the design, is also illustrated by D. Ledoux-Lebard (ibid. p.283).