A PAIR OF RUSSIAN MAHOGANY OPEN ARMCHAIRS

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 Bedchamber of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and study of Tsarevich Alexander at the Winter Palace, 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 Decoration des Anciens Palais Imperiaux Russes, Paris/Brussels, 1928, fig. 175.