FIRST QUARTER 19TH CENTURY

These fauteuils compare closely to the production of the menuisier-sculpteurs Pierre-Antoine Bellangé and Pierre-Gaston Brion for the Garde-Meuble Impérial. The distinctive lion-masks heading the arms and the ornamented tapering legs give a sculptural quality which distinguishes them from plainer seat furniture also bearing the Duc du Bourbon marque au fer (see the collection of the Comte and Comtesse de Paris, from la Quinta do Anjinho, Sotheby's, Monaco, 14 - 15 December 1996, lots 188, FF 189,200). It is also interesting to note that these fauteuils retain their contemporary dotted blue silk upholstery edged in woven gilt and silver brocade.

The crowned 'LB' stamp is the mark of Louis, Duc du Bourbon and Prince du Condé. In 1814 he returned from exile in England to reclaim all of his pictures and furniture seized during the Revolution from the Palais Bourbon and Chantilly. Much of these had, however subsequently enriched the Palais des Tuileries during the Napoleonic period, and Louis XVIII, on his Restauration, decided to retain the Louis XVI furnishings at the Tuileries. In compensation for this, the King presented the Prince de Condé with official Empire furniture from the holdings of the Garde-Meuble, and it is likely that it was through these means that the present pair of Empire fauteuils entered the Bourbon collections.