CIRCA 1730

Designed in the early Louis XV 'pittoresque' style, these tabourets are typical of the transition from the restraint of the earlier Régence style - with their shallow hatched relief carving and symmetrical motifs to the seatrails - to the full-blown Rococo of the mid-18th century, when the slight cabriole legs and bowed seats shown here became increasingly exaggerated and asymmetrical. They are related to a pair of stools, whose seatrails are centred by similar, though unpierced rocaille clasps, formerly in the collection of André Meyer, New York (sold Christie's, New York, 26 October 2001, lot 67).