Suite of four large armchairs and a flat-back medallion sofa - Lot 198

Suite of four large armchairs and a flat-back medallion sofa, in molded, carved and gilded beech, decorated with a frieze of rai-de-coeur, rosary, darts and oves, resting on tapered fluted legs, covered with tapestry decorated with flowers (wear), fragment of a late 19th-century handwritten label inscribed in ink: Juillet 92; (minor accidents and restorations; one leg missing from the sofa). Stamped by Louis Delanois, carpenter received master in 1761. Louis XVI period, circa 1775. Armchair, H: 103 cm, W: 70 cm. Sofa, H: 108 cm, W: 214 cm. Bibliographical reference: S. Eriksen, Louis Delanois, menuisier en siège (1731-1792), Paris, 1968. In the chronology of Louis Delanois' chair production, these four armchairs belong to the second period of his career; lacking the characteristics of the 1760s, marked by the presence of stylistic elements from the Louis XV period, they are fully in line with the neoclassicism of the 1770s. More advanced in style, they post-date the late 1760s commission for the King of Poland, which marked a turning point in the carpenter's style. From then on, Delanois made more frequent use of the oval shape of the backrests and only used ornaments from the classical repertoire. Two drawings of armchair designs for Poland (Warsaw University Library), circa 1766, herald his new style: the oval back relatively elongated in height (often distinguishing him from joiners such as Jean-Baptiste Lelarge or Jean-Baptiste Sené), the tapered legs and the highly accentuated character of the connecting dice (Eriksen, op. cit., pl. XXVI). These characteristics can be found on several Delanois chairs, including an armchair from the former Hubert de Givenchy collection (Sale Paris, Christie's, June 17, 2022, lot 210).