A fine and rare Louis XV grey painted and parcel-gilt fauteuil à la reine circa 1750, attributed to N.Q. Foliot

the cartouche-shaped backrest with slightly arched top rail centered by a flowerhead with a shell-carved heart-shaped cartouche flanked by sprays of roses continuing to the shoulders, the out-curved padded armrests with scrolled leaf-carved terminals raised on voluted supports carved with scrolls and flowerheads, the serpentine-fronted seat carved to match the backrest, raised on legs carved at the knees with addorsed C-scrolls enclosing flowerheads with leaf-carved scrolled toes; upholstered à chassis; traces of gilding. Together with red silk damask seat, backrest and armrest covers.



One seat rail branded with the letters SP beneath a closed crown.

The SP brand has not yet been identified; it is thought to be the brand of an unidentified member of a European Royal family used in the 19th century

Anonymous sale, Couturier-Nicolay, Paris, March 25, 1987, lot 89

Pavillon de Bagatelle, Paris, Le Cadre et le Bois Doré à travers les Siècles, September-December 1991, catalogue p. 93.

Bill G.B. Pallot, L'art du Siège au XVIII siècle en France, Paris, 1987, pp. 140-141.

The present lot is part of a larger suite - six identical armchairs with the same brand were in the collection of Baron von Seidlitz, sold, Paris, June 26, 1951 lot 167, and sold again from a private Parisian collection, Christie's, Monaco, June 20, 1992, lot 74.  Pallot (op. cit.) refers to this model as a rare example of a stage between the armchair en cabriolet with a light hollow frame, and the full flat back of the fauteuil à la reine.

This chair can be compared with a suite of six side chairs and two bergères in the Rothschild Collection (illustrated, Geoffrey de Bellaigue, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddeson Manor, Fribourg, 1974, Vol. II, p. 597, no. 127). The Rothschild suite is stamped by Foliot and bears the brand of the château de Chanteloup, home of the duc de Penthièvre.  The molded scrolling seat rails and armrest supports are very similar to those on the present lot, as well as the carved flowerheads and foliate motifs; the backrests have serpentine top rails in the full Louis XV style, but have carving which is again, virtually identical to the carving on the present chair and which is attributed to Foliot's brother, Toussaint Foliot.

Nicolas-Quinibert Foliot (1706-1776) established his workshop in the rue de Cléry, close to the business established by his father.  He worked with carvers who formed part of his family, his brother Toussaint Foliot, and his brother-in-law, Antoine Robillion.  He supplied seat furniture to the Crown and to other influential aristocrats including the Marquis de Briqueville, the Maréchal d'Estrées, Baron de Bernstorff, and probably for the Duc d'Orléans, almost certainly under the orders of Contant d'Ivry.  He also worked for the Duchesse de Parme and for the Duc de Luynes (see, Pallot, op. cit. p. 308).