A fine suite of Louis XV giltwood seat furniture circa 1750, stamped I. Pothier

comprising a set of six fauteuils à la reine and a canapé; each with a cartouche-shaped backrest with arched top rail centered by ribbon-tied laurel branches, the padded armrests raised on molded voluted supports, the seat carved to match the backrest and raised on molded cabriole legs carved at the knees with bellflowers and ending in scrolled toes; upholstered à chassis.  7 pieces.

Collection of Henry Ford, II, sold, Christie's, New York, November 12, 1981, lot 214

Exposition Internationale du Cadre du XV au XX Siècle, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, April 1931, no. 739.

Jean-Jacques Pothier first had a workshop on the rue Mazarine, then between 1775-1776 he settled in the rue de Bourbon.  Little is known about his clientèle other than a tester bed with baldaquin which he made for the baron de Vance, (Bill G.B. Pallot, L’art du siège au XVIII siècle en France, Paris, 1987, p. 314).  Pallot further suggests that Pothier was a close collaborator of Georges Jacob, this is based upon the fact that there is evidence of suites of seat furniture with part bearing the stamp of Pothier, the remainder with the stamp of Jacob.  Pothier is noted for the originality of many of his 'transitional' designs.

An almost identical canapé stamped Pothier is in the Wrightsman Collection.  It is of exactly the same overall design and differs only slightly in the manner in which it is carved with cabbage roses on the top rail as opposed to ribbon-tied laurel branches on the present lot.  The seat rails are virtually identically carved with ribbon-tied foliate branches (see, F.J.B. Watson, The Wrightsman Collection, Vol. I, New York, 1966, no. 41, p. 56).