A pair of carved mahogany armchairs, possibly by Jacob Empire, early 19th century

each with an outward curved rectangular padded back, above straight arms terminating in lioness heads masks, with reeded inward curved supports, above bowed padded drop-in seats, on square tapering front legs terminating in paw feet and sabre back legs

Comparative Literature:
L. de Groër, Les Arts décoratifs de 1790 à 1850, Fribourg, 1985, p. 133, fig. 242, for a depiction of the Fesch fauteuil (now in the Bibliothèque Municipale, Lyon)

for similar models see also armchairs by Demay in Ledoux-Lebard, Les ébénistes Parisiens du XIXe siècle, Paris, 1965, p. 133, pl. XXVIII

This chair  with scrolled arms terminating in 'Egyptian leopardess' heads and hermed legs ending in paw feet, relates to a chair that is likely to have been commissioned by the uncle of Napoleon, Cardinal Fesch (d. 1839), at the time he was appointed archbishop of Lyon in 1802. 

This pair is very similar to lot 116 sold from the Lagerfeld Collection Christie's Monaco on 28-29th April 2000.