A set of six carved giltwood armchairs, one with the marque au fer of S.A.R. Louis Henri Joseph de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, Duc de Bourbon Empire, early 19th century

each with a rectangular padded back above padded arms on turned columnar supports, the blocks carved with an anthemion, above a bowed padded seat, the seat-and top-rail centerd by a flowerhead flanked by bellflowers, on turned tapering front legs and rear sabre legs, on with the paper label in ink`Du Prince' and the stamp LB beneath a Crown within a roundel; some distress to gilding

S.A.R. Louis Henri Joseph de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, Duc de Bourbon, d’Enghien, de Guise, Prince du Sang (1756-1830).
Château d'Arc-en-Barrois, property of the Prince de Joinville, then the duc de Chartres and the duc de Guise
By  repute the Comte de Paris, Quinta do Anjinho, Sintra and purchased by the present owner’s father from the sale of the Comte de Paris in Sintra in 1951

The Comte de Paris and the collection of Quinta do Anjinho:
When the Comte and Comtesse de Paris settled in Sintra, Portugal after the war, they furnished the Quinta with pieces that came from the collection of the Duc de Guise, many of which had originally been in the Manoir d’Anjou near Brussels before the war. Other pieces came from various castles inherited by the Orléans family, the Nouvion in Thierache near Lille, Arc-en-Barrois in the East and the Orléans palace in Palermo.  Complex family succession make it difficult to trace the exact origins of the collections in the 19^th century. Via his uncle Philippe, Duc d’Orléans, most of the paintings and family portraits were acquired and a set of sapphires and furniture and souvenirs came via the Duc d’Aumale.

 

Whilst it is difficult to attribute these chairs to a particular maker with any certainty as they are in the manner of some of the leading chairmakers of the early 19th century such as Brion and Bellangé, it is worth comparing them with lot 188, from the collection of the Comte and Comtesse de Paris, from la Quinta do Anjinho, sold Sotheby's, Monaco, 14th & 15th December 1996. They were a suite of six chairs identically carved to the offered armchairs and surely must have come from the same suite, with the marque au fer LB and the mark of the Château d'Arc-en-Barrois and with a label in ink, `Cabinet du Prince' and are reproduced here in fig.1. The script on the label is in the identical hand to that on the label on one of the offered chairs. One can safely assume that the offered armchairs also originally came from the Château d'Arc-en-Barrois, the property of the Prince de Joinville, then the duc de chartres and duc de Guise.  

It is also worth comparing the offered armchairs to a giltwood salon suite with similarly carved seat-rails and blocks below the arms, sold as lot 178, Sotheby's, Monaco, 14th and 15th December 1996, with the mark of the château d'Arc-en-Barrois. It is interesting to note the connection of the Orléans family to that Château and the present suite.

L.B. is the mark of the S.A.R. Louis Henri Joseph de Bourbon., Prince de Conde, Duc de Bourbon, d’Enghien, de Guise, Prince du Sang (1756-1830).

It is worth noting the sale of paintings furniture and books, some of which had the LB stamp, which were sold from the collection of the Comte and Comtesse de Paris, Sotheby’s, Monaco, 3^rd and 4^th July 1993.