A PAIR OF CARVED BEECHWOOD À CHÂSSIS ARMCHAIRS, PROBABLY GERMAN, MID 18TH CENTURY |

the flat backrest, richly carved with cartouches, shells, scrolled leaves and flowers ; (originally painted)

These chairs with flat backrest in beech wood, gilded originally, with large proportions, trimmed with frame, present a particularly worked sculpture which evokes the seats realized in Paris under the reign of Louis XV. If beech wood has been used, as was practiced in Paris, certain elements are spreading a Parisian production even if its influence is strongly perceptible. Indeed, the movement of the backrest, the pronounced opening of the armrests, the strong arching of the legs and their narrowing on the feet more evoke a beautiful German production of the mid-eighteenth century. The rich ornamental repertoire - shells, acanthus foliage and rocaille motifs - is widely used and declined in a rather unusual way compared to what could be done in the workshops of carpenters like Gourdin or Cresson. It may be necessary to see a local manufacture for the Rohan Palace in Strasbourg whose richness and exhubérence rocaille decor could find inspiration in both Paris and the German Baroque.