A RARE LATE LOUIS XV CARVED, PAINTED AND GILTWOOD SOFA, ATTRIBUTED TO LOUIS DELANOIS, CIRCA 1768 |

with a medallion-shaped backrest carved of a garland of flowers, frieze of raies-de-coeur and frieze of pearls ; armrests in winding, enhanced with grain stems ; resting on tapered legs ; trimmed with frame and covered with green silk

Collection Arturo Lopez-Willshaw
Galerie Didier Aaron, Paris
Collection Karl Lagerfeld, Christie's, Monaco, les 28 et 29 avril 2000, lot 48
Collection Adriano Ribolzi, Sotheby's, Paris, le 30 novembre 2011, lot 66

Related literature- Svend Eriksen, Louis Delanois, menuisier en sièges (1731-1792), Paris, 1968
- Svend Eriksen, Early neo-classicism in France, Londres, 1974
- Bill G.B. Pallot, L'Art du siège au XVIIIe siècle en France, Paris, 1987
- Bill G.B. Pallot, "Les Sièges de la collection Karl Lagerfeld" in L'Estampille-L'Objet d'art n°346, avril 2000

In July, then in September of the year 1768, Louis Delanois, assisted by the sculptor Denis Coulonjon, delivered successively two important sets of seats, some of which were distinguished by their radical novelty. The first order came from Count Grimod d'Orsay ; the second, according to the orders of the architect Victor Louis, had been executed according to the drawings of Jean-Louis Prieur, in order to renew the furnishing of the royal palace Lazienki, then residence of King Stanislas Auguste Poniatowski in Warsaw.
In Delanois' memoir addressed to the Count d'Orsay, mention was made, among others, of four armchairs "les dossiers oval et les pieds à gaine", which thus had little in common with traditional rock chairs. As for the Lazienki palace, under the influence of Louis and Prieur, it became a faithful reflection of the latest Parisian fashion ; already in 1764, during a first campaign of acquisitions conducted in Paris by the king's confidant, Casimir Czempinski, the latter had stated : "In all the purchases I make, I give preference to the beautiful antique, to the Greek decided ". The seats of Delanois were so successful in Warsaw that Polish artisans were commissioned to make new copies to complete the furnishing of the royal residence.The Lazienki Palace still retains some of this furniture. With a few variations, especially in the sculpture of the belt, it is the same model as the sofa shown here : its main feature is the use of the reverse console as an armrest support. Other seats stamped by Delanois have a similar structure :
- a suite of seats held at the Metropolitan Museum in New York (ill. in Eriksen, Louis Delanois, menuisier en sièges (1731-1792), pl. XXXV)
- a suite of six armchairs (Fig. 1 and 2), formerly in the Lopez-Willshaw collection, then that of Karl Lagerfeld, like our sofa, sale Christie's in Monaco, 28 and 29 April 2000, lot 47 (ill. Pallot, L'Art du siège au XVIIIe siècle en France, p. 190)
- a suite of six armchairs preserved in a Parisian private collection (ill. in Eriksen, Early neo-classicism in France, pl. 165)
- a pair of armchairs, formerly in the Ogden Phipps collection, sold at Sotheby's in New York on October 19, 2002, lot 134
- an armchair preserved in a particular Parisian collection (see Pallot, op.cit., 288)

By executing this set of seats, Delanois translated in his own way the Greek taste in carpentry. At the same time, Heurtaut gave another interpretation, less clear cut, of neoclassical furniture with the whole delivered to the Duchess d'Enville for her castle of La Roche-Guyon (now preserved in the Louvre): the cornucopia replaced the reversed console. These two productions made a date and played a decisive role in the development of the style that was to flourish fully under Louis XVI.