Lot n° 200.A
Estimation :
6000 - 10000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 18 032EUR
Suite of four finely carved and gilded walnut armchairs deco - Lot 200
Suite of four finely carved and gilded walnut armchairs decorated with rows of pearls, trapezoid cabriolet backs; rosette dice; tapered fluted legs. Fine Beauvais tapestry upholstery with bouquets of flowers "au naturel" on a cream background.
Stamped by Henri Jacob.
Louis XVI period.
(Some reinforcement; pitting; two armchairs without cuffs).
Armchairs: H: 89 - W: 61 - D: 63 cm
Lots 200 A-B and C sold at provisional auction with right of reunion
Provenance :
- Part of a thirty-piece salon set.
- Acquired by Henry Count Greffulhe from the Seligman dealer.
- Sotheby's, London, July 23, 1937, lot 58 (unsold).
- By descent Elaine duchesse de Gramont (1882-1958).
- By descent
Bibliography:
"Un demi-siècle à l'Hôtel Gramont", in Connaissance des Arts, November 1963.
Pierre Kjellberg, Le mobilier français du XVIIIe siècle, Les éditions de l'Amateur, Paris,
1998, p.436-440.
This rare seating suite is part of an important salon set by Henri Jacob,
composed of thirty pieces, purchased in the early 20th century by Henry, 3rd Count
Greffulhe, from the Seligman dealer to furnish the salon of his hotel on rue d'Astorg
in Paris. After the deaths of the Count and Countess Greffulhe, the rue d'Astorg hotel was sold in
was sold in 1956 and the furniture moved to the hotel owned by their only daughter Elaine,
duchesse de Gramont, on avenue Georges Mandel. After the death of the duchess and her husband
husband in 1962, a large part of the furniture, then valued at the very substantial sum of
150,000 francs at the time of the succession, was sold at auction in Paris; while a part
part, forming the seats we are proposing, was kept by the descendants of
by Count Greffulhe's descendants. It should also be noted that four pieces from this set
belonging to the Safra collection were auctioned at Christie's in London
London, on July 6, 2017.
Henry comte Greffulhe (1848-1932) was the sole heir to a powerful family of bankers and
bankers and landowners who prospered from the Revolution onwards.
Henry was the son of Louis-Charles Greffulhe (1814-1888) and Félicité-Pauline-Marie
de la Rochefoucauld d'Estissac (1824-1911) and married in 1878 Elisabeth de Riquet
de Caraman-Chimay (1860-1952), who was to become one of the leading figures
Parisian salons of the period. The Count and Countess Greffulhe divided their time
their time between their hunting residence at Château de Bois-Boudran, near Fontenailles,
and their Parisian hotel on rue d'Astorg, where Henri Jacob's extensive furniture
with Beauvais tapestries was purchased and described by Badin in 1909 (see J. Badin, La
manufacture de Tapisseries de Beauvais, Paris, 1909).
Henri Jacob (1753-1824) was one of the major upholsterers of the last third of the
18th century and the first decade of the following century. Trained in the workshop of his illustrious
his illustrious cousin Georges Jacob, he registered his master's degree in September
1779, set up his workshop on the rue de Bourbon-Villeneuve and quickly became
quickly became a household name among the art lovers of the time. Like his cousin, he received commissions from the
orders from the Garde-meuble de la Couronne and, above all, probably through the
through the intermediary of a major dealer, to obtain orders from the Imperial Court of Russia.
Court. Thus, when the future Tsar Paul I of Russia and his wife, Maria Feodorovna,
traveled to France in 1782 under the name of Comte et Comtesse du Nord, they ordered
nearly two hundred chairs to the craftsman to furnish their palace in Pavlovsk, near
near St. Petersburg (see D. Ledoux-Lebard, "Henri Jacob, un menuisier-ébéniste
original", in l'Estampille/L'Objet d'Art, March 1995, p.46-57); today, some of these chairs
of these chairs still belong to the palace's collections, while other
of the carpenter's chairs are preserved at the Musée du Louvre in Paris.
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