BY NICOLAS HEURTAUT, CIRCA 1765-1770, THE UPHOLSTERY SUPPLIED BY HENRI SAMUEL

Although some of these chairs are stamped GRIVET, while others are stamped HEURTAUT, the entire set can be attributed with confidence to the celebrated menuisier Nicolas Heurtaut based on other recorded examples of this model also signed by Heurtaut. With their elegant and restrained neo-classicisism, they represent the last flowering of Heurtaut’s oeuvre, which is more closely associated with a fully-fledged rococo idiom. The arched backs with cartouches and garlands, rounded seats and restrained foliate scrolls demonstrate a refined expression of the Transitional style. A set of twelve fauteuils and a canapé of a closely related model, formerly in the collections of Madame André Saint and the Comte de Fels, was sold from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Groves; Christie’s, New York, 15 October 1988, lot 118. Two pairs of fauteuils from the suite were subsequently sold Christie’s, London, 13 June 2002, lots 75 and 76 (£59,750 and £71,700). The Saint suite is also discussed by Bill Pallot in his The Art of the Chair in 18th Century France, Paris, 1987, pp. 254-5. A further set of six armchairs and a canapé of this model, supplied by Heurtaut to the duchesse d’Enville at the château de la Roche Guyon and now in the Louvre, is dated by Bill Pallot to around 1767, when Heurtaut's principal clients were Nicolas de Boullogne, M. Chabenat de Bonneuil, the duc de Gèsvres, the marquis de Genlis (see B. Pallot, Furniture Collections in the Louvre, Dijon, 1993, vol. II, pp. 110-113, no. 36). Grivet’s stamps found on some of the chairs in this lot suggest that Grivet either retailed or possibly restored these pieces after he became maître in 1779, about 25 years after Heurtaut.
Nicolas Heurtaut hailed from a Parisian dynasty of carvers and was the son of a maître sculpteur who was a member of the official school of sculpture, the future Académie de Saint-Luc. Heurtaut had a highly unusual and singular career at a time when the guild regulations were very strict; he first became a maître-sculpteur in 1742 and later a maître-ébéniste in 1753. This explains the exceptional quality of carving which is one of the main characteristics of his production. Surprisingly, he did not supply the Court but developed a very select private clientèle, counting the most fashionable patrons, including the duc de la Rochefoucault, Monseigneur de Saint-Aulaire and the duc de Luxembourg.

En suite with lot 67 in this sale.