Each with entrelac-carved openwork back centering a lyre and sunburst mask, rust velvet upholstered seat and arms atop round, fluted tapering legs, each stamped 'I.B. SENE'
37¹⁄₂ in. (95.3 cm.) high, 23¹⁄₂ in. (59.7 cm.) wide, 19 in. (48.3 cm.) deep

Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 18 May 1989, lot 92.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 5 December 1994, lot 509.
The John Reid Collection; Christie's, London, 17-18 December 1998, lot 132.
Property of a New York Collector; Christie's, New York, 26 October 2001, lot 328.

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Lot Essay

Jean-Baptiste Claude Sené, maître in 1769.

The son of the menuisier Claude I Sené, J.B.C. Sené was established in the rue du Cléry at the sign of the Gros Chapelet. In 1785, he was appointed fournisseur du Garde-Meuble de la Couronne alongside Jean-Baptiste Boulard, and he gradually supplanted the latter to become amongst the most celebrated menuisiers of the Louis XVI period. Royal patronage dominated the vast majority of his mature career, and he was responsible for supplying seat-furniture to the King and Queen at Saint-Cloud, Versailles, Compiègne, Fontainebleau etc.

These elegant fauteuils, with lyre-form back surmounted by sunburst Apollo masks, typify the elegant, restrained neoclassical taste of the 1780s, which was popular with a number of menuisiers. Related chairs with lyre-form backs by Georges Jacob are illustrated in P. Kjellberg, Les Mâitres Ebénistes du XVIII^., Paris, 1989, p. 425.