POSSIBLY BY NICOLAS HEURTAUT, CIRCA 1740

These richly-carved chaises à chassis are of the same design as a pair of chairs (en suite with a pair of fauteuils) now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, see Charissa Bremer-David, Decorative Arts: An Illustrated Catalogue of the Collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1993, p. 64, no. 93. It is believed that both the Getty chairs and this lot once belonged to the same English private collection, assembled in the eighteenth century. The design of these chaises owes much to the oeuvre of Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier, one of the preeminent designers of the rococo period. This is particularly apparent in the design for a chair seen in a drawing for a doorway for the Baroness de Bezenval, wife of the ambassador to the Polish court from 1719 to 1721, that was engraved by Huquier and illustrated in D. Nyberg, L'Oeuvre de Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier, New York, 1969, folio 49.

These chaises were executed in the style of rocaille symmetrisé for which Nicolas Heurtaut, Nicolas-Quinibert Foliot, and Jean-Baptiste Tilliard are known. Of the oeuvre of these three master menuisiers, these chairs are closest to that of Heurtaut. The deeply carved plump shell motifs at the knees and the lush scrolls wrapping around the frames of the backs recall the designs of Contact d’Ivry, and can be found on other works by Heurtaut, such as two fauteuils and a fire screen, illustrated Bill Pallot, L’Art du Siège au XVIIIe Siècle en France, Paris, 1987, pp. 161, 165 and 163, respectively. Heurtaut is regarded as one of the greatest virtuoso carpenters and sculptors of seats of the mid-eighteenth century, adapting his rococo style to the Louis XV - Louis XVI transition to reflect changes in taste and fashion.

The son of Claude Heurtaut, Nicolas began his career as a seat sculptor after entering the Académie de Saint-Luc in 1742 to work in the workshops of the great master carpenters of the time: Tilliard, Sené and then probably Avisse and Saint-George, before becoming a master carpenter himself on 9 December 1755 and setting up his workshop on rue de Bourbon-Villeneuve in Paris. Heurtaut was both a sculptor and a carpenter, decorating pieces of furniture from his own workshop and then subcontracting them to other trades (gilder, upholsterer, etc.). His customers were just as varied, ranging from merchants and upholsterers to wealthy clients including the Marquis de Villarceaux, the Duc d'Harcourt and the Duc de La Rochefoucauld. Heurtaut's extraordinary craftsmanship in the extravagant rococo ornamentation of shells, scrolls, and palm leaves is perfectly illustrated in these chairs.