Pair of Louis XVI Beechwood Bergères

A Directoire Mahogany Bergère Attributed to Georges Jacob, its curved back and padded armrests with finely carved baluster-shaped supports raised on turned front legs and sabre back legs. With a spurious Jacob stamp to back rail. The term "Directoire" refers to a historical period following the French Revolution (1789) and preceding the First Empire when Napoleon reigned, but also to a style of furniture and decoration covering a longer period from 1789 to 1804. It is characterized by the production of furniture with simplified forms and ornaments, inspired by antique decorations. The profound social and political upheavals that marked this period had a direct impact on the production of Directoire furniture. The stripping down of furniture pieces, which had begun in the 1780s under the influence of Greek art, was accentuated during this period. The abolition of guilds by the revolutionaries also forced manufacturers in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine to simplify shapes and materials. Elegant and graceful, the furniture is generally small-scale. They retain the Louis XVI structure. The Directoire style adopts clean shapes, straight lines, simple curves, flat surfaces and right angles. Lines accentuate geometric shapes inspired by Antiquity. A typical trait is the pronounced rolled-over back, similar to a scroll illustrated in our bergere, evocative of the klismos chair. Only the more luxurious pieces of furniture use mahogany, an exotic and expensive wood. Despite his humble origins, Georges Jacob rose to become one of the most renowned menuisiers of his day. Unlike many artisans who joined their fathers or brothers in the middle-class family trade of furniture making, Jacob was from a peasant family and moved to Paris at sixteen to begin his career. He apprenticed in a joinery workshop and eventually became a master in 1765. He developed a reputation for producing inventive designs for chairs, beds, and screens carved with such motifs as twisted ribbons, guilloches, beading, and fluting. Jacob's reputation grew quickly, eventually spreading outside France; the future King George IV of England, Gustavus III of Sweden, and several German princes...

Each with a fluted nozzle and pearled drip-pan, a fluted tapering column hung with garlands and a circular fluted spreading base cast with a ribbon-twist band.

Each with a recumbent winged sphinx with scrolling foliate arabesques to their back, upon a bow-ended rectangular gadrooned plinth, the frieze with a panel applied with entrelacs, on fluted toupie feet. Several models of chenets with sphinx exist, dating from the 1780s. An example with winged sphinxes with headresses and with female mask centering the frieze, attributed to either Pierre Gouthière or Pierre-Philippe Thomire, exists in several versions in the Louvre, Versailles and the Cleveland Museum of Art (see H. Ottomeyer/P. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol.I, p.276, fig. 4.11.14.). This model is based on a drawing by the architect François-Joseph Bélanger in the Bibliothèque Nationale, illustrated op. cit., fig. 4.11.13. Another type of sphinx chenet...

Each with a foliate-cast tapering fluted and backplate decorated with swags and surmounted by a swagged flaming classical urn, issuing foliate scrolled branches with gadrooned nozzle...

The rectangular arched padded back above a padded seat and tapering front legs topped with the head of a sphinx and ending in paw feet.

The circular container carved with pearls and rinceaux and supported by an inswept strung-piaster quadripartite stand with a central finial and hung with swags raised on a conforming...

Pair of French Louis XVI style (20th century) bergeres with floral cut velvet tapestry upholstery with matching ottoman (3 piece set).

A finely carved fauteuil, the paper twist carved, arched top rail and down swept padded arms with scroll terminals enclosing an upholstered back and cushion seat with close nailed de...

Pair antique French Louis XVI walnut armchairs ~ Bergeres was created with timeless neoclassical style! The tailored framework is accented by...

Pair of French Louis XVI style (19th century) walnut bergère armchairs with bow knot top and striped upholstery.

A finely carved fauteuil, the paper twist carved, arched top rail and downswept padded arms with scroll terminals enclosing an upholstered back and cushion seat, on a finely carved s...

Hand carved Louis XVI bergère armchair from France, upholstered in vintage fabric. This 18th century French armchair is hand carved in fruitwood (prob...