A pair of French Consulate period mahogany bergères

Each of gondola form, the front legs turned as double balusters, the rear legs of sabre form
PARIS, CIRCA 1800–1805
Upholstered in green wool fabric with black printed decoration and braid trimming.

The designs produced by Jean-Jacques Lequeu in 1786 for the Hôtel de Montholon in Paris provide one of the earliest known examples of the gondola-shaped bergère, introducing an entirely novel form that would inspire a number of seats made during the Consulate period.
A pair of small gondola-shaped armchairs, executed by Jacob Frères in white-painted and giltwood, was supplied circa 1800 for Madame Bonaparte's boudoir at the Château de Malmaison [1]. Another pair, in black-painted and giltwood, of similar proportions to the present examples, was supplied by the same makers in 1802 for the Turkish Salon of General Moreau's residence on the Rue du Mont-Blanc in Paris [2]. This latter pair is now preserved at the Château de Fontainebleau [3].
An inventory of 1809 also appears to record seating of this type in Caroline Murat's bedchamber at the Palais de l'Élysée, listing « un lit, deux causeuses en gondole, deux bergères en gondole, un tabouret de pied et un écran de cheminée » [4].

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[1] J.-P. Samoyault, Le Mobilier Consulat et Empire, fig. 123, p. 68.
[2] É. Caude, Audace d'un style : Les intérieurs sous le Consulat, cat. 70, p. 81.
[3] Château de Fontainebleau, inv. no. F6242.2.
[4] Archives nationales, O/2/705, fol. 66v, no. 247.