A set of six Empire gilt-bronze mounted mahogany fauteuils

This rare set of six Empire fauteuils is made of mahogany with finely chased gilt-bronze mounts. The crest rail is applied with a central rosette between two laurel branches, with flower-bud mounts at the corners. The back is gently curved and fully upholstered. The padded arms end in gilt-bronze palmettes and rest on boldly carved scrolling supports, and each support ends in a gilt-bronze dolphin head at the seat rail. The chairs stand on elegant sabre legs.
Dolphins were part of the classical vocabulary that the architects Percier and Fontaine brought into the Napoleonic interior, and they suggested both the sea and the grandeur of ancient Rome. Here they give a sculptural flourish to an otherwise restrained, architectural design that is typical of the best Parisian seat furniture of the period.
The chairs are upholstered in yellow silk woven in the Empire taste. The backs have a laurel wreath around a palmette, and the seats have a radiating rosette medallion. Complete sets of six Empire armchairs of this quality are increasingly rare on the market.
Height 87 cm, width 50 cm, depth 57 cm each.
Two illustrated.