Offered by Franck Baptiste Provence
Rare pair of white lacquered beech wood armchairs.
Model with openwork hot-air balloon backs with a finely sculpted wreath with an interlacing frieze, heart stripes and a stylized rose window.
The armrests rest on Greek consoles.
The circular seat has lightly scalloped cross members; it is connected to the backrest by "trumpet" clips.
A bar turned into a double baluster acts as a rear cross member.
The four spindle legs are fluted and rudenté with asparagus; they are connected to the sleepers by flower dice.
I.B LELARGE * stamp under the crosspieces.
Very good state of conservation.
Parisian work from the Louis XV-Louis XVI Transition period around 1775 by J.B III Lelarge.
Dimensions:
Height: 94 cm; Width: 60 cm; Depth: 55 cm
Origin :
Our seats were in the 20th century in the room of the Pavillon de musique de la Comtesse de Provence in Versailles.
Our opinion :
The pair of seat that we present is of the greatest rarity.
Indeed it is not an umpteenth model with wreath folder but a unique prototype made during the transition from the Louis XV-Louis XVI eras, around 1775, the year of Jean's mastery. Baptiste III Lelarge.
The latter shows us here his creative talent, with already Neo-classical seats in which we can still feel the generous curves of the Louis XV style.
The clips, the slightly arched crosspieces and the Greek "kick" armrests are particularly successful and bring a lot of flexibility to the whole.
These elements can be compared to the drawings of the ornamentalist Jean Charles Delafosse (1734-1789).
The perfect state of conservation, the finesse of the sculpture and the atypical shapes of our seats will delight the most demanding collectors.
* Jean-Baptiste III Lelarge (1743-1802) is a carpenter received master on February 1, 1775.
Son and grandson of carpenters in seats bearing the same first name and also established in rue de Cléry, Jean Baptiste III Lelarge produced Transition and Louis XVI style seats of undeniable class.
If the archives of the Garde-Meuble do not mention his name, he works extensively for a wealthy French and foreign clientele, including the King of Portugal. It is possible that he made - in the early years of his career - Louis XV chairs, but the use of the same stamp as his father's does not confirm this. This is why only Louis XVI models are commonly attributed to him. For the most part, Jean-Baptiste Lelarge's seats bear witness to a very beautiful appearance: robust, without heaviness, rigorously constructed, impeccably assembled, they are adorned with simple moldings or fine and incisive sculptures, well distributed, without overloading.
He is undoubtedly one of the best seat carpenters of the reign of Louis XVI.
