Beschreibung:

A pair of Louis XV giltwood fauteuils à la reine by Nicolas Heurtaut circa 1755
on cabriole legs ending in scroll feet, the frames richly carved with floral scrolls and acanthus leaves, the apron centred by a rocaille shell, upholstered à châssis; one stamped N.HEURTAUT (the armchairs are sold with the tobacco velvet upholstery)height 42 in.; width 27½ in.; depth 30 in.; 107 cm; 70 cm; 76 cm.
(2)____________________________________________
Paire de fauteuils à la reine et à châssis en bois doré d'époque Louis XV, estampille de Nicolas Heurtaut vers 1755
Les fauteuils sont vendus avec la garnisture en velours tabacheight 42 in.; width 27½ in.; depth 30 in.; 107 cm; 70 cm; 76 cm.
(2)Condition reportFor further information on the condition of this lot please contact brice.foisil@sothebys.com Saleroom NoticePlease note that the armchairs are sold with the tobacco velvet upholstery.
Veuillez noter que les fauteuils sont vendus avec la garniture en velous tabac.ProvenancePossibly Étienne François, Marquis de Stainville, Duc de Choiseul (1719-1785);Probably given by King Louis XV to Marie-Marguerite-Adélaïde de Bullioud, comtesse de Séran (d.1793);By descent at the Château de la Tour, Normandy, until sold in the early 20th century;Marcel Bissey, Paris;Simon I. Patiño (1860-1947);By descent to Jorge and Graziella Patiño de Ortiz Linares, Hôtel Blumenthal, 31 Avenue Foch, Paris;M. Leven, Paris 1968;Private European Collection, sold Christie's London, 10 July 2014, lot 12.____________________________________________
Peut-être Étienne François, Marquis de Stainville, Duc de Choiseul (1719-1785);Probablement donné par Louis XV à Marie-Marguerite-Adélaïde de Bullioud, comtesse de Séran;Par descendance au Château de la Tour, Normandie, jusqu'à sa vente au début du 20ème siècle;Marcel Bissey, Paris;Simon I. Patiño (1860-1947);Par descendance à Jorge et Graziella Patiño de Ortiz Linares, Hôtel Blumenthal, 31 Avenue Foch, Paris;M. Leven, Paris 1968;Collection privée européenne, vente Christie's Londres, 10 juillet 2014, lot 12.LiteratureC. Fregnac et al., Les Ébénistes Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris 1963, p. 122.
B. Pallot, The Art of the Chair in Eighteenth-Century France, Paris 1989, p.248-9.
Catalogue noteNicolas Heurtaut (1720–1771), reçu maître in 1753
A masterpiece of Louis XV woodcarving, this pair of fauteuils is part of a larger suite comprising a total of eight armchairs, a canapé d'alcôve, a pair of canapés en coin de feu and a lit à la Polonaise, that represents one of the most accomplished productions of 18th-century French menuiserie. Both the bed and six of the the armchairs are now in the Musée National du Château de Versailles, leaving this pair as the only remaining in private hands.
The Crozat-Choiseul Connection
It has been suggested this suite may have originally been in the collection of the powerful minister and art patron the Duc de Choiseul, based on a 1767 portrait by Michel Van Loo of his wife Louise-Honorine Crozat du Châtel and their adopted son (sold Marc Ferri, Drouot, Paris, 9 December 1997, lot 18) in which the Duchess is seated in a giltwood armchair of extremely similar if not identical design to the offered pair. Choiseul possessed an important collection of master paintings, housed in the Hôtel Crozat in the Rue de Richelieu that his wife had inherited from her great uncle Pierre Crozat, the wealthy financier and one of the greatest art collectors of the century. The hôtel's sumptuous interiors were recorded in the celebrated gold snuffbox decorated with miniatures by Louis-Nicolas-Van Blarenberghe, one of which depicts the Duke's bedroom with a giltwood lit à la Polonaise and several fauteuils which could theoretically correspond to the Séran suite, though the minute scale renders them too abstract to enable precise identification. The snuffbox images do however reveal a series of rooms decorated in a highly sophisticated rococo taste that indicate the Duke did possess works in this style of the highest calibre.
Following his fall from grace in 1770 the Duke was exiled to his country property in the Château de Chanteloup near Tours and was forced to sell some of his paintings in 1772. He is also believed to have sold some of his furniture in several auctions with unpublished catalogues, where the King's Garde-meuble acquired some pieces for the Royal Household (see P.-F. Dayot, 'A public view of a private space: the bedroom of the duc de Choiseul in Paris,' Waddesdon Miscellana, vol. I, 2009).
The Comtesse de Séran
Daughter of a page to the Duc d'Orléans and married to an impoverished Norman nobleman, the comte Louis François Anne de Séran, Marie-Marguerite-Adélaïde de Bullioud was described by the Encyclopédiste and chronicler Jean-François-Marmontel as 'belle comme l'Amour'. She entered the circle of the Marquis de Marigny, Madame de Pompadour's brother, and in 1760 the King granted her a position with the Duchesse de Chartres by the King on condition of paying him Sunday visits in his petits apartments. Following the death of Madame de Pompadour in 1764 she became the King's favourite, and possibly his mistress - though in her own words, relayed by Marmontel, 'Elle annonça donc à tous qu’elle sera l’amie du roi, et qu’elle ne sera rien de plus'. Whatever the exact nature of their relationship, the King presented the Comtesse with a hôtel particulier in the Rue de l'Oratoire, presumably furnished. After Louis XV's death she sold the property and withdrew from Paris, though she subsequently became Mistress of the Robes to Louis XVI's younger sister Madame Elisabeth and divided her time between Versailles and the Château de la Tour near Saint-Pierre-Canivet in the Calvados between 1769 and 1775. The Heurtaut suite could well have been supplied to the Parisian residence and subsequently transferred to the country, if not originally sent directly to Normandy.
Nicolas Heurtaut
Nicolas Heurtaut is widely regarded as one of the most important menuisiers en sièges of the mid-18th century, on a par with preeminent chair makers including Foliot and Tilliard. Born into a family of joiners and woodcarvers, he initially trained as a sculptor and was admitted into the Académie de Saint Luc in 1742, not becoming master in the guild of menuisiers until 1753. This unusual background is reflected in his distinctive sculptural style, characterized by an emphasis on symmetry and reliance on sinuous lines and selectively chosen mouldings and decorative elements carved in high relief to achieve an aesthetic effect, and eschewing an excess of surface ornamentation. Heurtaut was a leading proponent of what has been called the rocaille symétrisé classicisant of the late rococo/early transitional era, a taste championed by the architect Pierre Contant d'Ivry (1698–1777).
The Séran suite likely dates from the mid-1750s, when Heurtaut’s creative skill was at its apogee, and is similar in scale and decoration to a small group of important surviving works produced at the same period. These include a giltwood fauteuil from the Comte d’Artois’ Paris residence the Palais du Temple, sold Sotheby’s Paris 16 December 2004, lot 146 (1,352,000 EUR), and four related giltwood fauteuils supplied to the Archbishop of Poitiers, Monseigneur Saint-Aulaire (now in the Louvre, ill. G.B. Pallot, Le Mobilier du musée du Louvre, Vol.II, Paris 1993, n.23 p.80-83) accompanied by a set of six similarly carved blue-painted fauteuils and a monumental canapé à confidents mobiles (private collection, exhibited Musée National du Château de Versailles, 18e aux Sources du Design, 2014, n.24).
All these examples employ the same serpentine side rails and pronounced moulded edges running along the entire frame, as well as incorporating prominently carved shells on the central front seat and/or crest rails. The shells on each group all differ slightly, however, and it is a tribute to Heurtaut’s talent that he varied his designs for each client and appears never to have supplied the exact same model twice.