Provenance

Possibly Altieri family.
Viscount Wimborne and the Earl of Suffolk and Berkshire.

Literature

•Enrico Colle, il Mobile Neoclassico in Italia, Electa 2005, p. 155.
•Alvar González-Palacios, Arredi e ornamenti alla corte di Roma, Milan, 2004; pp. 49 and 222–223.
•Alvar González-Palacios, Il Tempio del Gusto: Roma e il Regno delle due Sicilie, vol. II, Milan, 1986, p. 53, figs. 82–83.
•Denise Ledoux-Lebard, Les Ebenistes du XIX siècle, Paris, 1965, p. 629 (for a related Franch example by Wermer executed between 1816 and 1820 for the Tuileries Castle, exhibited in 1947 and 1951 at the Musée des Art Decoratives, Fig.4).
•A. Gonzàles-Palacios, Il Patrimonio del Quirinale, Gli Arredi Francesi, Milan, 1996, pp. 204 and 210 (for related Roman console tables after a French design).

Detail Description

A set of four Italian walnut, carved and gilt wood and burin-finished ground (bulinato) armchairs, each with a tablet top-rail centred by a stylized foliate motif converging into an eight-point armorial star, surmounted by a double scrolled cresting centred by an anthemion; the padded back and seat upholstered in black cotton; the armrests carved in the shape of acanthus scrolls above a panelled seatrail applied with stylised foliate sprays; the angles with square panels applied with rosettes; on á l’étrusque rear legs and á volutes front legs; the backs ochre- painted. The seat rail of all armchairs is inscribed with an engraved number: I; X; XV; XVI.