Provenance

Possibly executed for Villa Taverna Parisi-Borghese in Monte Porzio Catone, Rome, they are 4 of a set of 12 with a four-seats sofà still in situ for the Borghese\Aldobrandini 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.