A 19thC French Carved Giltwood Open Armchair c.1880

Origin: French
Period: 3rd Republic
Provenance: Unknown
Date: c.1880
Width: 22.5”
Height: 37.25” or 18” at seat with cushion
Depth: 20” (all at extremities)

The beautifully carved giltwood single open armchair, in the Louis XVI taste, and of very fine execution, the oval caned back with intricately pierced carved corners issuing berried leaves to a caned seat, open padded scrolled arms with further leafy carvings to slender turned and fluted front legs with acanthus and patarea masks, the whole surviving from the latter half of nineteenth century France.

The chair is in very original condition, the giltwood beautifully worn in the right areas with some chipping and loss and the pink bole showing through. The back and seat have recently been re-caned. There is a seat cushion as photographed which could be re-upholstered in a fabric of choosing. There is also a pencil mark to the underside in French which is very hard to decipher but would merit further research, as photographed.

Almost all of the examples one sees of this type of chair have an upholstered back with no open carvings to the corners, indeed, this is a particularly splendid example, of which we cannot find a comparable example.

Very pretty indeed.