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Lot Essay
This pair of chairs demonstrates the fashion for French furniture in the Netherlands in the second half of the 18th Century. French furniture was in fact imported in large quantities, which stimulated Dutch furniture-makers to counteract this threat to their livelihood and to emulate the fashionable French style. The first cabinet-maker in The Hague Courant of 6 May 1761, stated that his pieces were 'faites à la Françoise' [sic]. (R.J. Baarsen, 'In de commode van Parijs tot Den Haag', Matthijs Horrix (1735-1809), een meubelmaker in Den Haag in de 2de helft van de 18de eeuw', Oud Holland 107(1993), p. 162).
Whereas the more widespread interest in French ébénisterie only fully developed in Holland in the 1750s, French chairs were probably already imported on a large scale in the 1730s, which immediately motivated Dutch chair-makers to imitate these sought-after French models. Additionally, chair-makers working in this style referred to themselves as 'French chair' makers. The first to do so was probably Jan Emans (active before 1737-1760), who already promoted himself as such in an advertisement on 9 May 1737 in the 'Amsterdamse Courant'. (R.J. Baarsen, 'French furniture in Amsterdam in 1771', Furniture History Society Journal 29 (1993), p. 168 and note 24.). Chairs in the French style, which were executed in mahogany tend to follw French prototypes less stringently than the above-mentioned examples and would subsequently not be mistaken for French work. These chairs were nonetheless still described as 'French'. Even when the Haarlem chair-maker Petrus Josephus Honoré supplied the Regents' Chambers in Teylers House with a set of eighteen mahogany chairs in 1789, which are French-inspired to a certain extent but still unmistakably Dutch, he submitted an invoice which mentions them as 'mahogany French chairs, made entirely in the Antique style with hollow backs and curved seats' (J.R. ter Molen, 'De regentenvertrekken van Teylers Hofje te Haarlem, Antiek 15 (1980-1981) p. 320 and p. 338.)
Whereas the more widespread interest in French ébénisterie only fully developed in Holland in the 1750s, French chairs were probably already imported on a large scale in the 1730s, which immediately motivated Dutch chair-makers to imitate these sought-after French models. Additionally, chair-makers working in this style referred to themselves as 'French chair' makers. The first to do so was probably Jan Emans (active before 1737-1760), who already promoted himself as such in an advertisement on 9 May 1737 in the 'Amsterdamse Courant'. (R.J. Baarsen, 'French furniture in Amsterdam in 1771', Furniture History Society Journal 29 (1993), p. 168 and note 24.). Chairs in the French style, which were executed in mahogany tend to follw French prototypes less stringently than the above-mentioned examples and would subsequently not be mistaken for French work. These chairs were nonetheless still described as 'French'. Even when the Haarlem chair-maker Petrus Josephus Honoré supplied the Regents' Chambers in Teylers House with a set of eighteen mahogany chairs in 1789, which are French-inspired to a certain extent but still unmistakably Dutch, he submitted an invoice which mentions them as 'mahogany French chairs, made entirely in the Antique style with hollow backs and curved seats' (J.R. ter Molen, 'De regentenvertrekken van Teylers Hofje te Haarlem, Antiek 15 (1980-1981) p. 320 and p. 338.)