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Lot Essay
This impressive suite is closely related to the seat furniture ordered by Napoléon and supplied by the menuisier-sculpteur Pierre-Gaston Brion to the Garde-Meuble Impérial in December 1811. Brion's suite was later regilt by the doreur Petrelle and recovered by the tapissier Laflèche for the use of Louis-Philippe at the Grand Trianon (D. Ledoux-Labard, Le Grand Trianon, Paris, 1975).
Both suites derives from a fashionable design which inspired various menuisiers for their deliveries to the imperial palaces. A closely related design by Pierre-Antoine Bellangé (1758-1827) in the Metropolitan Museum of Art is illustrated in M. Deschamps, Empire, London, 1994, p. 109.
A fauteuil originally from the château de Valencay is illustrated in P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Français, Paris, 1980, vol. II, p. 165 fig. 152. It is probably part of an important mobilier de salon which was sold by the heirs of the Duc de Talleyrand (1754-1838) in Galerie Georges Petit, 27 May 1899, lot 352. Interestingly, the present suite is often thought to come from Valencay.
One of the most important menuisiers of the early 19th Century, Brion worked for a succession of rulers. He supplied furniture to the cabinet-maker Molitor and to the tapissier Leroy but also he did receive many official orders himself for the Palais des Tuileries, Versailles and Louvre. One of his imperial orders is in the Petits Appartements of the Palais de Fontainebleau, illustrated in S. Grandjean, Empire Furniture, London, 1966, fig. 55. Brion's masterpiece is undoubtedly the amazing lit de parade he provided for the new King after the death of Louis XVIII; it is now is the Louvre, illustrated in D. Ledoux-Lebard, Le Mobilier Français du XIXe siècle, Paris, 1989, pp. 102-103.
Both suites derives from a fashionable design which inspired various menuisiers for their deliveries to the imperial palaces. A closely related design by Pierre-Antoine Bellangé (1758-1827) in the Metropolitan Museum of Art is illustrated in M. Deschamps, Empire, London, 1994, p. 109.
A fauteuil originally from the château de Valencay is illustrated in P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Français, Paris, 1980, vol. II, p. 165 fig. 152. It is probably part of an important mobilier de salon which was sold by the heirs of the Duc de Talleyrand (1754-1838) in Galerie Georges Petit, 27 May 1899, lot 352. Interestingly, the present suite is often thought to come from Valencay.
One of the most important menuisiers of the early 19th Century, Brion worked for a succession of rulers. He supplied furniture to the cabinet-maker Molitor and to the tapissier Leroy but also he did receive many official orders himself for the Palais des Tuileries, Versailles and Louvre. One of his imperial orders is in the Petits Appartements of the Palais de Fontainebleau, illustrated in S. Grandjean, Empire Furniture, London, 1966, fig. 55. Brion's masterpiece is undoubtedly the amazing lit de parade he provided for the new King after the death of Louis XVIII; it is now is the Louvre, illustrated in D. Ledoux-Lebard, Le Mobilier Français du XIXe siècle, Paris, 1989, pp. 102-103.