Armchair Louis XV

Armchair The presented armchair belongs to a set of furniture in the Neo-Rococo Corner Salon in the representative western wing of the Łańcut residence. The armchair is one of four (S.1383MŁ; S.1384MŁ; S.1393MŁ; S.4070MŁ) signed pieces, made in the workshop of Etienne Saint-Georges (+1737), who worked under the name “Grand Saint–Georges" on the Rue de Cléry in Paris, where furniture carpenters resided. The master marked his products with the signature “STGEORGE” imprinted on the wood, with a circle under the letter T, which was smaller than the others. This mark was used for ten years after Etienne’s death, when the workshop was managed by his wife, Jeanne-Catherine Gareau, who had four children to support. The carpenter’s son, Jean Etienne Saint-Georges (1723–1790), having married in 1746 and obtained his master’s licence in 1747, took over the workshop and began using his own signature, “JSTGEORGES”. This makes it possible to define the time of production of this piece of furniture as 1725–1747, when the flowing shapes of the seats, backrests and legs and the floral carving decoration marked the fashion of French Rococo, also called Louis XV after the king. Such furnishings were bought for Łańcut in the 18th century by Izabela, née Czartoryska, wife of Grand Marshal of the Crown, Stanisław Lubomirski. At the end of the 19th century, during the reconstruction of the castle undertaken by Roman and Elizabeth Potocki, from a design by Armand Beauque and Albert Pio, much of the old furniture was renovated and reupholstered. Elżbieta Potocka, née Radziwiłł wrote in her memoirs: “Upholsterers came, Tepser from Vienna and Bucour from Paris. Old furniture was pulled out from below the attic and from various servants’ rooms – all the furnishings in the Boucher salon and the corner salon, the wooden console in the gallery, stood scattered and painted brown in the dressing rooms, and used for cleaning lamps and shoes”. Teresa Bagińska-Żurawska https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9243-3967