Armchair

Armchair, France, late 19th century. The Harness Room of Count Mikołaj Potocki in his Parisian stables at Av. Fiedland, similarly to the Łańcut Grand Harness Room in the Castle Stables, was an exceptionally sophisticated tack room/ drawing room. Apart from several dozen harnesses displayed on the wood panelling on the walls, pieces of furniture were also placed there, precious trinkets and horse riding paraphernalia. After the Count's death in 1921, the harnesses and the fitouts from the Parisian harness room (as part of inheritance after him) were moved to Łańcut, as Mikołaj Potocki designated his distant cousin, Alfred Antoni Potocki, fourth Ordynat, as his successor. Among the movables in the harness room in the stables of Mikołaj Potocki, a set of neo-Regency furniture, comprising two armchairs, two chairs and two stools upholstered with navy blue cloth, also found its way from Paris to Łańcut. On their high back rests, both chairs and armchairs feature heraldic emblems with the golden Pilawa coat of arms surrounded with a banderole with the Scutum opponebat skutis motto and topped with a crown with nine prongs and a jewel executed in the appliqué technique. Similarly to Paris, in Łańcut they were also set in the harness room in the Stables. Aldona Cholewianka-Kruszyńska