Armchair Louis XV style

Louis XV-style armchair The presented armchair belongs to a suite of furniture in the Neo-Rococo Corner Salon in the west wing of the Łańcut residence. The identical looking armchairs are distinguished by flowing lines of seats, backs and legs, as well as floral woodcarving decoration – typical for the French Rococo style, also called Louis XV after the king. Four of them (S.1383MŁ; S.1384MŁ; S.1393MŁ; S.4070MŁ) were made by the Parisian carpenter Etienne Saint-Georges (+1737). Others from the 18th century, including the armchair on display, do not bear the author’s mark (S.1386MŁ – S.1390MŁ; S.1392MŁ). In France, the custom of occasionally signing furniture appeared in the third decade of the 18th century, out of concern for the quality of the products. From 1751 on, it was sanctioned by parliament. In practice, furniture makers did not always sign their products and this had no bearing on the artistic value of their work. Whether the Parisian workshop of Etienne Saint-Georges made the entire set of identical armchairs standing in the Corner Salon of the Łańcut residence remains a mystery. 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. 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”. The armchairs from the described set were repainted in the pastel colours of the Corner Salon and reupholstered. Teresa Bagińska-Żurawska https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9243-3967