Louis-Philippe 'Directoire' Steel Armchair

Louis-Philippe period armchair in polished wrought-steel, gilded and painted iron.
Polished wrought-steel, gilded and painted iron with contemporary green upholstery.
France.
ca. 1845.
h. 88 cm ; l. 56 cm ; p. 52 cm.

19th century armchair ‘en gondole’ in polished wrought-steel and iron gilded and painted with antique and martial motifs, attributed to the Besançon based workshop Gaudillot Frères & Roy, which produced armchairs of the same model around 1845.

The solidity of metal furniture, compared with their wooden equivalents, and its relative lightness — thanks to a tubular structure — allowed those armchairs to be enjoyed both indoors and outdoors, on a terrace or in a conservatory, as the day and the seasons went by.

Although this type of steel handmade armchair shines thanks to its somewhat martial rusticity and sturdiness, it is all the more remarkable to see here details of great refinement : a finely chased gilded patera as well as dolphin heads — in pure Directoire style, also gilded, at the junction between the back and the seat.

Sources

Georg Himmelheber, Cast-Iron Furniture and all other forms of iron furniture, Londres, 1996 ; Alain Renner, Mobilier de métal de l’Ancien Régime à la Restauration, Saint-Rémy-en-l’Eau, 2009.