Six Mid-18th Century Italian Chairs

Six carved walnut chairs
Venice, mid-18th century
Height 35.03 in (18.70 in to the seat) x 19.09 in x 18.30 in
(89 cm - 47.5 cm to the seat - x 48.5 cm x 46.5 cm)
State of conservation: slight chipping on the edges and some signs of use. Some signs of wear in the velvet. One chair has slight variations in the shape of the seat, in the carvings and in the red tone of the velvet.

The six walnut chairs have a shaped and slightly concave open back, decorated with two ribbons which, intertwining, form an openwork motif reminiscent of an "eight". At the height of the back a “rocaille” motif serves as a fastigium; the same motif also adorns the front part of the seats, as well as along the sides of five of them.
The front legs are curved to form an "S" and are decorated with small carvings and end with a curled foot; the back ones are only arched and end with a square foot.

The six chairs are of a model widespread in Venice around the middle of the eighteenth century. The model had some variants, all linked by the characteristic “figure eight” backs, of distant Anglo Dutch ancestry, but this was softened and reinterpreted to fit Venetian tastes.

Bibliography:
Levy, Saul, Il mobile veneziano del Settecento, Milano 1964, fig. 82-83.