Pair of Consulate armchairs by Demay

Following the difficult revolutionary years, under the Directory and then the Consulate there is a period of economic recovery, favorable to the decorative arts, then experiencing a new boom. This pair of mahogany armchairs and blackened wood of a great sobriety and a great elegance testifies to it. The front legs, straight, extend by an armrest console in the form of Egyptian feminine term blackened wood. The hind legs "in saber", also called "Etruscan", are common under the Consulate. The armrest is connected to the rectangular backrest by a green wooden palmette. They are stamped "Demay rue de Cléry".
Condition: Excellent condition, restored in the summer of 2019 and furnished with a silk produced by Tassinari & Chatel.
Artist: Jean-Baptiste-Bernard Demay (1759-1848) is a carpenter in seats, received master February 4, 1784. He works rue du Faubourg-Saint-Antoine, and rue Cléry after the Revolution, before interrupting his activities at the fall of the Empire. Under the Old Regime, he worked for the royal family, delivering delicate and fashionable furniture (folder with lyre or balloon motif). Under the Directory and the Consulate, he adopted the fashion of mahogany seats.
Other furniture: Paris, Museum of Decorative Arts Armchair with the queen of Louis XVI style, around 1785-1790, carved and painted walnut (inv 3939) Paris, Carnavalet museum Pair of chairs "ballooning", around 1785, beech carved and painted (MB 93 and MB94) Versailles, castles of Versailles and Trianon Four chairs with the figure of Marie Antoinette, carved and painted wood, circa 1785 (T536C.1-4) New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art Sofa, pair of armchairs and pair of shepherds to the queen, around 1785, carved and gilded walnut (1973.305.1, 1977.102.11 and 12, 1973.305.1 and 2)
Bibliography: Pierre Kjellberg, French furniture of the eighteenth century, Paris: Editions de the Amateur, 2002, p. 285-287.