Set of four ceremonial Empire armchairs

With a flat, square back, molded frame and upper crosspiece decorated with rosettes and palmettes, the cylindrical armrests are upholstered with cuffs. The front legs are rectangular, the slightly curved front crosspiece is decorated with five rosettes.
The whole is grey lacquered with gilded relief motifs.
Attributed to Marcion.
Empire Period
(Restorations of use and maintenance. Very light acc. new upholstery)
Dimensions: H: 100; W: 59; D: 52 cm

Pierre-Benoît Marcion was born in Paris in 1769 to a father who was a merchant and a fireman. In 1798 he advertised for the transfer of his workshop-shop "To the Egyptians" and offered an important choice of mahogany furniture decorated with gilded bronzes. His first official order is very important, since in 1801 he delivers 82 mahogany chairs decorated with inlays to the Conservative Senate. From 1805 he regularly supplied the Imperial Furniture Store and thus became one of the main cabinetmakers working for Napoleon, second only to Jacob-Desmalter. His commissions were for the Petit Trianon, the Palais des Tuileries, the Palais de Saint-Cloud, Fontainebleau and Laeken. In addition to chairs, Marcion also produced chests of drawers, secretaries, libraries, consoles, desks, washbasins for the Emperor... The orders will become very significant from 1808, mainly for the Trianon, the Palaces of Compiègne and Fontainebleau, in 1813 for Monte Cavallo in Rome. Then business becoming difficult he will have only small orders (Rambouillet and Compiègne). On the occasion of the evaluation of his stock in 1816, the auditor of the Garde-meuble wrote that his furniture "combines both the perfect quality of the materials to the finish of the confection, to the regularity of the proportions... Mr. Marcion is one of the cabinetmakers of Paris who makes furniture with the most perfection. ».