This armchair, with its gently curving frame and lack of stretchers strengthening the legs, anticipates the stylistic developments of the eighteenth century. It is a type with a flat back called fauteuil à la reine as opposed to the fauteuil en cabriolet sporting a slightly concave back, which was fashionable later, during the Louis XV period.The chief glory of this example is the elaborate decoration, which, in some ways, is closer to the art of the goldsmith than to that of the wood-carver. It has even been suggested that the large set to which the Museum’s chair belonged, with its stylized lambrequin motifs “draped” over the arms and its delicate openwork ornament on the legs and on the rails that support the seat, may have been made to replace silver seat furniture at Versailles that was melted down by Louis XIV in 1689. While that cannot be verified, the armchair is among the earliest known pieces fitted with a drop-in back and seat, a style called à châssis, to facilitate the seasonal changing of the upholstery.
