Armchair

Armchair

Michel Bouvier (Attributed)

1835(circa)

This handsome chair descended through the family of its maker, French émigré cabinetmaker Michel Bouvier (1792-1874). The chair is unusual for its slip-in upholstered scrolled back and scrolled arms which terminate in carved eagle heads. The arms have the horizontal forward thrust of earlier French models and show the slight curve which was then coming into vogue. The legs mark the reintroduction of the cabriole form. The chair was restored and reupholstered in black horsehair--a popular upholstery material in the nineteenth century--as suggested by surviving fragments discovered under later upholstery.

Mahogany

Gift of Dorothy Patterson in memory of Richard D. Patterson

Bonaparte Collection, The Athenaeum of Philadelphia

1983.03.01