A pair of Restauration giltwood fauteuils by Pierre-Antoine Bellangé (1758-1827) or Louis-Alexandre Bellangé (1799-1863)
1815-1820
Each with a scrolled dished top and an opposing volute scroll, anthemion and acanthus spray toprail centred by a flowerhead, the bowed seat frame with similar decoration centred by an elongated scrolled tablet, with lotus-leaf clasped and scroll capped arm supports, on two acanthus and stiff-leaf wrapped lion-bust headed monopodiae terminating in animalistic legs and lion paw feet, with splayed square section rear legs, each side applied with scrolled stylised foliage interspersed with anthemia and paterae, each fauteuil stamped: 'L.BELLANGE' and one fauteuil stamped: 'CH', approximately: 71cm wide x 72cm deep x 100cm high, (27 1/2in wide x 28in deep x 39in high) (2)
Footnotes:
Provenance
Purchased Koller, Zürich, September 2005, Collection Dino Fabbri, Monte Carlo, lot 1276.

An identical pair of fauteuils, which along with the offered lot, likely formed part of an extensive set apparently made by the cabinet maker Louis-Alexandre Bellangé, sold Christie's, London, 23 March 2017, Robert de Balkany Rome and the Cote d'Azur, lot 494. Both pairs have the same 'L. BELLANGE' and 'CH' stamps which prove that they were originally from the same commission. The Christie's armchairs previously belonged to Aladar Zellinger de Balkany (1900-1983), and passed thence by descent.

A further pair of fauteuils of this same type were offered, together with a matching sofa, Sothebys, Paris, 23 June 2021, Important Mobilier, lot 156. However, interestingly these Paris examples were attributed to the workshop of Pierre-Antoine Bellangé, who was the father of Louis-Alexandre.

The design for the present armchairs is based upon a watercolour entitled 'Deux Projets de Fauteuils' (1817-1820), bearing the signature of Louis-Alexandre Bellangé. It forms part of a collection of illustrations, taken from 'l'Atelier Bellangé', which are at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, S. Cordier, Bellangé, Ebenistes: une Histoire du Gout au XIX Siecle, 2012, Paris, fig. 4.

However the antecedent, which incorporates similar lion monopodia to those of the above, was one of a number of drawings for related seat furniture and tables which first appeared in Charles Percier and Pierre-Francois Leonard Fontaine, Recueil de Decorations Interieures, originally published in 1812. It is notable that these Percier and Fontaine examples had in fact been sourced themselves from antiquity.

Another closely related design for fauteuils, one attributable to Pierre-Antoine Bellangé (Louis-Alexandre's father), was executed during the period 1815-1820 and corresponds well with a set of chairs and sofas supplied to the Comtesse du Cayla for the Chateau of Saint-Ouen of Zoe, Ibid, p. 489, PAB107. This strong association or interrelationship between father and son implies that at an early stage the much younger figure of Louis-Alexandre must have undertaken a thorough analysis of his father's oeuvre.

Indeed between 1820 and 1825, towards the end of their contractual arrangement during their co-operation based at the family workshop on Rue Neuve-Saint-Denise, various pieces of seat furniture made at this time are either stamped: 'L. BELLANGE', such as appear on the offered lot, or: 'P. BELLANGE'. Some of the models that have the 'L. BELLANGE' stamp feature in Ibid, p. 500, LAB1 and a pair of such fauteuils also sold Sotheby's, New York, 25-26 October 2007, Ariane Dandois Collection, lot 523.

Furthermore, an assortment of designs dating to circa 1818, which were completed by Louis-Alexandre, are today with the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Interestingly this particular portfolio even includes an engraved plate depicting a near conforming armchair to the present ones, which was itself evidently made in Pierre-Antoine's workshop at some point during 1815-1820.

Pierre-Antoine Bellangé became maitre in 1788. But despite working as a cabinet maker throughout the Revolution (1789-1799), it appears that his career really flourished during the Empire period and the initial part of the Restauration, or restoration of the monarchy. Pierre-Antoine developed into one of the principal suppliers of furniture to Napoleon and also to those closest to the Emperor, before in due course serving as cabinet maker to the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne (basically the Royal furniture repository) during the reign of Louis XVIII.

Louis-Alexandre Bellangé, who ran his own atelier and shop at 33 Rue des Marais-Saint-Martin, established himself and his firm as specialist in the production of furniture incorporating porcelain, lacquer and hardstones, as well as Boulle-inspired pieces. In 1833 he tried unsuccessfully to get a place at the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne restoring earlier works. However, disappointment at this rejection must have been tempered by his subsequent appointment as a supplier to the Duc d'Orléans. His gold medal-winning contribution to the Paris exhibition of 1839 won him significant praise from the jury at that event.

Although fairly early on in his career Louis-Alexandre supplied furniture to Charles X, subsequently at the 1844 Exposition des Produits de l'Industrie Française Louis-Philippe (when King) acquired a Boulle table from the illustrious cabinet maker. Later on, at the 1851 Great Exhibition, he was awarded a second class medal for the Boulle objects his firm had produced for Crystal Palace. Examples of his oeuvre, made either independently or in collaboration with his father, may be found in the Wallace Collection, London and in the collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle.
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