A PAIR OF LOUIS XVI GRAY-PAINTED MARQUISES

BY JEAN-BAPTISTE II TILLIARD, CIRCA 1775

Details

Each with rectangular arched padded back within conforming frame carved with guilloche and leaf-tips, with padded arms and sides, the loose cushion seat in similarly carved rectangular seat-rail, on circular tapering fluted legs headed by paterae, one stamped 'TILLIARD' twice, the other stamped three times
37 in. (94 cm.) high
Provenance

The Elizabeth Parke Firestone Collection Part II; Christie's, New York, 22-23 March, 1991, lot 910.


Lot Essay

Jacques Jean-Baptiste II Tilliard, maître in 1752.
The architectural form of this suite illustrates the stylistic progression of the Tilliard dynasty from the sinuous, sculpted lines of the Rococo to the Classical lines and ornament of the Louis XVI era. Under the direction of Jean-Baptiste II Tilliard (1723-1797), who assumed both his father’s stamp and the title of maître menuisier du Garde-Meuble du Roi, Tilliard continued to supply furniture to the Royal family. Those commissions included a suite of six fauteuils, a canapé, two bergères and a firescreen for the marchand-mercier François-Charles Darnault in 1784 which went to the apartment of the King of Sweden at Versailles, see P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Français du XVIII Siècle, Paris, 1989, p. 840.
Born in Decatur, Illinois, Elizabeth Parke Firestone’s ancestors came to New England on the ‘Arbella’ as part of the John Winthrop expedition in 1630. In 1921 she married Harvey S. Firestone, Jr., heir to the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, and they resided together in Akron, Ohio and at ‘Ocean Lawn’ in Newport, Rhode Island. Mrs. Firestone assembled a renowned collection of eighteenth-century decorative arts, which was particularly rich in Sèvres porcelain and French furniture and a world-famous group of French silver, including iconic pieces by Thomas Germain and his son François-Thomas, Auguste and Roettiers, much of which was generously donated to the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The remaining collection, including these marquises, was sold in a landmark sale at Christie’s New York in 1991.