An Italian carved giltwood armchair, Rome, circa 1810, attributed to Lorenzo Santi

Part of an extensive suite made for Cardinal Joseph Fesch (1763- 1839), probably made for the Palazzo Buffalo Ferraioli, in Rome, around 1806;

Christie's, Paris, Dalva Brothers II, 23rd November 2021, lot 121;

where acquired by the present owner.

Comparative Literature:

Lucy Wood, The Upholstered Furniture in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, 2008, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, Vol. II, no. 68, pp. 738-756.

Napoleon: la collection napoléonienne de la cité imperiale, Exposition Musée Fesch, Ajaccio, 03/05–30/12/2005,

Lucy Wood, 'Le mobilier du cardinal Fesch destiné au palais Buffalo Ferraioli', à Rome, p. 45-52.

This armchair was almost certainly part of the celebrated and much more extensive suite made for Cardinal Joseph Fesch (1763- 1839), probably made for the Palazzo Buffalo Ferraioli, in Rome, around 1806. The group of Fesch chairs are discussed extensively by Lucy Wood, op. cit. pp. 738-756. Most of the suite was later inventoried at his residence l’hôtel Hocquart de Montfermeil in Paris in 1815 and comprised ninety-six pieces. The Emperor’s emblem, the imperial eagle and the victory crown on the pediment possibly indicate that they were designed for an intended visit of his nephew, the Emperor Napoleon to Fesch’s palace in Rome.

Subsequently, part of the suite was catalogued for sale at Fesch’s Paris residence by Thiesson-Creteil, 17^th June 1816 (and following days), lot 444, but apparently withdrawn. Joseph Bonaparte, King of Spain, his principal heir, probably inherited most of the suite in 1839. Within two years some of the furniture was acquired by Prince Anatole Demidoff for the Villa San Donato, Florence (as shown in two drawings of the ballroom there, by Fortuné de Fournier, dated 1841). This part of the suite was later sold from San Donato by Paul Demidoff (nephew and heir of Anatole Demidoff) in the celebrated Demidoff sale on 15^th March 1880, lots 5, 143-144, 1082-1084. The furniture has subsequently been purchased in the main for public collections in Europe and the U.S.A. (for example Malmaison, France, the Philadelphia Museum of Art (mostly on loan to the White House), and the James Monroe Memorial Library in Virginia). Other remaining pieces appeared on the art market before the Second World War, especially at the Sangiorgi Gallery in Rome. A further group of fourteen pieces (chairs, armchairs and sofas) was bequeathed by Fesch to his home town, Ajaccio, Corsica, and remains at the Musée Fesch there.

It is worthwhile noting that the workshops and makers have not been identified, but designs for Fesch’s furniture were made by the brothers Lorenzo and Dionisio Santi, two architects from Sienna. A design for the present chairs was published by Santi (probably Dionisio) in Modèles de Meubles et de décorations interieurs, pour l’Ameublement…dessines par M. Santi (1828)–Plate 41.

Sets of seating furniture after the same model and with rounded top rails have been sold at Christie’s, Paris, 20^th November 2024, lot 5 and at Sotheby’s, London, 23^rd May 2023, lot 74.