A pair of Louis XVI grey painted beechwood bergères en gondole, circa 1780, stamped Louis-Charles Carpentier, from the Château de Chanteloup for the duc de Penthièvre

Collection of the duc de Penthièvre, Château de Chanteloup;

Private collection.

B. Pallot, L’art du siège au XVIIIe siècle en France, Paris, 1987

V. Moreau (dir.), Chanteloup : un moment de grâce autour du duc de Choiseul, Paris, 2007, exhibition catalogue, Musée des beaux-arts de Tours, 7 April - 8 July 2007

Louis-Charles Carpentier, received master 26 July 1752.

This is most likely the pair of bergères with the Chanteloup firemarks, correctly attributed to Carpentier in the Sotheby's sale catalogue, Monaco, 22-23 June 1991, lot 531. One of our bergères is stamped with a mark, although difficult to read, that should be identified as that of Carpentier. This stamp, together with the firemark of the Château de Chanteloup, supports the opinion expressed by V. Moreau in his publication on the Chanteloup chairs, in the 2007 exhibition catalogue, that this joiner was involved in furnishing the duc de Penthièvre's castle near Amboise. Although there are no documents to prove it, several examples made by this iconoclastic joiner confirm his involvement. In fact, some chairs, including one shown under number 106 in the exhibition catalogue, have structural details and ornamentation that can be found on this pair of bergères. Of particular note is the rather prominent and angular connecting block decorated with pastilles and a strong moulding. A set by Carpentier comprising a pair of bergères and a pair of armchairs with similar stylistic features (connecting block, pronounced moulding and bold carving) was sold by Sotheby's in Paris on 10 March 2026, lot 22.

The duc de Choiseul, Louis XV's Minister of Foreign Affairs, bought the Château de Chanteloup near Amboise in 1761. The major furnishing campaign took place in the late 1760s. Lavishly decorated, the castle became Choiseul's main residence after his disgrace in 1770. A number of chairs are still recorded today; the richest were made of gilded wood and upholstered in silk. More common chairs, very similar to one another, are indiscriminately stamped by Boulard, Michard or Jacob.

Chanteloup was bought in 1713 by Jean Bouteroue d'Aubigny on behalf of the Princesse des Ursins, who died in 1722, he lived there until his death in 1735. The castle passed to his daughter, the marquise d'Armentières, who rarely visited until it was sold to the duc de Choiseul in 1761. The general appearance of Chanteloup was immediately altered by the architect Le Camus, who added two nine-bay colonnades on either side of the castle, themselves terminating in two pavilions. This work appears as early as 1765 in a watercolour preserved in the Cabinet des Estampes (Bibliothèque nationale).