Beautiful armchair à la reine in patinated, carved and molded walnut.
The armrest consoles narrowed into a whiplash.
Upholstered in silk in good condition
Stamped Jean-Baptiste Gourdin
Provenance: Antiquités G. DIEBOLD, purchased in 1977
H.: 93cm - L.: 67cm - D.: 55cm
Period 18th century
Jean-Baptiste GOURDIN (1723-1781)
From a family of Parisian carpenters, Jean-Baptiste Gourdin is the eldest son of Jean Gourdin called Père Gourdin.
Unlike 18th century woodworkers, he was not admitted as an apprentice to a master carpenter, but to the sculptor Toussaint Foliot, from 1736 to 1741
. He then worked again in his father's workshop from 1741 to 1746.
Privileged by his training acquired from these two masters, he was admitted to the community of carpenters in 1747, when he had not yet completed his apprenticeship.
In 1746, he married Marie-Françoise Ferret, daughter of the master carpenter Claude Ferret. When the latter died, Jean-Baptiste Gourdin inherited his shop, also located on rue de Cléry. He opened his own workshop there and took on apprentices, eventually buying the entire house in 1761 under the name "Nom de Jésus", near that of his father.
Gourdin worked for a more eclectic clientele than that of his father, composed of many financiers from Europe. Among his most renowned clients, we can count quite regularly the Prince of Soubise, Duke of Rohan, but also the Marquis of Bellevaux; but his most illustrious client was undoubtedly the dauphine Marie-Antoinette when she moved to the court.