Armchair From The Château De Compiègne Stamped P.marcion, Empire Period, 19th Century

Armchair in carved beech, lacquered in ivory white and gilded. Stamped *P.Marcion from the Château de Compiègne, inventory number "C7272", iron mark of the Château de Compiègne and paper label "Palais de Compiègne". (see photos) Slightly molded square backrest, the armrests rest on armrest consoles formed by pilasters decorated with gilded rings at the ends. It rests on baluster legs ringed at the front and saber legs at the back. Gold leaf gilding in very good condition. (formerly re-lacquered and regilded) It is covered with a striped black velvet, old-fashioned upholstery in good condition, fully pegged assemblies. *Pierre-Benoît Marcion was born in Paris in 1769 to a father who was a second-hand clothes merchant. In 1798, Pierre Benoît Marcion established his workshop-shop on rue Neuve des-Petits-Champs, under the sign "Aux Égyptiens" where he advertised to his customers "a selection of genre furniture, in mahogany wood richly decorated with bronzes, based on the beautiful forms of Etruscan, Egyptian, Greek and Roman Antiquities." As his business became increasingly important, he moved his establishment to rue Helvétius and then rue Saint Marc. The artist was gifted. His well-proportioned furniture was decorated with care, discretion and originality. He began to receive more and more orders from the Garde Meuble until, around 1805, he became one of Napoleon's main cabinetmakers for whom he made chests of drawers, consoles, secretaries and bookcases. He furnished the Petit Trianon, Fontainebleau, Saint Cloud, Compiègne, and the Tuileries, but his main work remained the bed of the Empress Marie Louise, executed in 1809 in gilded walnut, richly carved with swans, garlands, and foliage. The Garde Meuble wrote of him that "his furniture combines the perfect quality of the materials with the finish of the making and the regularity of the proportions... Monsieur Marcion is one of the cabinetmakers in Paris who has furniture made with the greatest perfection." Marcion ceased his activities in 1817 and retired to Château-Thierry. Upon the death of his wife, he returned to Paris, where he died in 1840.