Stamped "nogaret A Lyon" – Pair Of Armchairs In Natural Wood – Louis XV Period

A beautiful pair of armchairs in natural wood, molded and richly carved with a floral design.
The armrests have whiplash-shaped cuffs on the arm supports.
The legs are sinuous. T
he impeccable quality of the joinery and the exquisite finesse of the carving on these chairs attest to the craftsman's status as the finest cabinetmaker in the provinces.

These two armchairs are stamped "Nogaret à Lyon" on the back uprights of the backs.
Louis XV period.
Height: 92 cm, Width: 67 cm, Depth: 54 cm.

We are also including a pair of chairs of the same model and from the Louis XV period.
Height: 81.5 cm, Width: 58 cm, Depth: 57 cm.
The upholstery on these four chairs is in very good condition.

No reinforcements. Very good condition.

Pierre Nogaret (1718 - August 23, 1771),
chair maker. Master in 1745 in Lyon. The most celebrated cabinetmaker in Lyon.
These pieces, almost all carved and varnished walnut, decorated with flowers and rocaille motifs, bear the stamp "NOGARET A LYON" with the leg of the "Y" folded to the left. Pierre Nogaret was born in Paris in 1718 and remained the undisputed master of Lyon's chair-making during the reign of Louis XV.
Unlike his contemporaries Riesener and Jacob, no portrait of this illustrious cabinetmaker exists, making him the "faceless" craftsman, a veritable myth identified solely with his work.
His biography could only be based on Lyon parish registers, as all other documents were destroyed in 1871, after the fire set by the Commune that ravaged the archives of the Paris City Hall.
It is believed, however, that after an apprenticeship in Paris, probably with a renowned master craftsman, he left the capital in 1743 to settle in Lyon, where he continued his training with the Lyon master François Girard, established on Petite rue Saint Romain. In 1744, he married Anne Muguet, a native of Roanne, and obtained his master's certificate in Lyon in 1745.
From 1745 to 1761, he fathered fifteen children, many of whom died in infancy.
He appears not to have been very involved in the life of his guild, of which he was elected master warden, along with Mathieu Lerbet, only on February 9, 1771. He died on August 23 of the same year and was buried in the "cellar of Saint-Roch."
Upon his death, his children were placed under the guardianship of the master cabinetmaker Étienne Vanderheyden. In 1772, his wife sold the business to master cabinetmaker Nicolas Parmantier, who continued production, stamping his mark on some of his unfinished pieces.
Nogaret's oeuvre, entirely in the Louis XV style, is considerable.
The lines of his armchairs, chairs, and sofas are perfect, balanced, and elegant.
His furniture, of impeccable quality, is recognizable at a glance. Most of his seats are crafted from very dark walnut or varnished beech.
The ornamentation, without any excess, is finely carved with roses, peonies, or scrolling foliage.
Nogaret's mark appears as a line of small capitals (47mm x 2.2mm), and the Y shape of Lyon has a very characteristic arrangement, with the leg folding horizontally to the left.
The placement of Nogaret's mark seems to have been rigorously coded.
- On caned flat-back chairs, the stamp is located on the rear rail of the frame;
- on upholstered flat-back chairs, it is on the rear rail of the seat rail;
- on cabriolet chairs, on the backrest upright at the joint;
- on giltwood chairs with a frame, on a rail inside the seat rail.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Nogaret and the Lyon Chair - Bernard Deloche, Jean-Yves Mornand - Jacques André publisher
- 2009 French Furniture of the 18th Century - Pierre Kjellberg - Les Editions de l'Amateur - 2008 Cabinetmakers of the 18th Century - Count François de Salverte - Les éditions d'Art et d'Histoire - 1934 The Art of Seating in 18th-Century France - Bill GB Pallot - ACR-Gismondi Publishers - 1996 Website on Nogaret on the occasion of the tercentenary of his birth