French Mid-19th Century Giltwood Fauteuil De Bureau

A beautiful mid-19th century Louis XVI style giltwood swivel office chair with curved backrest on spiral fluted baluster armrests, caned rotating seat on fluted tapered legs, covered with seat and backrest upholstered in rich red leather
Size: 88 cm high, 69 cm in diameter.

In the manner of Georges Jacob (1739-1814, Master 1765). A similar chair with a swivel seat was created for Marie-Antoinette's bedroom at the Petit Trianon (see photo taken at the Getty Museum by Francois Le Brun in 2019), her mansion on the grounds of Versailles. It belongs to a suite of bedroom seating furniture delivered in 1788, just before the start of the French Revolution. Of a special type called a toilettechair, it served a specific purpose in Marie Antoinette's daily grooming and dressing ritual, known as the toilette. Specially designed for hairdressing, her seat included an ingeniously hidden swivel mechanism that allowed the queen to turn 360 degrees.