Object Description
An important, signed Louis XV period canapé à chassis by Michel Gourdin. The padded back with a carved serpentine back, part padded arms on scroll terminals and a serpentine seat a carved seat rail and channeled cabriole legs with foliate feet, the wood likely beechwood, stamped twice M. Gourdin,for renouned ebéniste Michel Gourdin, maitre, Paris 1752.
A Chassis pieces are the highest quality and therefore most valuable of 18th Century French furniture. The upholstered elements are removable so that the owner could easily change upholstery with the seasons. The back of this settee is held in by latches and strategically placed metal points. The armrests and seat are also detachable. Recently upholstered in linen, though easily reupholstered.
Michel Gourdin’s furniture is much sought after, with pieces in Windsor Castle, the Chateau d’Eu and elsewhere in France, the Wallace collection, and major museums including the Metropolitan Museum in New York: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/195505
Michel Gourdin became a maître in 1752 and worked with his brother Jean-Baptist Gourdin (maître 1748 – died after 1776) in a shop on the rue de Cléry, close to their father’s workshop on the rue Saint-Phillippe. Both brothers made furniture in the Louis XV, transitional, and Louis XVI styles and were among the most highly skilled chair-makers of the period. IIn 1777 Michel became a supplier to the Garde-Meuble. He used the stamp M. GOURDIN. (From The Jack and belle Linsky Collection catalogue, Metropolitan Museum of Art.