Befitting a Duchess

Desk Armchair circa 1760

Stop by Didier Aaron’s booth for an amazing journey back in time and see extraordinary examples of design from the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Gallery Manager Bill Pallot shared with us the tale of one chair – owned by both eighteenth century royalty and a modern day icon.

Louise Élisabeth, the first daughter of King Louis XV of France married Infante Philip, the younger son of Philip V of Spain. In the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) which ended the War of the Austrian Succession, the duchies of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla were ceded to Spain, and Philip and Élisabeth became Duke and Duchess of Parma.

Élisabeth arrived in Parma in October 1749 and took up residence in the Ducal Palace of Colorno.  The palace was bare (due to the war) and Élisabeth set about redecorating and refurbishing the entire place  in a royal French style.

In Didier Aaron’s booth, you will see the desk armchair Élisabeth acquired (circa 1760) on one of her shopping trips to Paris.  It is not known if the entire piece was commissioned for the Duchess, but the embroidery work was done custom for her with real gold thread through green velvet.  Today, the gold looks silver.

Bill Pallot first acquired the chair twenty years ago from a private collection in Paris.  Within an hour, he had resold the piece to Karl Lagerfeld.  While Karl owned it, he would use just as the Duchess did.   When Pallot saw that Lagerfeld’s 18^th century design collection was being sold by Christie’s, he jumped at the opportunity to reclaim the treasure.  Now, the piece has made its way to Hall 5.

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Duchess Chair at the Fair

My European History Professors Bill Pallot and Herve Aaron with Didier Aaron