A Pair of Continental Giltwood Side Chairs, 19th Century

Michele Cassandro, Via Monserrato, Rome

Juan Portela Antiques, New York

Saul and Gayfryd Steinberg, 740 Park Avenue

It has been suggested this pair is of Italian origin, possibly Sicilian, and similar scale carving and snake or dragon heads appear on a pair of giltwood curule stools, possibly Tuscan, formerly in the collection of Mrs Charles W. Engelhard, sold Christie's New York, 18 March 2005, lot 344. These have been compared to an X-frame armchair said to be Tuscan formerly in the collection of Luigia Balzani-Uboldi, illustrated in G. Morazzoni, Il Mobile Neoclassico Italiano, Milan 1955, fig. CCIV. Related snake-like carving also appears on a pair of daybeds from the private collection of the celebrated Paris antiques dealer Madeleine Castaing, sold Sotheby's Paris, 30 September-1 October 2004, lot 201. These have traditionally been described as Northern European, and a pair of armchairs of identical design, called Russian and presumably part of the same original suite, was sold Lempertz, Cologne 29 May 2020, lot 948.

The highly distinctive back design of intertwined serpents interestingly appears on numerous surviving plank stools (brettstühle), a type of country seat furniture widely produced in southern German-speaking regions including the Black Forest, Switzerland and the Tyrol. See for example a 'snake chair' (schlangenstuhl) sold at the Dorotheum, Vienna, 7 December 2021, lot 259.