Pair of chairs from the Gothic study of the Comtesse d’Osmond
The chair backs bear a crest with the coat of arms of the Osmond family, topped with a count’s crown and the motto “Nihil obstat”.
In 1817, Aimée Destillères married Rainulphe d’Osmond, aide de camp of the Duke of Angoulême and son of the Marquis d’ Osmond, French ambassador to England. The Comtesse d’Osmond’s Gothic study occupied a room in her town house in the chaussée d’Antin district on the rue Basse-du-Rempart. The Comtesse d’Osmond decorated a reception room in the troubadour style at the far end of the first-floor gallery overlooking the boulevard. With their high backs in the shape of Gothic windows, the Comtesse d’Osmond’s chairs are some of the earliest examples of the “cathedral” style which became widespread in France, principally between 1825 and 1835.
