8: Suites of Furniture

Bergère

1890s

N. Svirsky's factory

St Petersburg

89x68x53 cm

Carved painted, stained and gilded wood; silk (not original)

From the Von Derviz palace on the English Embankment in St Petersburg

This armchair of the type known as bergere belonged to a set of furniture made for the drawing-room of P.P. von Derviz's mansion that was later acquired with all its furnishings by Grand Duke Andrei Vladimiriovich. The design of the chair is almost identical to that of a bergère produced at Svirsky's factory to sketches by N. Nabokov for the apartments of the Winter Palace. The distinctive features of the finish are easily seen: the gessoed wood was first covered with paint of a deep muddy green tone, then the carving was slightly accentuated by gilding.