Marc du Plantier

Axel de Heeckeren, Paris

Private collection, Paris

Acquired from the above by the present owner

Private collection, Paris

Yves Badetz, Marc du Plantier, Paris, 2010, p. 112-113 for a bench model

Marc du Plantier began his career in interior design by adopting the modernist style in vogue at the end of the 1920s. From 1932 onwards, he turned to a more personal aesthetic, inspired by references to Antiquity. In his flat on Boulevard Suchet in Paris, alongside antique sculptures and vases, he installed chairs, armchairs and a meridienne in ceruse-treated wood with stylised lion's feet, inspired by the discovery of furniture unearthed from Tutankhamen's tomb. This interior, inspired by a dream of antiquity, was the subject of a photographic report in 1934 in the American edition of Vogue. The Egyptian chairs became emblematic pieces in Marc du Plantier's repertoire. In the following years, they appeared in several of his projects: at Henry de Rothschild's, in the dining room of Jean Bignon's flat, at Robert Germain's in Algiers, then in the decorator's new flat on rue du Belvédère in Boulogne-Billancourt.

Around 1936, Marc du Plantier created a new version of the méridienne for his wife, this time in patinated metal. At the same time, he designed a number of pieces of furniture, lighting and metal objects inspired by Egyptian art. The two chairs presented here belong to this repertoire from the late 1930s, and are the only known examples to date. They are accompanied by a 1:1 scale working drawing entitled ‘Chaise néo-égyptienne’.