Louis XVI Bergère & Ottoman in Solid Teak, Hand-Applied Gold Leaf, Ivory Linen Upholstery

About this object

A bergère in the full Louis XVI manner, sold as a pair with its matching ottoman: solid teak frame carved with a ribbon-twist crest, rosette arm blocks and stop-fluted tapered legs, the entire frame finished in hand-applied gold leaf. The upholstery is an ivory linen-blend with a visible textured weave—closed sides in the true bergère construction, a loose seat cushion and a generous lumbar pillow. The ottoman repeats the chair's carved apron and fluting exactly, so the two read as one composition whether together or apart. The frame is where the labour lives. Louis XVI carving is geometry, not flourish—the guilloche band on the crest, the fluting on the legs and the rosettes at the arm junctions must all be cut even and repeating, because the neoclassical eye forgives nothing irregular. Each element here is carved into the teak, then sized, leafed in sheets and burnished; the leaf is rubbed back gently at the wear points—arm ends, leg edges—so the gold sits like inheritance rather than fresh gilding. Teak under the leaf is the quiet upgrade: period French frames were beech, which worms and splits in our climate; teak does neither. A bergère with ottoman is the most complete single seat a room can hold—built for hours, not minutes. In a bedroom corner it becomes the reading chair beside a window; in a living room, the one sculptural object among quieter upholstery; in pairs flanking a console, it furnishes a formal room almost alone. The ivory-and-gold palette pairs naturally with the Kahgez Atelier French Provincial bed—the two were designed to share a room. Fabric, leaf tone and degree of distressing are adjustable at order.