Louis Majorelle "Aubépines" Armchairs
Regular price
$19,500
This pair of “Aubépines” armchairs by Louis Majorelle features carved oak supports adorned with hawthorn leaves and berries. In French tradition, the hawthorn (aubépine)—which blooms in early May—symbolizes spring’s arrival, renewal, and enduring hope. Associated with purity and love, its blossoms were often exchanged on May Day as tokens of good fortune. Upholstered in rich red velveteen with rickrack trim, these chairs combine Majorelle’s refined craftsmanship with the poetic symbolism of the hawthorn, a cherished motif in French Art Nouveau design.
Item #: YF-22061
Artist: Louis Majorelle
Country: France
Circa: 1905
Dimensions: 30.5" height, 26" width, 30" depth.
Materials: Oak wood, Velvet upholstery
Literature: Similar armchairs are pictured in: Majorelle - Nancy: décorations d’intérieurs: meubles, tentures, bronzes, ferronneries (the 1906 Majorelle catalogue)
Item #: YF-22061
Artist: Louis Majorelle
Country: France
Circa: 1905
Dimensions: 30.5" height, 26" width, 30" depth.
Materials: Oak wood, Velvet upholstery
Literature: Similar armchairs are pictured in: Majorelle - Nancy: décorations d’intérieurs: meubles, tentures, bronzes, ferronneries (the 1906 Majorelle catalogue)
Norman peasants wore hawthorn sprigs in their hats as a reminder of Christ's crown of thorns. Hawthorns were believed to hold apotropaic (magically protective) qualities, a quality quite attractive to France's superstitious peasantry. Hawthorns were also seen as an acceptable alternative to church to pray if someone was a long way from church, and it was traditional for mothers to pray at these trees for the health of their children.
According to Émile Gallé, Majorelle's friend and President of the local horticultural society, many new hawthorn species from Central and East Asia had made their way to Nancy, France. Coinciding with the 1876 Russian annexation of Turkestan, one of the presiding Colonels, Korolkov, sent a new hawthorn species to Baden-Baden (Germany). The new species was much appreciated by the Nancy horticultural community for its sizeable berries and shiny foliage.
Norman peasants wore hawthorn sprigs in their hats as a reminder of Christ's crown of thorns. Hawthorns were believed to hold apotropaic (magically protective) qualities, a quality quite attractive to France's superstitious peasantry. Hawthorns were also seen as an acceptable alternative to church to pray if someone was a long way from church, and it was traditional for mothers to pray at these trees for the health of their children.
According to Émile Gallé, Majorelle's friend and President of the local horticultural society, many new hawthorn species from Central and East Asia had made their way to Nancy, France. Coinciding with the 1876 Russian annexation of Turkestan, one of the presiding Colonels, Korolkov, sent a new hawthorn species to Baden-Baden (Germany). The new species was much appreciated by the Nancy horticultural community for its sizeable berries and shiny foliage.
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