Set of 4 Neoclassical Brass & Red Velvet Chairs, in the Manner of Maison Jansen, circa 1940

A striking suite of four neoclassical chairs in brass and red velvet, executed in the manner of Maison Jansen — the legendary Parisian interior design house whose Empire and neoclassical revival work defined luxury French interiors across the twentieth century. Dating to circa 1940, the set exemplifies the enduring appetite for antique-inspired grandeur that ran counter to the modernist current of the interwar period, and which Jansen and its imitators supplied to the great houses of Europe and beyond.

The chairs are distinguished by their tall, slender backs — rising to an imposing 106.5 cm (H. 41.93 in.) — a characteristic proportion of the neoclassical hall and dining chair, designed to project authority and architectural presence. The brass-mounted frames, a hallmark of the Jansen aesthetic, lend warmth and refinement to a design that might otherwise read as severe, the metal catching the light and articulating legs and uprights with a jeweller’s precision. The deep red velvet upholstery completes the palette with an imperial opulence: red and gold, the colours of the Napoleonic Empire, reprised here in the confident vocabulary of mid-century luxury craft.

The compact seat (W. 15.94 × D. 17.91 in.) and the imposing height suggest these chairs were conceived for formal placement — along the walls of a grand salon, flanking a console, or set at a dining table where ceremony counted as much as comfort. The suite of four is an ideal number for intimate or ceremonial arrangement.

A set of considerable decorative impact, suited to interiors of classical ambition, and a fine example of the neoclassical taste that Maison Jansen made synonymous with Parisian luxury.