<div class="description">
These chairs belong to a suite that includes a settee (also in the CMA’s collection) and a tapestry made for a count and countess to mark their wedding in 1717. Furniture of this scale was usually placed against the wall in grand reception halls, more as a display of wealth than for use. Upholstered in Savonnerie tapestries, this suite was among the most treasured and expensive example anyone could own and typically reserved for royalty. <br><br>To add decorative and intellectual interest to the textiles, weavers incorporated symbols depicting various stories from the <em>Fables of Jean de La Fontaine</em>, published from 1668 to 1694 and largely adapted from Aesop and other early storytellers.</div>
<div class="fn value">
Royal Savonnerie Manufactory, Chaillot Workshops</div>
<a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="https://clevelandart.org/art/1947.183.2">https://clevelandart.org/art/1947.183.2</a>