Jean Baptiste II Lelarge (French, 1711-1771) and follower Partie de salon aux Fables de La Fontaine 11 pieces in molded, carved and white lacquered beech. Two armchairs and six chairs with Queen-style backs, later complemented by a sofa and two armchairs. The curved backrest is decorated with shells and acanthus leaves; the recessed armrests have cuffs. The curved legs are decorated with flowers. Stamped "J.B.Lelarge" on the six chairs and two armchairs. Lelarge, master in Paris, January 14, 1738. Tapestry upholstery, wool and silk, Aubusson, 19th century, possibly Braquenié, decorated with child hunters and country scenes on the back and La Fontaine fables on the seats of nine chairs: The hare and the tortoise; The ewe and the fox; The two rats, the fox and the egg; The dog, the rooster and the fox; The horse and the wolf; The deer seeing in the water; The lion, the monkey and the two donkeys; The two pigeons; The fox and the goat. Chairs: Height 91.5 Width 59 Depth 47 cm. Armchairs: Height 95 Width 69 Depth 55 cm. Sofa: Height 96.5 Width 177 Depth 61 cm. (two of the six chairs upholstered in green velvet, traces of gilding, lacquer wear). Provenance: collection of a Lochois château. Jean Baptiste II Lelarge and followers. A set of two carved and lacquered beechwood flat-back armchairs and six chairs as well as a couch and two armchairs (later additions). Nine pieces of furniture upholstered with Aubusson tapestries depicting La Fontaine's Fables on the seats and pastoral scenes on the backs. Son of Jean Baptiste I, Jean Baptiste II Lelarge established himself in 1738 on rue de Cléry, in the house of carpenter Etienne Saint-Georges, who had died two years earlier. His son Jean Baptiste III, who succeeded him in 1775, kept his stamp, making it difficult to attribute the chairs between the late Louis XV and early Louis XVI styles. Louis XV chairs stamped "Lelarge" are traditionally attributed to Jean Baptiste II. He produced models with supple, elegant lines, molded or adorned with good-quality, well-distributed carvings without overloading (in Le mobilier français du XVIIIe siècle, Pierre Kjellberg, les Editions de l'Amateur, Paris, 1989, pp. 499 to 501). The furnishings in this salon, with La Fontaine's Fables and child hunters, are typical of 18th-century French taste, cultivating the art of conversation and quotation. Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) drew inspiration from ancient fabulists such as Aesop, Babrius and Phaedra to compose the "Fables" between 1668 and 1694. A picturesque evocation of the animal world and a light-hearted, perceptive transposition of society and its shortcomings, his verses offer an inexhaustible decorative repertoire for artists, which continues to seduce. Fables thus became a "ritual", a game of references and quotations for the enlightened society of the Enlightenment. It was against this backdrop that Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1686-1755), member of the Académie Française and the king's first animal painter, produced a new illustrated version of the Fables, featuring his favorite subject: animals. From 1729 to 1734, he drew 275 compositions in pencil and Indian ink enhanced with gouache. He became director of the Beauvais tapestry factory in 1734, and took up his drawings again, adapting them in the form of cartoons for his weavers. Fifteen years later, Montenault decided to have all the drawings engraved under the supervision of Nicolas Cauchin. The collection was published in 1755, enabling the Aubusson Manufactory to take up the theme and diversify it, in turn creating the marvelous seats of these paragons of French Art de Vivre. The depiction of child hunters is reminiscent of the allegories of child gardeners developed by François Boucher (1703-1770) for the Marquise de Pompadour (Rouillac sale, Château d'Artigny, June 10, 2018, no. 64, now preserved at Château de Sceaux), which would later influence numerous manufactures, including Aubusson. A combination of La Fontaine's fables on the seat and children's allegories on the back can be found on an armchair dated 1765, kept at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Bordeaux (inventory no. 11319).