The Landammann's chair

Description

During the so called 'Mediation period' (1803-13), when Switzerland was effectively controlled by Napoleon, the head of the government of the cantons of Basle, Berne, Fribourg, Lucerne, Solothurn and Zurich each held the office of 'Landammann' in turn for one year. The office had no executive power and was held by conservatives still devoted to the Ancien regime. The mayor of Basle and Landammann for 1806, Andreas Merian (1742-1811), was no exception. In Basle, in contrast to Berne, where there was a suitable 'Schultheissen' or mayoral throne already in existence, a suitable throne of office for "His Excellency" had to be made. The result was an over sized upholstered armchair with the gilt ornament of a throne but no insignia. Both its construction and its decoration show the persistence of a rather clumsy Louis XVI style influenced to some degree by the Empire - especially in the way the ornament is applied over a mahogany coloured ground.