This type of tabouret was created under Napoleon III by A.M.E. Fournier, its rope-shaped base is significant.

For comparison: A pouf à cordes by Fournier is in the château de Compiègne and is illustrated in H. Hayward, World Furniture, London, 1965, p. 241, pl. 928, and in J.-M. Moulin, ‘The furnishing of the Palace of Compiègne during the Second Empire’, The Connoisseur, December 1978, p. 253. A giltwood stool of the same design was sold by the Earl of Rosebery from the collection of Baron Mayer Amschel de Rothschild, Mentmore, Sotheby’s House sale, 18 May 1977, lot 10, while a further pair was sold by the Earl and Countess of Perth, at Christies’s, 18 April 1996, lot 44. Another giltwood stool of this type was sold also at Christie’s, 2 May 1997, lot 156.