In 1959 the Paquebot France Relaxing Armchair appeared at the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs.
It was presented together with the Wave Table.
Maxime is fond of this armchair. He uses it in several prestigious projects, in particular for the VIP Lounge of Marseilles Airport, for the first class main lounge of the Paquebot Ancerville and for private customers. This seat is then equipped with varnished wooden legs.
In the specifications of the ocean-liner France aluminium is required and wood excluded. Maxime derives the “Paquebot France Relaxing Armchair” version with steel legs from these restraints. Looking for the detail that makes the difference he puts in the same line the main rib of the back leg and the space between seat and back.
Twenty years later he declares « I would not change anything today, except the back leg rib that I would even move up between the seat and the back to emphasize their alignment. I
would ignore the shoe that breaks the line in vain. Those variations are part of the contemporary productions.
Beyond the own personality of that version of the Paquebot France Relaxing Armchair an early form of the other seats of the Fontainebleau Main Lounge style can be detected.
Its steel base made of bars and its upside down pyramidal shape of the body play a great part in it. The back leg set in the bisecting line of the seat/back angle characterizes the style Maxime is looking for. As the Paquebot France Bridge Armchair it has plane smooth sides. The continuity of the front side, the armrests, the back sides and its top foreshadows the quite characteristic pad surrounding the Light Armchair.
It is presented here in the festive atmosphere of the Fontainebleau Lounge sketched by Maurice Paulin.
Back to Maxime Old Biography or see more about our present release of this Armchair.
