The maker of this superb French armchair, or "fauteil," was Nicolas Heurtaut, the master of the "classical symmetrical rococo" style in which classical elements were introduced in order to moderate the fashionable exuberant asymmetry of the rococo style. The chair is part of a celebrated suite made for the Viennese palace of Count Wenzel-Joseph von Paar whose family fortune was derived from administering the imperial Austrian postal system.