Carved mahogany; ivory and ebony marquetry; red leather.
H. 96.5 cm. (38 in.); W. 71 cm. (28 in.); D. 76 cm. (30 in.).
Marks and inscriptions: C B, stencil letters visible on the back of the seat frame of the armchair.
Provenance: private collection.
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE: Guillaume Janneau, Le Mobilier français, Les Sièges, Paris, 1967, p. 182, fig. 351; Madeleine Jarry, Le siège français, Fribourg, 1973, pp. 288-289, fig. 288; Denise Ledoux-Lebard, Les ébénistes du XIXe siècle, 1795-1889, Leurs œuvres et leurs marques, Paris, 1984, p. 283; Marie-Noëlle de Grandry, Le mobilier français, Directoire, Consulat, Empire, Paris, 1996, p. 32; Christophe Huchet de Quénetain, Les styles Consulat et Empire, Paris, 2005, p. 104, fig. 73; Jean-Pierre Samoyault, Mobilier français Consulat et Empire, Paris, 2009, p. 27, figs. 25 and 29.
At the end of the 18th century, chair design saw a revival of forms inspired notably by the animal kingdom. During the Directoire period, lion’s leg feet became increasingly popular, as exemplified by the particularly powerful and finely sculpted ones flanking this armchair. The chair features a seat and back upholstered in red leather, the latter topped by a curved rectangular band, known as a “hemicycle,” decorated with delicate marquetry of ebony lines and ivory inlays, featuring stars, stylized palmettes, and scroll motifs. Corner panels formed by the lateral uprights of the back accentuate the ends of this band.
The seat’s apron, slightly curved at the front, flares forward and rests on two front supports in the form of winged lion’s legs. These single-legged, bent uprights terminate in lion heads and stand on wide claws, whose wings also serve as supports for the armrests.
These armrests run on a strictly horizontal plane and have square-sectioned ends. The rear legs, described as “Etruscan,” are shaped like saber blades.
The model for this armchair was created during the Convention period (1792–1795) by Georges Jacob, based on a sketch by the architect Charles Percier (1764–1838). It was inspired by an antique marble table support known as a trapezophore, several examples of which—with lion or griffon heads—are preserved in Pompeii. One of these antique chairs was reproduced by Percier, Fontaine, and Bernier in 1798 in a publication titled Palais et Maisons de Rome. Jean-Baptiste-Claude Séné (1747–1803, master 1769) also produced this model. An armchair of this type, stamped by Séné, is today held in the collections of the Mobilier National in Paris.
Jacob produced examples of this armchair identical to Percier’s sketch, such as the one preserved in the collections of Château de Malmaison, as well as others featuring a variant on the backrest “grid,” with crisscrosses and rosettes, a model reproduced by Pierre-Antoine de La Mésangère in his famous publication Meuble et objets de goût, an example of which is held at the Musée Carnavalet in Paris
Imposing and comfortable, this armchair model enjoyed great popularity and continued to be produced under the Directoire by frères Jacob, sons of Georges. Several examples are today recorded in public and private collections. The previously mentioned example from Malmaison was used by Bonaparte in his hôtel on rue de la Victoire and was given by the general in 1798 to his physician Corvisart. A pair of these armchairs, stamped G. IACOB, belonged to the collection of H.R.H. the Prince Murat.
This chair was also repeatedly reproduced in portraits. It appears in the full-length portrait of the composer François-Adrien Boïeldieu (1775–1834), executed in 1800 by Louis-Léopold Boilly (1761–1845) and preserved at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rouen. Another chair of this type, in mahogany and gilded and bronzed wood, enriched with stars and bands decorated with rosettes, is also visible in a portrait of the painter Isabey’s son, Eugène, presented at the Salon of 1810 by Louis-André-Gabriel Bouchet (1759–1842)
Georges Jacob (Cheny, 1739 – Chaillot, 1814, master 1765), pair of winged-lion armchairs in mahogany, stamped G. IACOB, Paris, circa 1795–1796. Formerly in the collection of H.R.H. Prince Murat, sold in Paris, Hôtel Drouot, Messrs. Ader-Picard-Tajan, 14 June 1983, lot no. 126; subsequently in the Agnelli collection.
The Maison Jacob, an exceptional House from the late 18th century to the empire
The Jacobs are among the most famous Parisian families of ébénistes, who, across three active generations from the last third of the 18th century to the end of the first half of the 19th century, managed to maintain their workshop’s reputation at the very top.
Born in Cheny in Burgundy on 6 July 1739, Georges Jacob, the father of the dynasty, lost his parents at a very young age. At the age of sixteen, he decided to move to Paris to learn woodcarving. He initially worked as an apprentice with the joiner Louis Delanois, whose influence was significant, and soon specialized in the making of chairs. With the support of his master, he quickly obtained his mastery, recorded on 4 September 1765, which allowed him to establish himself without taking over another master’s workshop, a practice quite rare at the time. In 1767, he married Jeanne-Germaine Loyer, aged sixteen, who lived like him on rue Beauregard in Paris. The couple soon moved to rue de Cléry, and in 1775, definitively to rue Meslée. They had five children: three sons and two daughters. The eldest, Georges II (1768–1803), and the second, François-Honoré-Georges (1770–1841), both became joiners and cabinetmakers and brilliantly assisted their father in his workshop. The youngest, Louis, chose a completely different path and undertook numerous travels.
From 1773 until the Revolution, Georges Jacob continuously worked for the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, supplying the principal royal residences. From 1781, he held various positions within the joiners–cabinetmakers’ guild. In 1788, he became assistant syndic and was set to become syndic the following year. As the main supplier to the court and princes, he faced difficulties during the revolutionary period. Repeatedly denounced to the Comité de Salut Public, he nevertheless benefited from the protection of the painter Jacques-Louis David, with whom he actively collaborated, creating furniture based on David’s designs. On 13 August 1796, at the age of fifty-seven, he transferred his business to his two sons, who then established the firm JACOB FRERES. Their father rented them his workshops and continued to advise them. After the premature death of his eldest son, Georges II, on 23 October 1803, he decided to form a new partnership with his second son, François-Honoré-Georges, a nine-year association under the name Jacob-Desmalter et Cie.
The name Desmalter had been added to Jacob during the Directoire period (1795–1799) in memory of a family estate, “Les Malterres,” owned by an ancestor in Cheny, Burgundy.
Under the First Empire, Jacob-Desmalter became a joiner–cabinetmaker–maker of furniture and bronzes for Their Imperial and Royal Majesties, the Emperor and Empress also being King and Queen of Italy since 1805. Throughout Napoleon I’s reign, he was the principal supplier to the Mobilier Impérial, far surpassing all his contemporaries. The same applied to private commerce. According to Hector Lefuel’s study, the Jacob workshops, which employed up to 332 craftsmen around 1808, delivered nearly ten million francs’ worth of furniture between 1796 and 1813. Only one-fifth of this colossal sum was for public commissions; one-third was for export; the remainder represented purchases made by private clients. Jacob-Desmalter declared bankruptcy on 15 January 1813. The State, his main client, was largely responsible for this situation, failing to pay the numerous accounts due to Maison Jacob on time. François-Honoré-Georges’ estranged wife temporarily managed the business, until Jacob-Desmalter resumed control, his creditors recognizing, at the start of the Restoration, that he had been solely a victim of political events.
