A very fine Louis XVI mahogany three-seater sofa attributed to Georges Jacob, the padded back, arm rests and bowed seat upholstered in a pale blue and silver silk, the channelled frame with straight toprail and arm rests on turned tapering stop-fluted legs headed by paterae Paris, dated circa 1790 Height 74 cm, width 175 cm, depth 70 cm. Georges Jacob (1739-1814) was probably the most notable eighteenth century Parisian menuisier and certainly the greatest of the Louis XVI period. His skill in making carved wood furniture was outstanding while his innovative genius enabled him to produce a very wide range of chair designs without repetition. As such his oeuvre is represented among the world’s finest collections. More important pieces can be seen in the Wallace Collection and Victoria and Albert Museum in London, at Windsor Castle, the Musée du Louvre and Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris; Châteaux de Versailles and Fontainebleau as well as the Musée Condé, Chantilly. Jacob founded a great dynasty of furniture makers, specialising in the production of chairs and other fine furniture. He worked under his own name from 1765 until 1796, when he retired and sold his business to his two sons, Georges II (1768-1803) and François-Honoré-Georges (1770-1841), who carried it on under the name of Jacob Frères until the death of the elder son in 1803. The younger, who took the name of Jacob-Desmalter, then joined with his father under the name of Jacob-Desmalter et Cie until 1813. The firm remained within the family until it was sold in 1847. Of peasant stock, Georges Jacob was born at Cheny, near Tonnerre in Burgundy, on 6th June 1739. At about the age of sixteen he went to Paris where it is believed he served a three year apprenticeship under Louis Delanois (1731-92) before being received as a maître on 4th September 1765. He established his reputation quickly and from 1773 received numerous commissions from the Crown. In 1781 he was appointed ébéniste-ordinaire to Monsieur, the comte de Provence (later King Louis XVIII) and from 1784 became one of the Fournisseurs des Menus-Plains. He was among the small number of non-Germanic cabinet-makers to be favoured by Queen Marie Antoinette. Although chiefly renowned for his chairs, he made many other types of furniture; his work even extended to the restoration and replacement of medal-cabinets in the Boulle technique for Château de Saint-Cloud. During the 1780’s, he was particularly influenced by English furniture makers and as such introduced motifs such as the lyre back. He was also one of the first French furniture makers to take advantage of good quality mahogany for making chairs and instead of gilding ornamented some pieces with high quality gilt bronze mounts. Jacob was also particularly interested in Antiquity; shortly before the Revolution, he executed a suite of mahogany furniture in the austere classical style for the studio of the Neo-classical painter, Jacques Louis David (1748-1825). These pieces were among immediate sources from which the style of furniture adopted under the Directory, the Empire and the Restoration was derived. In 1788 Jacob was made syndic-adjoint of his guild and would have been appointed syndic the following year had it not been for the outbreak of the Revolution. By 1789 he was in a firmly established and even brilliant social position with a large house in the rue Meslée but soon after he suffered heavy losses with the emigration of his principal clients; among others, Monsieur, the King’s brother, left an outstanding debt of 85,000 livres. Jacob had been too closely associated with the royal family to please the revolutionaries, and was thus placed under suspicion. In order to demonstrate his patriotism he began making gunstocks for the republican army. But even this and his friendship with David (who obtained for him the commission to provide the chairs used by the Convention when sitting in the Palais des Tuileries) did not prevent him from being twice denounced. However he survived the Revolution and shortly after, during the reign of Napoleon, his firm once more assumed prominence. His repute, which has continued to this day, was perfectly summarized in the words of the eminent historian Count de Salverte, who wrote “He dominated his rivals by the perfection of his technique and his amazing creativity, giving even his most modest works a peculiar element of nobleness and grace.”