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A fine pair of Empire carved mahogany fauteuils attributed to François-Honoré-Georges Jacob, each with padded backs and bow fronted seats upholstered in a blue silk decorated with rosettes and flower-filled laurel wreaths, the scrolled top rail with carved scrolls to each side above channelled frames with palmettes at the junction of the arm rests, the arm rests terminating in carved lion heads on lightly fluted curved supports above a plain bowed seat rail, the square tapering legs headed by pilasters and carved rosettes above lion paw feet
Paris, date circa 1805
Height 92 cm, width 58 cm, depth 55 cm. each.
The design and quality of these fauteuils closely relate to other examples made by the celebrated Parisian ébéniste François-Honoré-Georges (1770-1841). From 1796-1803 he worked with his brother Georges II Jacob (1768-1803) under the name of Jacob Frères and then after the death of the latter worked with his father, the celebrated menuisier, Georges Jacob (1739-1814) as Jacob-Desmalter et Cie. The firm produced a number of similar chairs with arms terminating in lion or leopardess heads in addition to rams, swans, dolphins and sphinxes. For instance Jacob Frères made a set of fauteuils for the Tuileries that had arms terminating in lion heads. Another Jacob Frères fauteuil with lioness head terminals to the arm rests was commissioned in 1802 for Napoleon’s uncle, Cardinal Fesch (d. 1839) at the time of his appointment as Archevêque de Lyon. Later in 1804, when the firm had been restyled Jacob-Desmalter et Cie, the same decorative device was employed for another set of chairs that were used at the Tuileries under the Consulate, an example of which is now in the Musée de Marmottan, Paris, (illustrated in Marie-Noelle de Grandry, “Le Mobilier Français, Directoire Consulat Empire”, 1996, p. 57).
The scrolled back top rail featured on a number of very early nineteenth century chairs and particularly those by Jacob Frères, of which seven are illustrated in Denise Ledoux-Lebard, “Le Mobilier Français du XIXe Siècle”, 2000, pp. 314-6. One of these (ibid, p. 316), at Château d’Azay-le-Ferron, is of a very similar overall design including the scrolled back top rail and lion paw feet although the arm rests do not terminate in lion heads but instead Sphinx heads appear on the lower supports.
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