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A very fine and elegant pair of late Louis XVI carved mahogany bergères attributed to Georges Jacob, each with a rectangular padded back and sides, arm rests, seat and cushion upholstered in a cream and gold silk, the rectangular channelled back above gently curved arm rests with scrolled terminals above protruding baluster-shaped pilasters and a rosette within a panel flanking the straight channelled seat rail supported on tapering fluted legs and pad feet
Paris, date circa 1790
Height 91.5 cm, width 76 cm, depth 72 cm. each.
This elegant pair of bergères belong to the very last years of Louis XVI’s reign and can be attributed to the greatest menuisier of the period namely Georges Jacob (1739-1814). Jacob was one of the first French chair makers to create finely carved mahogany seats rather than employ the more traditional use of walnut and beech as well as gilt and painted finishes. The present bergères are not only of superb quality but incorporate various other elements that are characteristic of his style. As here, Jacob often made chairs of the same simplified architectural outline with their distinctive rectangular form as evident for instance on a carved mahogany fauteuil with additional antique frieze, stamped G. Jacob which is now in the Mobilier National, Paris, (illustrated in Léon de Groër, “Les Arts Décoratifs de 1790 à 1850”, 1985, p. 22, pl. 27). Similarly so he often employed carved baluster-shaped arm supports, for instance on a pair of mahogany and citronnier fauteuils (illustrated ibid. p. 23, pl. 28). One can also draw comparisons between the scrolled arm rest terminals above similar pilaster supports and turned tapering legs, as seen on another Georges Jacob fauteuil from the Beaumarchais collection (illustrated in Denise Ledoux-Lebard, “Le Mobilier Français du XIXe Siècle”, 2000, p. 286).
Jacob retired in 1796, at which date he handed the business over to his two sons Georges II (1768-1803) and François-Honoré-Georges Jacob (1770-1841), who renamed the business Jacob Frères. However Georges II’s died in 1803, at which point his brother assumed the name of Jacob-Desmalter, (Desmalter being one of his father’s properties in Burgundy) and went back into business with his father at rue de Meslée. The firm was then restyled Jacob-Desmalter et Cie and though a wide range of new Empire designs were employed for the creation of their furniture, a number of chairs continued to echo the same style as here. So for instance a mahogany fauteuil stamped Jacob-Desmalter also incorporated scrolled terminals to the arm rests which as here issue from a distinctive rectangular back (illustrated in Léon de Groër, op. cit. p. 124, pl. 215).
Jacob, who was born at Cheny, near Tonnerre in Burgundy, on 6th June 1739, came from peasant stock. Aged about 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-menuisier on 4th September 1765. Having quickly established repute, from about 1773 he began receiving 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 the first French maker to produce useful household furniture made in direct imitation of Greek and Roman prototypes and not only the first to make use of mahogany, he appears to have been responsible for lightening and simplifying chair designs by planing away the inner angle of the frame beneath the seat.
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