STAMPED H.JACOB, CIRCA 1790

Henri Jacob, maître in 1779, and his cousin George, maître in 1765, were among the most innovative chairmakers of their day as seen by the chairs on offer. Here they blend the rear legs of an ancient Greek klysmos, via the sabre legs of an English chair, with a scrolled back à la turc. Although also made in giltwood, chairs of the type were produced almost exclusively in mahogany, sometimes with parcel-gilt decoration; this influence is also English and may be retraced to the fauteuils made by Pierre Garnier for the marquis de Marigny in 1778. The chairs on offer are of a refined type produced for fashionable private clients desiring the latest most elegant seat furniture à la turc, such as the comte d'Artois for whose palais du Temple and appartement at Versailles Jacob made such seating furniture. A comparable mahogany chauffeuse by Georges Jacob, also with a lambrequin at the base of the back, is illustrated in The Art of the Master Joiner: French Chairs of the Eighteenth Century, Exhibition Catalogue, New York, The Chinese Porcelain Company, 1997, no. 19, p. 61; a slightly less ornate and heavier pair in the château de Malmaison are illustrated in E. Dumonthier, French Garde-Meuble: Chairs by the Jacob Brothers, Directory and Consulate Period, Paris, 1921, pls. 12 and 25.