Lot Essay
Georges Jacob, maître in 1765.
These superbly carved chaises, with their flower-filled entrelac frames and delicately beaded details, are virtually identical to the celebrated Royal suite of mobilier delivered by Jacob in 1787-8 for the Salon des Jeux du Roi at the chateau de Saint-Cloud. The initial order on 31 October 1787 comprised twelve fauteuils meublants, two large canapés, six fauteuils courants, two bergères, twenty-four chaises and six voyeuses. Four additional fauteuils meublants were ordered on 21 February 1788. In his bill for the fauteuils meublants, for each of which Jacob charged the exceptional price of 444 livres, he describes them as
Seize grands fauteuils meublans (sic) la Reine, faits en bois de noyer de la plus belle qualité, cintrés en plan, les pieds tourné s et ornés de riches profils de moulure; les accotoirs en bateau, entaillés et faisant raccord aux montans, le tout pris en gros bois, ornés et richement sculptés....
He then describes at remarkable length the carved detail of the frames, for which he supplied both the carving and the gilding, while the upholsterer Capin supplied the silk covers. The suite was recorded in a 1789 inventory at Saint-Cloud, while in 1798 part of it remained there and part was almost certainly sent to the Palais Directorial. In 1827 the suite was partially dispersed by the Garde-Meuble royal.
Other chairs of this model, which Pallot descibes as l' aboutissement parfait du style Louis XVI (op. cit. p. 168) and which, because of the richness of their execution seem almost exclusively reserved for Royal circles, were supplied by Jacob to the comte de Vaudreuil, grand fauconnier de France and an intimate of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI's brother the comte d'Artois, (now in the chateau de Versailles). Another pair of fauteuils by Jacob, with closely related entrelac frames, was supplied circa 1788 by the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre to George, Prince of Wales, later George IV, for one of the bedrooms at Carlton House, the London palace he was lavishly decorating in the latest French taste (illustrated in G. de Bellaigue et al., Buckingham Palace, New York, 1968, p. 216).
A similar pair from the Salon des Jeux du Roi at Saint-Cloud was sold Sotheby's Monaco, 24-25 June 1984, lot 3227.
These superbly carved chaises, with their flower-filled entrelac frames and delicately beaded details, are virtually identical to the celebrated Royal suite of mobilier delivered by Jacob in 1787-8 for the Salon des Jeux du Roi at the chateau de Saint-Cloud. The initial order on 31 October 1787 comprised twelve fauteuils meublants, two large canapés, six fauteuils courants, two bergères, twenty-four chaises and six voyeuses. Four additional fauteuils meublants were ordered on 21 February 1788. In his bill for the fauteuils meublants, for each of which Jacob charged the exceptional price of 444 livres, he describes them as
Seize grands fauteuils meublans (sic) la Reine, faits en bois de noyer de la plus belle qualité, cintrés en plan, les pieds tourné s et ornés de riches profils de moulure; les accotoirs en bateau, entaillés et faisant raccord aux montans, le tout pris en gros bois, ornés et richement sculptés....
He then describes at remarkable length the carved detail of the frames, for which he supplied both the carving and the gilding, while the upholsterer Capin supplied the silk covers. The suite was recorded in a 1789 inventory at Saint-Cloud, while in 1798 part of it remained there and part was almost certainly sent to the Palais Directorial. In 1827 the suite was partially dispersed by the Garde-Meuble royal.
Other chairs of this model, which Pallot descibes as l' aboutissement parfait du style Louis XVI (op. cit. p. 168) and which, because of the richness of their execution seem almost exclusively reserved for Royal circles, were supplied by Jacob to the comte de Vaudreuil, grand fauconnier de France and an intimate of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI's brother the comte d'Artois, (now in the chateau de Versailles). Another pair of fauteuils by Jacob, with closely related entrelac frames, was supplied circa 1788 by the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre to George, Prince of Wales, later George IV, for one of the bedrooms at Carlton House, the London palace he was lavishly decorating in the latest French taste (illustrated in G. de Bellaigue et al., Buckingham Palace, New York, 1968, p. 216).
A similar pair from the Salon des Jeux du Roi at Saint-Cloud was sold Sotheby's Monaco, 24-25 June 1984, lot 3227.