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Lot Essay
Georges Jacob, maître in 1765.
Carved lushly with great precision in the goût étrusque style, this distinctive canapé with eagle-head-form terminals to its armrests was most likely once part of a large suite, or suites, of seat furniture. Executed both in bois doré and mahogany, surviving pieces of seat furniture of this design include a set of eight grey and white-painted chairs sold Provenance Revealed: Galerie Steinitz, Christie’s, London, 21 September 2022, lot 27 (£327,600); a single mahogany chair sold Christie’s, New York, 18 October 2002, lot 638 ($26,290); two bergères formerly in the de Ganay and then Schneider Collection, sold Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 8-10 May, 1922, lot 251, one of which is illustrated in H. Lefuel, Georges Jacob, Paris, 1923, pl. XIII; and a set of four voyeuses, see Marie-Antoinette: Archiduchesse, Dauphine et Reine, exh. cat., Paris, 1955, no. 715.
Although neither this canapé, nor any of the abovementioned pieces bear royal inventory marks, they have traditionally been associated with Marie-Antoinette. Some of the chairs sold in 2022 were included in two exhibitions where a connection to the ill-fated queen was proposed. Firstly at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, in 1871, where four of the chairs from the suite were displayed in ‘Marie-Antoinette’s Boudoir,’ which was the name given to the newly acquired period room created in 1778 for Anne-Marie-Louise-Jeanne Thomas de Dommangeville, Marquise de Sérilly (1762-1799) that had been purchased by the museum in 1869. It was believed that Marie-Antoinette had assisted with the decorative scheme and furnishings as the Marquise de Sérilly had been a close friend. The entire set of chairs was presented again in an exhibition entitled Marie-Antoinette: Archiduchesse, Dauphine et Reine at the Château de Versailles in 1955. At this exhibition, the chairs were shown alongside the abovementioned pair of corresponding bergères from the Schneider collection and the four voyeuses, which were believed to be en suite with the chairs.
The use of lyre-form elements in seat furniture is particularly associated with Georges Jacob’s work for the royal household around 1788. This includes the suite of lyre-back voyeuses delivered to the comte d'Artois for the salon de musique at Bagatelle, as well as a related pair of voyeuses supplied to Jean-Baptiste Tourteau de Septeuil, premier Valet de Chambre du Roi from 1779 to 1792, which were sold Christie's, Monaco, 18 June 1989, lot 188. A further mahogany canapé with armrest in the form of lyres and attributed to Jacob sold Sotheby’s, Paris, 16 April 2013, lot 249. For a set of three canapés with lyre backs by Jacob made for the Comte de Provence at Versailles see A. Maës, “L'aménagement et la destinée d'une « folie » princière: la propriété champêtre du comte de Provence et de la comtesse de Balbi à Versailles,” Versalia, No. 25, 2002, p. 88, fig. 18.
GEORGES JACOB
The most famous and the most prolific of all eighteenth-century French chair makers, Georges Jacob (1739-18014) produced an incalculable quantity of chairs of all types and styles from the reign of Louis XV until the Consulat. From 1773 until the revolution, Georges Jacob worked continuously for the royal family, furnishing the main royal residences including Versailles and undertaking many commissions for members of the royal court. Although Jacob was particularly concerned with detail and made sure that each of his sets remained unique, he did reuse certain motifs, such as the lyre form, and adapted them to new creations. At the end of the Ancien Régime he conceived furniture in solid mahogany in the Etruscan manner based on designs by Jean-Démosthène Dugourc, see N. de Reyniès, Le Mobilier Domestique, Paris, 1987, vol. I, p. 77, as illustrated by the abovementioned single chair sold in these rooms in 2002. He retired in 1796, leaving his five sons to continue his business, which they did until 1813 when the firm, by then called Jacob-Desmalter & Co., went into administration.
'LE GOUT ETRUSQUE'
With its graceful lyre-form armrest, pronounced eagle head terminals, and finely-carved side panels decorated with graceful foliate scrolls, this canapé is designed in the latest Etruscan taste, a style developed at the end of the eighteenth century and popularized in France by the designer Jean Démosthène Dugourc (1749-1825) and the painter Hubert Robert (1733-1808). This style was inspired by archaeological objects discovered in southern Italy during the second half of the 1700s that were wrongly thought to have been made by the Etruscans at the time of their discovery. Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were particularly fond of this new style. They commissioned a bed made in 1785 by Jean-Baptiste Boulard (1725-1789) for the King's bathroom in Compiègne (inv. V899). Today, one of the most famous Etruscan commissions is undoubtedly the one made in 1785 under the direction of the count d'Angiviller (1730-1810) for the queen's dairy in Rambouillet. The latter included a complete set of mahogany seats and furniture made by Jacob, which was accompanied by the famous porcelain service supplied by the Royal Manufactory of Sèvres.
Carved lushly with great precision in the goût étrusque style, this distinctive canapé with eagle-head-form terminals to its armrests was most likely once part of a large suite, or suites, of seat furniture. Executed both in bois doré and mahogany, surviving pieces of seat furniture of this design include a set of eight grey and white-painted chairs sold Provenance Revealed: Galerie Steinitz, Christie’s, London, 21 September 2022, lot 27 (£327,600); a single mahogany chair sold Christie’s, New York, 18 October 2002, lot 638 ($26,290); two bergères formerly in the de Ganay and then Schneider Collection, sold Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 8-10 May, 1922, lot 251, one of which is illustrated in H. Lefuel, Georges Jacob, Paris, 1923, pl. XIII; and a set of four voyeuses, see Marie-Antoinette: Archiduchesse, Dauphine et Reine, exh. cat., Paris, 1955, no. 715.
Although neither this canapé, nor any of the abovementioned pieces bear royal inventory marks, they have traditionally been associated with Marie-Antoinette. Some of the chairs sold in 2022 were included in two exhibitions where a connection to the ill-fated queen was proposed. Firstly at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, in 1871, where four of the chairs from the suite were displayed in ‘Marie-Antoinette’s Boudoir,’ which was the name given to the newly acquired period room created in 1778 for Anne-Marie-Louise-Jeanne Thomas de Dommangeville, Marquise de Sérilly (1762-1799) that had been purchased by the museum in 1869. It was believed that Marie-Antoinette had assisted with the decorative scheme and furnishings as the Marquise de Sérilly had been a close friend. The entire set of chairs was presented again in an exhibition entitled Marie-Antoinette: Archiduchesse, Dauphine et Reine at the Château de Versailles in 1955. At this exhibition, the chairs were shown alongside the abovementioned pair of corresponding bergères from the Schneider collection and the four voyeuses, which were believed to be en suite with the chairs.
The use of lyre-form elements in seat furniture is particularly associated with Georges Jacob’s work for the royal household around 1788. This includes the suite of lyre-back voyeuses delivered to the comte d'Artois for the salon de musique at Bagatelle, as well as a related pair of voyeuses supplied to Jean-Baptiste Tourteau de Septeuil, premier Valet de Chambre du Roi from 1779 to 1792, which were sold Christie's, Monaco, 18 June 1989, lot 188. A further mahogany canapé with armrest in the form of lyres and attributed to Jacob sold Sotheby’s, Paris, 16 April 2013, lot 249. For a set of three canapés with lyre backs by Jacob made for the Comte de Provence at Versailles see A. Maës, “L'aménagement et la destinée d'une « folie » princière: la propriété champêtre du comte de Provence et de la comtesse de Balbi à Versailles,” Versalia, No. 25, 2002, p. 88, fig. 18.
GEORGES JACOB
The most famous and the most prolific of all eighteenth-century French chair makers, Georges Jacob (1739-18014) produced an incalculable quantity of chairs of all types and styles from the reign of Louis XV until the Consulat. From 1773 until the revolution, Georges Jacob worked continuously for the royal family, furnishing the main royal residences including Versailles and undertaking many commissions for members of the royal court. Although Jacob was particularly concerned with detail and made sure that each of his sets remained unique, he did reuse certain motifs, such as the lyre form, and adapted them to new creations. At the end of the Ancien Régime he conceived furniture in solid mahogany in the Etruscan manner based on designs by Jean-Démosthène Dugourc, see N. de Reyniès, Le Mobilier Domestique, Paris, 1987, vol. I, p. 77, as illustrated by the abovementioned single chair sold in these rooms in 2002. He retired in 1796, leaving his five sons to continue his business, which they did until 1813 when the firm, by then called Jacob-Desmalter & Co., went into administration.
'LE GOUT ETRUSQUE'
With its graceful lyre-form armrest, pronounced eagle head terminals, and finely-carved side panels decorated with graceful foliate scrolls, this canapé is designed in the latest Etruscan taste, a style developed at the end of the eighteenth century and popularized in France by the designer Jean Démosthène Dugourc (1749-1825) and the painter Hubert Robert (1733-1808). This style was inspired by archaeological objects discovered in southern Italy during the second half of the 1700s that were wrongly thought to have been made by the Etruscans at the time of their discovery. Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were particularly fond of this new style. They commissioned a bed made in 1785 by Jean-Baptiste Boulard (1725-1789) for the King's bathroom in Compiègne (inv. V899). Today, one of the most famous Etruscan commissions is undoubtedly the one made in 1785 under the direction of the count d'Angiviller (1730-1810) for the queen's dairy in Rambouillet. The latter included a complete set of mahogany seats and furniture made by Jacob, which was accompanied by the famous porcelain service supplied by the Royal Manufactory of Sèvres.