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Lot Essay
This splendid bureau plat, conceived in the early 19th Century 'antique' manner as popularized by Percier and Fontaine in their Recueil de Décorations Intérieures, first printed in 1801, relates to the oeuvre of the firm of Jacob-Desmalter. A partnership between Georges Jacob and his son François-Honoré-Georges lasting from 1803 until 1813, Jacob Desmalter et Cie were unquestionably the greatest cabinet-makers of the Empire period, supplying furniture for the Imperial palaces in France, Italy and Belgium, principally Compiègne, L'Elysée, Saint-Cloud and the Tuileries. Various elements in the decoration of this bureau derive from Percier and Fontaine's Recueil de Décorations Intérieures. The palmette-enriched decoration of the frieze echos the decorative tablets in the design for the painting studio of Citoyen J in Paris. The designs for panels and friezes for the same room recall the trellis-pattern ormolu backrail on the bureau. The bacchic lion-monopodia feet, meanwhile, evolved from the throne of a swan-headed stand, conceived in the manner of an athenienne tripod designed for the home of Citoyen D in Paris.
Three other bureau plats of this model are known: one, formerly in the collection of a German noble family, was sold anonymously at Christie's New York, 27 May 1999, lot 300 ($290,000) together with its removeable writing slope; another is illustrated in situ at Easton Neston Northamptonshire in C. Latham, In English Homes, 3rd ed. London, 1909, p. 327; and the last, was formerly in the collection of the Earls of Inchcape, Glenapp Castle, Ayrshire, Scotland (sold Christie's, London, 27 May 1993, lot 105).
A Charles X ormolu-mounted rosewood and ebony writing table stamped JACOB (for Georges Alphonse Jacob Desmalter, 1799-1870), circa 1830, with similar mounts with re-entrant scrolled ends to the drawer-fronts was with Carlton Hobbs in 1983 and illustrated in the June issue of Apollo.
Three other bureau plats of this model are known: one, formerly in the collection of a German noble family, was sold anonymously at Christie's New York, 27 May 1999, lot 300 ($290,000) together with its removeable writing slope; another is illustrated in situ at Easton Neston Northamptonshire in C. Latham, In English Homes, 3rd ed. London, 1909, p. 327; and the last, was formerly in the collection of the Earls of Inchcape, Glenapp Castle, Ayrshire, Scotland (sold Christie's, London, 27 May 1993, lot 105).
A Charles X ormolu-mounted rosewood and ebony writing table stamped JACOB (for Georges Alphonse Jacob Desmalter, 1799-1870), circa 1830, with similar mounts with re-entrant scrolled ends to the drawer-fronts was with Carlton Hobbs in 1983 and illustrated in the June issue of Apollo.