Lot Essay
These fauteuils à la reine are inspired by the celebrated Royal suite of mobilier delivered by Georges Jacob (maître in 1765) in 1787-8 for the Salon des Jeux du Roi at the château 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, hedescribes them as
Seize grands fauteuils meublans (sic) à la Reine, faits en bois de noyer de la plus belle qualité, cintrés en plan, les pieds tournés 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.
Of the sixteen fauteuils meublants à la reine, the following are subsequently recorded:
one was sold from the Byas collection, Paris, 4-5 April 1888, lot 283 and then Madame de Polès, sold Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 22 June 1927, lot 33; two, sold from the Lederlin collection, Paris, 22 March 1933, lot 69 and subsequently at Ader Picard Tajan, Paris, 17 March 1988, lot 45, are now in a Private Collection in London; one is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, the gift of Hoentschel-Morgan in 1907; four are in the musée Condé, Chantilly; four are at the château de Versailles (purchased in Paris, 29 November 1973, lot 104 A); and two are in the Louvre (purchased at Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 12 March 1948, lot 45 (B.G.B. Pallot, Furniture Collections in the Louvre, Paris, 1993, vol.II, pp. 166-8, and P. Verlet, Le Mobilier Royal Français, Paris,, 1992, vol.II, pp. 152-4).
Further 18th century chairs of this model 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 château 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).
Seize grands fauteuils meublans (sic) à la Reine, faits en bois de noyer de la plus belle qualité, cintrés en plan, les pieds tournés 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.
Of the sixteen fauteuils meublants à la reine, the following are subsequently recorded:
one was sold from the Byas collection, Paris, 4-5 April 1888, lot 283 and then Madame de Polès, sold Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 22 June 1927, lot 33; two, sold from the Lederlin collection, Paris, 22 March 1933, lot 69 and subsequently at Ader Picard Tajan, Paris, 17 March 1988, lot 45, are now in a Private Collection in London; one is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, the gift of Hoentschel-Morgan in 1907; four are in the musée Condé, Chantilly; four are at the château de Versailles (purchased in Paris, 29 November 1973, lot 104 A); and two are in the Louvre (purchased at Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 12 March 1948, lot 45 (B.G.B. Pallot, Furniture Collections in the Louvre, Paris, 1993, vol.II, pp. 166-8, and P. Verlet, Le Mobilier Royal Français, Paris,, 1992, vol.II, pp. 152-4).
Further 18th century chairs of this model 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 château 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).