AFTER THE MODEL EXECUTED BY FRANCOIS-HONORE-GEORGES JACOB-DESMALTER, FROM A DESIGN BY PERCIER, FONTAINE AND CARTELLIER, CIRCA 1870

The design for the present pair of armchairs relates closely to that of the fauteuil du Trône supplied for the sum of 8.900 francs by the celebrated Parisian ébéniste, François-Honoré-Georges Jacob-Desmalter (d. 1841), for the salle du Trône of Napoleon I at the Palais de Saint-Cloud in 1804. Based on designs by Charles Percier (d. 1838) and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine (d. 1853), Jacob-Desmalter's original chair was constructed of gilt walnut, with the spheroid finials being of ivory, and with the Herculean chimera monopodia cast in gilt-bronze after models by Cartellier - rather than carved in giltwood, as in the these copies. In keeping with Napoleon's desire for the fixtures and furnishings of the salle de Trône at the Tuileries and Saint-Cloud to mirror each other exactly, Jacob-Desmalter produced another of the chairs for the former palace. However, unlike the identical pairs of candélabres, six fauteuils, six chaises, thiry-six tabourets and huge quantity of balustrading, gilt-bronze eagles and rosettes also ordered for each throne room, the two fauteuils du Trône differed from one another, the Tuileries version, without the Herculean chimera monopodia, being more restrained and, at 5.600 francs, costing less.