Francois-Honoré-Georges Jacob, dit Jacob-Desmalter (d. 1841). This commode, with its 'Grecian' thyrsus columns and Juno's eagles in the 'antique' manner, formed part of a suite originally comprising a lit-en-bâteau, a secrétaire à abattant, an armoire and possibly a further ormolu-mounted commode. The secrétaire and ormolu-mounted commode previously in the Grognot and Joinel Collection and illustrated in D. Ledoux-Lebard, Les Ebénistes Parisiens (1795-1830), Paris, 1951, p. 286, pl. LXXII. This commode reveals the close collaboration between Jacob-Desmalter, second son of Georges Jacob, and his friends the designers Charles Percier and Pierre-Francois-Léonard Fontaine, who published their influential pattern-book Recueil de Décorations Intérieures between 1801 and 1812. The general form of this commode, with panels flanked by thyrsi and a stiff-leaf-headed central upright, relates to pl. 4D, while the neo-classical roundels centred by 'antique' oil-lamps derive from pl. 4. This relationship between Jacob-Desmalter and Percier & Fontaine is further underlined by their design for a pair of commodes, executed by Jacob-Desmalter in 1812 for the Tuileries (see H. Lefuel, F-H-G Jacob-Desmalter, Paris, 1925, pl. 23), which display similar thyrsus angles and central roundels framed by spare laurel-wreathes

The commode's iconography depicts Jupiter, in the guise of a swan and recalling his loving nature and metamorphic ability, supporting palm-wrapped torches that are capped by his vivifying bolt; while the poetic laurel-wreathed medallion recalls the lamp of Psyche, who was loved by Cupid