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Lot Essay
This 'table gueridon' or 'table de dejeuner' is designed in the robust antique fashion promoted by C. Percier and P. Fontaine's Recueil de Décorations Intérieures, 1801. Its scagliola-enriched white marble top is mosaiced in late 18th century Roman fashion with the poetry-deity Apollo's confronted griffin emerging from foliate 'rinceaux' and encircling Etruscan-fashioned black and red medallions and an octagon tablet of Egyptian figures. The latter presents an Isis procession, such as featured on an Heliopolis obelisk from the Isaeum Campense, Rome (B. de Montfaucon, Antiquite Expliquee, 1719-24). Apollo's sacred griffin (eagle/lion) monopodiae, tied by an Egyptian-striated stretcher-tray, also provide pillars for the golden frame's 'tripod-altar' drum, whose bas-relief frieze features Jupiter's eagle amongst Egyptian sunbursts.
This table bears the stamp 'JACOB.D. R.MESLEE' - which was used by Georges Jacob (1739 - 1814) and his son François-Honoré-Georges (1770 - 1841) between 1803 and 1813. The script is, however, not typical of their known stamp, with irregular E's, and this would suggest that it is a spurious stamp. Although the stamp may therefore be later, stylistically the table is undoubtedly extremely close to Jacob's documented oeuvre, related griffin pilasters featuring on a Grecian-scrolled 'fauteuil' designed for Jacob by Charles Percier (D. Ledoux-Lebard, Le Mobilier Français du XIX Siecle, Paris 1989, p. 283).
After the death of his brother Georges II in 1803, with whom he was associated from 1796, François-Honoré-Georges Jacob worked with his father mainly for the Bonaparte family and was the main supplier to the Garde-Meuble Impériale. This short but prosperous association after the Revolution went bankrupt in 1813.
The link between the Jacob dynasty and Imperial Court taste is underlined by a further brand on this gueridon, the LPO brand usually identified with Louis-Philippe, duc d'Orléns. However, this LPO brand is uncharacteristically in italics; it is usually a stencilled LPO for Louis-Philippe, duc d'Orléans, later King Louis-Philippe (d.1850), often accompanied with a marque au feu of a château. The date of this brand is, therefore, difficult to be certain of, although the more usual stencil 'LPO' beneath a crown was employed on furniture from the collection of Louis-Philippe before his ascent to the throne, when he was still duc d'Orléans, between 1815 and 1830. A descendant of King Louis XIV, Louis-Philippe (1773-1850) became King of the French in 1830 after the abdication of King Charles X (1757-1836), reigning until the Revolution of 1848.
This table bears the stamp 'JACOB.D. R.MESLEE' - which was used by Georges Jacob (1739 - 1814) and his son François-Honoré-Georges (1770 - 1841) between 1803 and 1813. The script is, however, not typical of their known stamp, with irregular E's, and this would suggest that it is a spurious stamp. Although the stamp may therefore be later, stylistically the table is undoubtedly extremely close to Jacob's documented oeuvre, related griffin pilasters featuring on a Grecian-scrolled 'fauteuil' designed for Jacob by Charles Percier (D. Ledoux-Lebard, Le Mobilier Français du XIX Siecle, Paris 1989, p. 283).
After the death of his brother Georges II in 1803, with whom he was associated from 1796, François-Honoré-Georges Jacob worked with his father mainly for the Bonaparte family and was the main supplier to the Garde-Meuble Impériale. This short but prosperous association after the Revolution went bankrupt in 1813.
The link between the Jacob dynasty and Imperial Court taste is underlined by a further brand on this gueridon, the LPO brand usually identified with Louis-Philippe, duc d'Orléns. However, this LPO brand is uncharacteristically in italics; it is usually a stencilled LPO for Louis-Philippe, duc d'Orléans, later King Louis-Philippe (d.1850), often accompanied with a marque au feu of a château. The date of this brand is, therefore, difficult to be certain of, although the more usual stencil 'LPO' beneath a crown was employed on furniture from the collection of Louis-Philippe before his ascent to the throne, when he was still duc d'Orléans, between 1815 and 1830. A descendant of King Louis XIV, Louis-Philippe (1773-1850) became King of the French in 1830 after the abdication of King Charles X (1757-1836), reigning until the Revolution of 1848.