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An unusual set of twelve mahogany lyre back Louis XVI dining chairs. Each chair precisely carved with a rectangular back with central splat carved in the form of a lyre. The square seats are set with paterae on the corners above turned tapering reeded legs. In the manner of Georges Jacob.
The chairs though unstamped can be related to the work of the Jacob firm for the following reasons: they are constructed and carved in a manner known to be consistent with the oeuvre of Jacob. In addition they are closely related in design as examples illustrated in Le Mobilier Francais du XVIII Siecle, page 425.
The JACOB family was one of the most famous of all cabinet-making ‘dynasties’. There were three main generations who were active between 1765 and 1847, namely Georges Jacob, his two sons Georges II and Francois-Honore-Georges and his grandson, Georges-Alphonse.
Georges Jacob was one of the most renowned and prolific 18th century French chair makers. Original designs and skilled construction meant the name JACOB became synonymous with quality and luxury. He was inspired by English chair making and became one of the first Frenchmen to use mahogany in seat furniture. His work spans the Louis XV period through to the Consulat. The orphaned son of a Burgundian farm worker, he went to Paris at the age of sixteen and was apprenticed to Jean-Baptiste Lerouge in 1756, who died the following year. Jacob continued his six year apprenticeship with Lerouge's widow and it was in this apprenticeship that he made friendships with Boucault, Forget and above all Louis Delanois, with whom he remained particularly close, becoming godfather to his second son. It seems that Jacob’s work was considerably influenced by this friendship. Jacob started his workshops in the rue de Bourbon and then moved to the rue du Cléry where he stayed until 1775, one street away from Delanois's workshop in the rue du Petit Carreau. He finally moved to the rue de Meslée from where some of his finest work was issued. Therefore, there is a period of about six years during the early 1770's when the close friends, Georges Jacob and Louis Delanois, were working as neighbours in the joiners’ district of Paris.
He received his mastership in September 1765, and unusually set up on his own without succeeding a retiring maître, as was the norm. His two sons followed him into the firm with success and their father was appointed to various posts within the corporation des menuisiers-ébenistes in 1781. He survived the Revolution but his royal commissions made him an enemy of the new administration. Luckily his friendship with the painter, Jacques-Louis David, deflected any suspicions. He was inspired by the current politics and the passion for all things Antique leading him to design and make several pieces that David used in some of his most famous Greek mythological paintings. He was close also to the architects Percier and Fontaine and the four were instrumental in establishing the Antique style and worked together on the furnishing and decoration of the salle de la Convention. The large rostrum, supported, by two gryphons, the writing desks, tiers and seating designed by Percier and Fontaine and executed by JACOB. This commission was followed in 1798 with the ‘Cinq-Cents’ at the Palais-Bourbon.
After the death of his eldest son in 1803, Georges Jacob and his younger son, François-Honoré-Georges, reformed the firm under the name of Jacob-Desmalter et Cie. Francois brought financial and professional benefits to the firm through his marriage to Adélaïde-Anne, daughter of the famous bronze worker and cabinet marker, Marin-Eloi Lignereux.
Towards the end of the 18th century the firm started to make other pieces than seat furniture using woods such as fruitwood, maple and mahogany embellished with ebony, rosewood and ormolu mounts. JACOB exhibited at the Expositions des produits de l’industrie francaise, and at the second Expositions in the revolutionary year IX they were awarded the gold medal. During the period from Louis XVI to the First Empire, JACOB produced some truly magnificent pieces, including many important State and Imperial commissions as principal supplier of furniture to the Emperor. In 1800 they were commissioned to furnish and decorate le château de Malmaison for the Empress Josephine, the bedroom of Madame Racamier at the hôtel de la rue de la Chausée-d’Antin, and a day bed executed for Napoleon’s bedroom at the château de Compiegne.