A rare documented survival from the Palais de Tuileries at the t.mes of Napoleon I, this console of imposing scale is a magnificent example of the Napoleonic ceremonial gravitas and was delivered in 1808 by Jacob-Desmalter (1770-1841), the greatest cabinet-maker of the period, whose reputation is intrinsically linked to the Imperial Household, the Empire style and its design evolution. On the 200^th anniversary of Napoleon Bonaparte’s death, the appearance at auction of a piece of this importance is momentously rare and exciting.

This console was delivered to the Emperor’s Grand Cabinet [i], part of his Grand Appart.mes nts and with a relevant ceremonial role. Located in a strategic position on the first floor of the palace, between the Throne Room and the Galerie de Diane, it also gave access to Napoleon’s Bed Chamber. It served as a backdrop for government councils, for receiving foreign ambassadors in private audiences, for oaths of the highest officials, and for the signing and sealing of the most important administrative acts. It thus came second in precedence of the chambers, only after the Throne Room. Revealing of the importance that the Emperor gave to it, on 31^st August 1807, he wrote to Duroc, duc de Frioul and grand maréchal of the palace: “La salle du Trône est achevée ou va l’être, mais le Cabinet de l’Empereur n’est pas bien et c’est surtout cette dernière pièce qui doit être extrêmement riche - The Throne Room is finished or will be, but the Emperor's Cabinet is not good and it is especially this last room that must be extremely rich” [ii]

By then, the room previously known as the Grand Cabinet du Roi still retained part of Louis XIV’s decoration, and was one of the most magnificent of the palace, with bold stucco work with military trophies and figures in the antique manner, created under the supervision of Girardon.

In 1810, and despite the requests from Napoleon, the furniture in this room was still eclectic: besides our console, described in the 1809 inventory as «Une console, Bois sculpté et doré pieds à consoles et Griffes de Lion, marbre Griote d’Italie / Hautr 1m 02 Longr 1.63 Profr 54……2400»[iii], there was a circular table for the Conseil and a large lacquer commode, pair to one Guillaume Beneman delivered in 1790 for the Salon des Jeux du Roi at Compiègne.

That year was therefore marked by substantial improvements in terms of both decoration and furnishings. On September 26, Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine noted in his Diary: "We have started work on the decoration of the Emperor's large cabinet, which must be made magnificent and whose fireplace needs to be changed. SM attaches great importance to the beautification of this room "[iv]. In the south wall a remarkable chimneypiece designed by Percier et Fontaine was erected and embellished with fine bronzes by Jacob-Desmalter, later reproduced in their seminal Recueil de décorations intérieures (pl. 66).

On the 20th April 1812, the console was returned to the Garde Meuble de la Couronne and listed by M. Mogé, concierge du Palais des Tuileries: «21410 / Une console en bois sculpté et doré pieds à consoles et à griffes de Lion, le dessus en marbre Griote d’Italie……2 400»[v]. It remained there until 1832, when it was sent to the Palais de Saint-Cloud to furnish the Salon du Conseil du Roi, previously Queen Marie-Antoinette’s bed chamber. While the palace was given a new lease of life under the July Monarchy, the console remained there almost until the end of the Second Empire, and is described in the inventories of 1833, 1843 and 1855.

After 1855, the console was moved to the Salon de Vénus, which had been the Throne Room during the Premier Empire. A photograph of this room, taken by Pierre-Ambroise Richebourg around 1867-1868, shows our console placed near the chimneypiece, below the famous Gobelins tapestry depicting Philippe, Duc d’Anjou and grandson of Louis XV, being proclaimed King of Spain.

The console left St Cloud in 1869 and was sent back to the Garde-Meuble Impérial, where again it is listed under number 43709, which is also inscribed on the back of the piece: «43709 (396) Une console bois sculpté et doré, socle évidé, pieds à consoles et à griffes ; tête de Mercure en bronze doré au milieu de la ceinture, dessus en marbre griotte d’Italie Lg 1m 64………….1 500 »[vi].

This console was consequently sold by the Domaines in 1876 and would resurface in the 20^th century in the collects ions of the Château de Carheil, in Plessé. A château built in the 1660’s in the style of Louis XIII for René du Cambout, Carheil was acquired in 1842 by François d’Orléans – third son of Louis-Philippe and prince de Joinville – from the marquise de Coislin, comtesse de Carheil. Carheil was then sold by the prince to comte Gourlez de la Motte and changed hands again in 1923, when the comtesse de la Motte, Anne de Montaigu, sold the contents of the château to dealers, and the château was acquired by comte Jacques Armand and his wife, who improved the exterior and refurbished the interior with very fine furniture and works of art.

Despite having survived the tumultuous years of the Second World War, the château succumbed to a disastrous fire in January 1945. Only the chapel built by the prince de Joinville remains today, as well as the outbuildings in which some of the château’s furniture remained, including our console.

Jacob-Desmalter et Cie.

Napoleon, on his rise to supremacy quickly understood the power of symbols and the need for a new imagery for his regime. On the heels of neoclassicism and Mediterranean military campaigns, a neo-Roman aesthetic was developed by Charles Percier and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine, who Napoleon appointed as his personal architects from the very beginning of his rule. Jacob-Desmalter worked closely with this design partnership and the maison’s style became fundamentally associated with the architects’ vocabulary.

The firm of Jacob-Desmalter et Cie. was the Imperial Family's favourite and by far the biggest supplier of furniture to the Garde-Meuble Imperial, having worked for almost all the official palaces in the French Empire. For the Tuileries, as Napoleon’s premier residence and center of executive power, Jacob received the highest number of commissions, with a total of 541 765 FF spent during the period of 1804 to 1813[vii].

With its bold proportions and imposing scale, appropriate for such a majestic room, this console nonetheless illustrates the sophisticated design skills of the firm, answering to a highly demanding and informed patron, with its stately but restrained style. The overall shape, with scroll supports with paw feet, inspired by Roman sarcophagi supports, would become a quintessential console form for decades to come.

The finely chased bronzes are exemplary of the exceptional quality achieved by the bronziers at the Jacob-Desmalter workshops, whose bronze production is often, and erroneously, attributed to Thomire. The naturalistic frieze of laurel leaves flanks a medallion with the head of Minerva, goddess of War and Wisdom, an iconographic choice certainly not fortuitous for the room intended. The paterae ending the frieze are of wonderful quality, with small flower heads interspersing the leaves. It should be noted that it is very rare to find gilt-bronze on giltwood furniture, especially of this quality.

This console is a notable example of Empire furniture, by the most successful ébéniste of the period, with exceptional documented provenance, and is furthermore a remarkable material memento of three lost palaces that succumbed to the tribulations of history, two of them, at the center of French and European power.

* Information provided by Mr. Bernard Chevallier to whom we sincerely thank

[i] Arch. nat., O2 507, dossier 14, pièce 52 : « Cabinet de travail / Jacob / 1 Consolle Bois sculpté et doré…2 000 ».

[ii] Arch. nat., O2 161; apud Anne Dion-Tenenbaum, "D'un Empire à lautre: Les Tuileries de 1800 à 1851", in Les Tuileries, Grands décors d'un palais disparu, Paris, 2016, p. 95 and p. 130 (note 17).

[iii] Arch. nat., O2 680.

[iv] Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine, Journal 1799-1853, vol. I, 1799-1824, Paris, 1987, p.267.

[v] Arch. nat., AJ/19/143, 20 avril 1812, and O2 591, Inventaire du magasin des meubles, 22 avril 1812.

[vi] Arch. nat. AJ/19/1159, Inventaire du magasin des meubles, 13 juillet 1869 f.32, Vente 1876 f.36.

[vii] Denise Ledoux-Lebard, Les Mobilier Français du XIXe Siècle, Paris, 1989, p.308.