A PAIR OF EMPIRE MAHOGANY AND MAHOGANY-VENEERED FAUTEUILS , CIRCA 1805

Ariane Dandois, Paris, 1998 

The stamp was used from 1803-1812 by François-Honoré-Georges Jacob-Desmalter (1770–1841), following the death of his brother and business partner Georges II Jacob, with whom he had traded as Jacob Frères since 1796. Their father Georges Jacob (1739-1814), the renowned court menuisier of the Louis XVI period whose clients included Marie-Antoinette, came out of retirement in 1803 to help his younger son manage the family workshop, the largest and most important in Paris during the Napoleonic era and the principal supplier to the Imperial Palaces.

The motif of a sphinx armrest support appeared early in the work of Jacob Frères, and several variations were used, including a crouching two-legged form on the armchairs from the celebrated suite supplied c.1799 for the salon of Madame Récamier (Paris, Louvre) and a seated four-legged version repeated in multiple commissions including a pair of fauteuils de bureau sent to the Tuileries Palace in c.1800, one of which is now at Fontainebleau (both illustrated J.-P. Samoyault,

Mobilier français, Consulat et Empire, Paris 2009, figs.71-72). The striking design of the present lot, with seated sphinxes whose wings extend to form the entire armrest, is unusual, though armrests of the same model appear on a set of six fauteuils attributed to Jacob-Desmalter sold Koller Zurich, 19 June 2007, lot 1299.