A Rare Set of Six Directoire Beachwood Fauteuils Attributed François-Honoré-Georges Jacob-Desmalter

18th Century

Each rectangular tapering backrest continuing to padded arms and caryatid figures tapering supports, above a bow front padded seat, raised on tapering legs ending in paw feet.

François-Honoré-Georges Jacob-Desmalter (1770–1841) oversaw one of the most successful and influential furniture workshops in Paris, from 1796 to 1825. The son of Georges Jacob, an outstanding chairmaker who worked in the Louis XVI style and Directoire styles of the earlier phase of Neoclassicism and executed many royal commissions, Jacob-Desmalter, in partnership with his older brother, assumed the family workshop in 1796. Freed from the Parisian guild restrictions of the Ancien Régime, the workshop was now able to produce veneered case-pieces (ébénisterie) in addition to turned and carved seat furniture (menuiserie). When his brother died, Jacob-Desmalter drew his father from retirement and began to develop one of the largest furniture workshops in Napoleonic Paris.

Provenance:

Private Collection New York
Le Trianon Fine Art & Antiques

Dimensions:
Height 35 in. Width 24 in. Depth 20 in. Seat Height 18 in.

Inv#: Cha274