An important fauteuil a l'étrusque after a design by Charles Percier

The curved toprail above a pierced splat flanked by upright, the lightly curved armrests on winged lion monopodiae on paw feet, with a padded seat upholstered in horsehair on splayed back legs ending with gilt bronze sabots.
By Jacob Frères, not signed
Paris 1796-1803

The design for this chair, with its curved back, dramatic and muscular winged lion monopodia, a severe yet elegant blending of Greco-Roman and Egyptian forms, derives from the design by Charles Percier of 1793 (private collection), when he was commissioned to draw up designs to refurnish the National Convention Hall of France. These plans were submitted in collaboration with Georges Jacob who, as one of the foremost skilled menuisiers of the time, was responsible for manifesting these remarkable designs in the flesh. The innovative and pioneering architects Charles Percier (1764-1838) and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine (1762-1853) were the most important exponents of the archaeologically inspired strain of late French neoclassicism that would evolve into the mature Empire style after 1800.
This fauteuil differs slightly from the original design in that its splat is formed of interlaced trellis with a central rosette, whereas the drawing depicts a pierced splat with straight vertical bars. A rather rare variation since today there is only one other identical seat is known, which appeared in the Ledoux Lebard auction sale in 2006 .

This beautiful seat of large proportions has been made in the finest mahogany, which develops into large flat and luminous surfaces and whose light color contrasts with the patina and gold of the lion monopods. This type of seat was very successful from the last years of the 18th century until the beginning of the 19th century. An unsigned armchair circa 1795 attributed to Jacob that faithfully adheres to the original design is in the château de Malmaison illustrated by Samoyault, p.27, fig.29, and this is likely to be the prototype of what proved to be a successful model that was replicated on several occasions. It used to be in Bonaparte study, in his mansion rue de la Victoire, and was donated to Doctor Corvisart in 1798.

In 1796, Georges Jacob transferred his business to his two sons, Georges II and François-Honoré, who used the stamp JACOB FRERES / RUE MESLEE from 1796 until the death of Georges fils in 1803, after which the surviving brother continued working under the name Jacob-Desmalter using the stamp JACOB. D / R.MESLEE and transforming the firm into the largest and most prolific cabinetmaking enterprise of the Napoleonic Empire and principal furnisher of the Imperial residences. The present fauteuil dates in all likelihood to the late 1790's, when the brothers had yet to fully develop an independent style and continued to produce variations of their father’s designs.

The overall inspiration for the model derives from antique furniture excavated from archaeological sites in and around Rome and at Herculaneum and Pompeii, reproductions of which were widely disseminated through pattern books and engravings in the second half of the eighteenth century. The winged lion monopodia was a classic support element for large marble tables and appears in plate 25 of the fifth volume of sculptor Pierre-Nicolas Beauvallet’s Fragmens d’architecture, sculpture et peinture dans le style antique (1804). It was particularly favoured as a structural component by Jacob Frères and would also appear in their case furniture, notably as back-to-back uprights for the monumental bureau mécanique supplied for Napoleon’s study at the Tuileries in 1800, now at Malmaison, illustrated by Samoyault, p.125 fig. 215.

Our fauteuil does appear in contemporary portraits, such as the Portrait of the young Eugène Isabey by Bouchet, formerly in the Pierre Durand collection in New York, or in François-Adrien Boïeldieu’s portait by Boilly, in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen (inv. 905.1.1). In both works the fauteuil is prominently placed in the foreground, at an angle designed to show the sinewy nature of the imposing front leg. Our fauteuil also had been reproduced in the first tome of Pierre de La Mésangère : Collection de Meubles et objets de goût, published in 1802.