A Pair of Empire armchairs by Jacob-Desmalter for Fontainebleau

With scrolling backs and moulded splats, the armrests carved with palmettes and resting on round columnar supports, raised on baluster-shaped front legs and splayed back legs, 1806.

Stamped JACOB . D. RUE. MESLEE and bearing the mark for the Château de Fontainebleau.
Following delivery labels they were made for the Prince Piombino (Napoleon's brother in law).

The firm of Jacob-Desmalter was by far the largest supplier of furniture to all the former French royal palaces that Napoleon restored for Imperial use. Hector Lefuel published the Desmalter's invoice for the supply of two armchair, one bergère, a fire screen and a footstool for the Prince of Piombino's bedroom (Hector Lefuel, François-Honoré-Georges Jacob-Desmalter ébéniste de Napoléon Ier et de Louis XVIII, Paris, 1925, page 254). This furniture was covered with an light orange silk with a black and lilac border (Soieries de Lyon, commandes impériales, exhibition in Musée historique des tissus à Lyon, 1982-83, n°18 p. 42 et n°77 p.65)..