A pair of mahogany chairs in the Etruscan style signed G.IACOB

GEORGES JACOB (1739-1815)
Solid mahogany, lemon tree and ebony
A pair of chairs in the Etruscan style, each signed G.IACOB under the back seat rail
Paris by 1790
Georges Jacob, master in 1765


Provenance : collection Jean Nicolaÿ (1890-1959), then by descent

Literature : Jean Nicolaÿ, "L'art et la manière des maîtres ébénistes au XVIIIe siècle", Guy Le Prat 1959 et Éditions Pygmalion 1976, fig. AA et fig. AA' p. 242



Georges Jacob, the greatest French seat maker in the last third of the 18th century, whose workshop had an European influence, supplier to the royal courts and the high society, is famous not only for the very high quality of execution of his works, but also for the creativity and the diversity of the chairs designed in his workshop.

He was one of the forerunners of the Etruscan taste, under the combined influence of Hubert Robert, who designed the mahogany furniture for the Laiterie de Rambouillet delivered in 1787, and of Jacques Louis David who ordered seats of Grecian style for his workshop; seats that he represented in Les licteurs rapportent à Brutus les corps de ses fils, exhibited at the 1789 Salon.

The design of our pair of chairs was probably given by the agency of the young architects Percier and Fontaine in the 1790s, as evidenced by a drawing attributed to them, published by Mrs Ledoux Lebart, Hans Ottomeyer or Jean Pierre Babelon, representing five seats in the Etruscan taste, including two armchairs, with pierced backrests very similar to those of our chairs.