BY HENRI JACOB, CIRCA 1780

Henri Jacob, maître in 1779.

Henri Jacob (1753-1824) trained with his cousin Georges Jacob, the celebrated menuisier, for six years before receiving his maîtrise in 1779. He became an accomplished and prolific menuisier-ébéniste, counting amongst his most illustrious clients the future Paul I of Russia and his wife Maria Feodorovna. As the future tsar and his spouse travelled to France as the comte and comtesse du Nord in 1782, they ordered over two hundred chairs and other pieces of furniture from Jacob for Pavlovsk, their new palace near St. Petersburg, see D. Ledoux-Lebard, ‘Henri Jacob, un menuisier-ébéniste original’, L’Estampille-Objet d’Art, March 1995, pp. 46-57. Like his cousin Georges, Henri was able to produce both seat and case furniture towards the end of his career, after the abolition of the guilds. His oeuvre is often compared with that of his celebrated cousin, given the undeniable similarities and rapprochements, the impeccable quality of his work and the fact that both worked for the Crown. In fact, Henri took advantage of his family connections and his cousin's fame and employed several elements characteristic of Georges' oeuvre in his production. Henri is most well-known for his creations from the Directoire and Consulat periods, when his work is characterized by strict à l'antique forms and the use of luxurious mahogany. With their classic Louis XVI shape and carved decorations, these fauteuils are less typical of Henri Jacob's oeuvre, and the comparatively rare number of Louis XVI sieges he produced makes the present pair all the more desirable.