Georges Jacob, maître in 1765.

The most famous and the most prolific of all eighteenth-century French chair makers, Georges Jacob (1739-18014) produced an incalculable quantity of chairs of all types and styles from the reign of Louis XV until the Consulat. From 1773 until the revolution, Georges Jacob worked continuously for the royal family, furnishing the main royal residences including Versailles and undertaking many commissions for members of the royal court. At the end of the Ancien Régime he conceived furniture in solid mahogany in the Etruscan manner. He retired in 1796, leaving his five sons to continue his business, which they did until 1813 when the firm, by then called Jacob-Desmalter & Co., went into administration.