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Lot Essay
François-Honoré-Georges Jacob-Desmalter and Georges II Jacob, 1803-13.
The stand of a mirror-backed mahogany 'secretaire or bonheur du jour' featuring extremely closely related pilasters and sphinx consoles was supplied to the 3ème Consul Le Brun in 1800 for the Pavillon de Flore at the Palais des Tuileries. Subsequently moved to the Hôtel de Noailles in 1806, following his elevation as Prince-architrésorier de l'Empire, it is illustrated and discussed in D. Ledoux-Lebard, Le Grand Trianon, vol.1, Paris, 1975, p.172.
Whilst no maker is recorded, the hand of the marchand-mercier Martin-Eloi Lignereux may well be detectable, as he supplied a closely related console table in 1804 to Thomas, 7th Earl of Elgin, for which the bill survives (sold by the 11th Earl of Elgin and Kincardine, Sotheby's London, 12 June 1992, lot 308 (£68,200)). Confidently attributed to Adam Weisweiler and veneered in thuya, it in turn relates to a further table in the Museum of Decorative Arts, Budapest, which still bears Lignereux's trade label. A further closely related set of four consoles, again anonymous but probably supplied by Lignereux and almost certainly executed by either Jacob, Molitor or Vassou, were supplied to the Salon de l'Impératrice at the Palais de Saint-Cloud circa 1802-3 (D. Ledoux-Lebard, op. cit., pp.77-78).
If Lignereux is likely to have had a hand in the commission, Charles Percier and Pierre Fontaine, architecte de S.M. l'Empereur were no doubt influential in the design. Indeed it was the latter who were responsible for the design of the related consoles executed by Jacob-Desmalter for Joachim Murat at the Palais d'Elysée in 1806 (D. Ledoux-Lebard, op. cit., pp. 114-6), as well as the pair of consoles formerly in the Marquess of Ailesbury's collection, sold by Sir Charles Clore, Christie's Monaco, 6 December 1985, lot 52, which are stamped 'JACOB D. R. MESLEE'. This stamp was employed between 1802-14. Percier and Fontaine also designed the celebrated gueridon standing on related chimerae, which was executed by Weisweiler and the ciseleur-fondeur Feuchère for the Garde-Meuble in September 1811 (Ledoux-Lebard, op. cit., pp.86-7).
Interestingly, the distinctive stiff-leaf capitals of the pilasters appear in ormolu on the set of four mahogany consoles supplied by Bernard Molitor to Napoleon's brother Jerome, King of Westphalia for his Kassel residence (illustrated in U. Leben, B. Molitor, London, 1992, no.47, p.61).
The stand of a mirror-backed mahogany 'secretaire or bonheur du jour' featuring extremely closely related pilasters and sphinx consoles was supplied to the 3ème Consul Le Brun in 1800 for the Pavillon de Flore at the Palais des Tuileries. Subsequently moved to the Hôtel de Noailles in 1806, following his elevation as Prince-architrésorier de l'Empire, it is illustrated and discussed in D. Ledoux-Lebard, Le Grand Trianon, vol.1, Paris, 1975, p.172.
Whilst no maker is recorded, the hand of the marchand-mercier Martin-Eloi Lignereux may well be detectable, as he supplied a closely related console table in 1804 to Thomas, 7th Earl of Elgin, for which the bill survives (sold by the 11th Earl of Elgin and Kincardine, Sotheby's London, 12 June 1992, lot 308 (£68,200)). Confidently attributed to Adam Weisweiler and veneered in thuya, it in turn relates to a further table in the Museum of Decorative Arts, Budapest, which still bears Lignereux's trade label. A further closely related set of four consoles, again anonymous but probably supplied by Lignereux and almost certainly executed by either Jacob, Molitor or Vassou, were supplied to the Salon de l'Impératrice at the Palais de Saint-Cloud circa 1802-3 (D. Ledoux-Lebard, op. cit., pp.77-78).
If Lignereux is likely to have had a hand in the commission, Charles Percier and Pierre Fontaine, architecte de S.M. l'Empereur were no doubt influential in the design. Indeed it was the latter who were responsible for the design of the related consoles executed by Jacob-Desmalter for Joachim Murat at the Palais d'Elysée in 1806 (D. Ledoux-Lebard, op. cit., pp. 114-6), as well as the pair of consoles formerly in the Marquess of Ailesbury's collection, sold by Sir Charles Clore, Christie's Monaco, 6 December 1985, lot 52, which are stamped 'JACOB D. R. MESLEE'. This stamp was employed between 1802-14. Percier and Fontaine also designed the celebrated gueridon standing on related chimerae, which was executed by Weisweiler and the ciseleur-fondeur Feuchère for the Garde-Meuble in September 1811 (Ledoux-Lebard, op. cit., pp.86-7).
Interestingly, the distinctive stiff-leaf capitals of the pilasters appear in ormolu on the set of four mahogany consoles supplied by Bernard Molitor to Napoleon's brother Jerome, King of Westphalia for his Kassel residence (illustrated in U. Leben, B. Molitor, London, 1992, no.47, p.61).