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Lot Essay
Georges Jacob, maître in 1765.
Within Georges Jacob’s sizeable œuvre, comprising documented commissions and items stamped by him, this lit de repos a la turque stands out for its unusual sinuous design and elaborately sculpted features. Of oval form and consisting entirely of scrolls forming the sides and incurved back, the top rails are embellished with a winged maiden, a cornucopia and various foliate scrolls and flowers. It was probably conceived during the mid-1780s, when this celebrated menuisier produced some of his most delicate and intricate items of seat-furniture for the Royal family, particularly for Marie Antoinette and her brother-in-law, the comte d’Artois.
One of Jacob’s most unique designs and almost certainly a commission for a discerning patron, only one other example of this specific model is known to exist. It shares the same oval, curved outline but has a slightly different arrangement of the sculpted features and a ram’s mask - instead, a winged maiden - to the front rail. The latter was sold ‘Doha / Paris, un Décor princier’, Sotheby’s Paris, 30 June 2021, lot 391 (€460.200) and had previously been in the collection of renowned art-dealers, Nicholas and Paula de Koenigsberg, Buenos Aires and the fabled collection of Diane de Castellane in Paris. The catalogue for the Koenisgberg Collection sale (18 November 1963, lot 33), mentions that the lit de repos had been part of the collections of Emperor Paul I of Russia at Pavlovsk until the early 20th Century, but documentary evidence was not listed. In the early years of his marriage, then Grand Duke Paul, travelling with his wife Maria Feodorovna throughout Europe as Comte and Comtesse du Nord, had indeed made extensive purchases of precious furniture and works of art in Paris in 1782. This included over two hundred chairs and other items by Henri Jacob - Georges Jacob’s cousin - some of which are still at Pavlovsk (D. Ledoux-Lebard, ‘Henri Jacob, un menuisier-ebeniste original’, L’ Estampille, L’Objet d’Art, March, 1995, pp. 46-57.)
The closest links of the present lit de repos and its near pair, are with a few items of precious and elaborately sculpted giltwood furniture, including the items executed by Georges Jacob in 1776-’77, for the ‘Cabinet turc’ of the comte d’Artois at the Palais du Temple. This included sultanes and fauteuils carved with ‘…corne d’abondance remply de fleurs …’, upholstered in white and yellow silk, of which six are now in the Louvre. Further ‘cabinets turcs’ would be conceived for Marie Antoinette at the château de Fontainebleau in 1777 and yet another for the comte d’Artois, in 1781, at the château de Versailles, integrated in the library of his apartment. Jacob would again be entrusted with production of the carved giltwood furniture, comprising a pair of guéridons, a firescreen, a large ‘sultane’, two lits de repos, two bergeres, four fauteuils, six chaises and an extraordinary console table with winged ‘sirenes’ supporting the frieze and top. The carving of these winged figures, particularly of the faces and wings, is very similar to that of the present lit de repos a la turque, and it seems highly like that they were made at approximately the same time (B. Pallot, Le Mobilier du Musee du Louvre, vol. II, Dijon, 1993, pp. 133-137).
Within Georges Jacob’s sizeable œuvre, comprising documented commissions and items stamped by him, this lit de repos a la turque stands out for its unusual sinuous design and elaborately sculpted features. Of oval form and consisting entirely of scrolls forming the sides and incurved back, the top rails are embellished with a winged maiden, a cornucopia and various foliate scrolls and flowers. It was probably conceived during the mid-1780s, when this celebrated menuisier produced some of his most delicate and intricate items of seat-furniture for the Royal family, particularly for Marie Antoinette and her brother-in-law, the comte d’Artois.
One of Jacob’s most unique designs and almost certainly a commission for a discerning patron, only one other example of this specific model is known to exist. It shares the same oval, curved outline but has a slightly different arrangement of the sculpted features and a ram’s mask - instead, a winged maiden - to the front rail. The latter was sold ‘Doha / Paris, un Décor princier’, Sotheby’s Paris, 30 June 2021, lot 391 (€460.200) and had previously been in the collection of renowned art-dealers, Nicholas and Paula de Koenigsberg, Buenos Aires and the fabled collection of Diane de Castellane in Paris. The catalogue for the Koenisgberg Collection sale (18 November 1963, lot 33), mentions that the lit de repos had been part of the collections of Emperor Paul I of Russia at Pavlovsk until the early 20th Century, but documentary evidence was not listed. In the early years of his marriage, then Grand Duke Paul, travelling with his wife Maria Feodorovna throughout Europe as Comte and Comtesse du Nord, had indeed made extensive purchases of precious furniture and works of art in Paris in 1782. This included over two hundred chairs and other items by Henri Jacob - Georges Jacob’s cousin - some of which are still at Pavlovsk (D. Ledoux-Lebard, ‘Henri Jacob, un menuisier-ebeniste original’, L’ Estampille, L’Objet d’Art, March, 1995, pp. 46-57.)
The closest links of the present lit de repos and its near pair, are with a few items of precious and elaborately sculpted giltwood furniture, including the items executed by Georges Jacob in 1776-’77, for the ‘Cabinet turc’ of the comte d’Artois at the Palais du Temple. This included sultanes and fauteuils carved with ‘…corne d’abondance remply de fleurs …’, upholstered in white and yellow silk, of which six are now in the Louvre. Further ‘cabinets turcs’ would be conceived for Marie Antoinette at the château de Fontainebleau in 1777 and yet another for the comte d’Artois, in 1781, at the château de Versailles, integrated in the library of his apartment. Jacob would again be entrusted with production of the carved giltwood furniture, comprising a pair of guéridons, a firescreen, a large ‘sultane’, two lits de repos, two bergeres, four fauteuils, six chaises and an extraordinary console table with winged ‘sirenes’ supporting the frieze and top. The carving of these winged figures, particularly of the faces and wings, is very similar to that of the present lit de repos a la turque, and it seems highly like that they were made at approximately the same time (B. Pallot, Le Mobilier du Musee du Louvre, vol. II, Dijon, 1993, pp. 133-137).