Georges Jacob, Pair of Louis XVI style armchairs in gilt wood, circa 1880

Georges Jacob, in the style of. 

Pair of à la Reine Louis XVI style armchairs in gilt wood standing on four sheath, fluted with sprinkles’ chandelles, with a top bulge adorned with flattened water leaves. Curved front apron, lateral straight crossbars and armrests on the vertical legs line, with a profile scalloped armrest support and composed with a rampant arch, which permitted to step back the armrest nose. Armrest situated on the same lateral crossbars line, only curved on elevation, in profile the noses are straight. Square back with quarter circle angles.
Carved wood ornamentation of throats carved with “culots” and large beads on apron crossbars, armrest and back edges. 

Trimming and manchettes covered with a yellow background fabric with red and orange foliage and small flowers. 

Work realized circa 1880. 

Georges Jacob (1739-1814) was a French cabinetmaker who produced such a quantity of seats from the Louis XV reign to the French Consulat. When he was apprentice carpenter he did an internship at Louis Delanois’, the main supplier of the Du Barry Countess. Fervent developer of the neo-classical seat, Louis Delanois deeply influenced Georges Jacob. Gratuated master in 1765, Georges Jacob opened its workshop on the Cléry street then moved to Meslée (now Meslay) street in 1775 thanks to a fortunate and prestigious clientele.  

Indeed, he was requested since 1773 by the French Royal Garde-Meuble and will no longer ended to work for it until de French Revolution.
Georges Jacob was one of the main official supplier of the Queen Marie-Antoinette, but also of  Monsieur, Provence Count and brother of the King, future Louis XVIII and the future Charles X, Condé Prince and Penthièvre’s Duke, as foreign princes as Gustave III of Sweden or Georges V of England.
Innovative cabinetmaker, he was often in advance on its own time and didn’t hesitate to imagine new ornaments or legs or armrest shapes such as dice connection adorned with rosette, console legs ended in their top by swirls and baluster shape arm rest supports. The carved ornamentation is rich with recurrent themes such as natural flowers patterns, or foliage, swirls friezes, beads, ribbons etc.  He was one of the most important sponsor of the English style seats, with openwork backseat inspired by Chippendale or Adam and then also the initiator, since Louis XVI period, of typical shapes today called French Directoire style, directly inspired by Etruscan furniture. 
If his friendship with the painter Jacques-Louis David allowed him to go through the French Revolution without any troubles he quickly had other problems. Indeed, in 1796, he sold his company to his two sons, then called “Jacob Frères” but nfortunately, his older son Georges II passed in 1803 and then Georges Jacob father had come back in the business and created, with his second son François-Honoré-Georges “Jacob Desmalter and Cie”. The company bankrupted in 1813 and Georges Jacob I died ruined in his house of the Meslée street in 1814 
His son, François Honoré-Georges Jacob-Desmalter, pursued the production during the 19th century thanks to he its older son Georges-Alphonse Jacob-Desmalter ; this one sold ended by solding the company to Jeanselme in 1847. 

Sources :  

Pierre Arizzoli-Clémentel, Le mobilier de Versailles, XVIIe et XVIIIème siècles, Tome 2, Faton, Paris, pp.256-257 

Pierre Kjellberg, Le mobilier français du XVIIIème siècle, Dictionnaire des ébénistes et des menuisiers, Tome 1 A-J, Les Éditions de l’Amateur, Paris, 1989 pp.409-434