Massant / Chairs with Arms / Louis XVI L16TF11

Reproduction of antique model. Louis XVI Jacob Armchair, around 1787, stamped Jacob. Original: private collection, France.

This armchair with half "en cabriolet" back and circular seat is the work of the genius, Georges Jacob. The receding arm-rest supports, their shape, design of mouldings and general design make this seat a Directoire model, but the legs and the general impression, in particular, place this work as a precursor of the Directoire style between 1785 and the Revolution. It is the work of a great visual furniture maker and not of an interior decorator. All the exquisitely delicate details will be noted (under the scroll of the arm-rests’ nose, for example) which, together with a genuine simplicity, make this chair a unique model. Georges Jacob (1739 to 1814), trained under Louis Delanois (purveyor to the Comtesse du Barry), becoming a master carpenter in 1765, lived on the Rue de Cléry, then on the Rue Meslée in Paris where he was the most famous of the carpenters and one of the most prolific designers of his time. One of the purveyors to the French Crown, the Comte de Provence, his brother, Artois, and to Madame Elisabeth, his trademark is highly sought after.

Louis XVI Style French style period reverting to classicism, inspired by the straight lines of ancient Greece and Rome, from 1777 to 1790, corresponding roughly to the reign of Louis XVI (1774 – 1793). The period, and the intermediate styles coming in between Louis XV and Louis XVI are known as “transitional” in the trade and “neoclassical” by researchers