2 Empire armchairs that can make a pair. Empire production - early 19th century circa 1810 - attributed to Jacob Desmalter (not stamped).
Two years ago, we sold a pair of Jacob Desmalter chairs from Fontainebleau, with very comparable finishes.
Our seats are an interesting set due to their certified Imperial and Royal provenance since they have the iron marks of two prestigious palaces : Les Tuileries (TH, inventory numbers T2329 and Garde Meuble Royal under the reign of Ling Louis XVIII) and Fontainebleau (FON, inventory numbers and once again the mark with 3 fleur-de-lis under the Royal Crown). They are most probably seats intended for secondary apartments, but undeniably of historical origin.
To celebrate the bicentenary of Napoleon death, we bought these two seats separately from two different origins and had them restored in an identical way to illustrate an interesting vision of the great Imperial official orders : the Emperor requested to resupply Palaces such as Les Tuileries, Fontainebleau, Compiegne by ordering Jacob and Marcion for 20, 30, 50 identical armchairs. These two workshops, both official suppliers of imperial furniture, were often subcontracting one another, copying the models of one or the other to provide the requested quantities as quickly as possible.
This is the case of our seats : same model, identical but with slight differences (height and backrest assembly method for example). Subcontracting from Jacob to Marcion ? Orders made a few months or years apart ? In any case, they were not meant to be placed together side by side.
We made these seats fully restored : dismantled, reassembled, relaquered, rechampis, renewed seat and changed cover with a Tassinari & Chatel lined silk. It seemed interesting to us to offer them for sale together "as a pair", to illustrate the uses and orders of the imperial furniture administration.
Fontainebleau armchair :
Width : 61cm
Height : 91.5cm
Seat height : 40.5cm
Les Tuileries armchair :
Width : 61cm
Height : 94cm
Seat height : 40.5cm
