François Honoré Jacob (1770-1841) - Empire period mahogany Tronchin table circa 1810
Commissioned architect's table or Tronchin-style table in mahogany veneer and flamed Cuban mahogany veneer, opening with a drawer at the waist revealing a writing desk. Two side pulls, movable rack top upholstered in superb light-blue leather with gold leaf decoration, tapered legs terminating in ormolu sabots and castors.
Very fine French Empire period work stamped Jacob D Rue Meslée for François Honoré Jacob (1170-1841) and Château mark.
Sizes: H 30.70 Inches. - W 35.43 Inches. - D 20.47 Inches.
In very good condition, varnished in our workshops.
Biography:
François-Honoré-Georges Jacob-Desmalter (1770-1841) was the most successful Parisian cabinetmaker between 1796 and 1825.
Son of Georges Jacob who launched the Louis XVI style and the Directoire style, he joined forces in 1796 with his brother Georges Jacob Fils to create Jacob Frères Rue Meslée. His father had benefited from the orders of the royal family under the Ancien Régime, the two brothers fulfilled the orders of the imperial family.
Using sketches by the painter Jacques-Louis David and the ornamentalists Percier and Fontaine, the brothers created furniture inspired by Greco-Roman antiquity to launch the Empire style.
Their style is characterized by a great quality of drawing, pure lines, original forms, the use of chiselled golden bronzes (made by Pierre-Philippe Thomire). In woodwork, he uses mahogany, gilded wood, and lacquered wood with, sometimes, ebony inlays and native woods such as maple or yew.
For Empress Josephine, they delivered furniture to the Malmaison castle, also at the Palais Rohan in Strasbourg, between 1807 and 1809, for the bedroom known as "Napoleon I's". They worked at the Château de Compiègne. They deliver the imposing cradle of the King of Rome, the precious jewelry cabinet of Empress Marie-Louise, according to the drawings of Percier and Fontaine. We owe them the silver salon at the Élysée Palace. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Highly dependent on imperial orders, their workshop, which employed more than three hundred workers, went bankrupt in 1813 when the finances of the First Empire no longer allowed them to honor their debts. Jacob-Desmalter, however, managed to resurrect his business, and at the fall of the Empire, he returned to his father's Bourbon clientele to make furniture in the Restoration style. His son, Georges Alphonse (1799-1870), succeeded him in 1825.
He is buried in the Père-Lachaise cemetery.
The Tronchin table:
The Tronchin table is a late 18th-century table that appeared during the reign of Louis XVI. It takes its name from a Genevan physician, Théodore Tronchin (1709-1781), who published work at the time on bone diseases linked to poor posture at the work table, and on the advantages of creating a table with a tilting desk to keep the back straight and avoid any deformity or pain, whether working seated or standing. The innovation of this 18th-century table comes from a mechanism concealed in the thickness of the belt that raises the tabletop to the desired height.
The tabletop, which could be solid or fitted with a leather-covered lectern, can be tilted to the desired angle using a notched lectern and raised using a set of two or four racks concealed inside the legs.
