A very important gilt-bronze, patinated bronze and thuyawood guéridon table by François-Honoré-Georges Jacob-Desmalter Empire, circa 1805/1810

with a circular white marble top within a gilt-bronze gadrooned border, the recessed frieze cast with scrolled corbels and patera flanked by stylised heart-shaped motifs on four winged eagles standing on a globe on foliate cast lion monopodia above a circular base applied with gilt-bronze flowerheads, on scrolled bracket feet

Comparative Literature:

Serge Grandjean, Empire Style, London, 1966.

Pierre Antoine Leboux de La Mésangère (1761-1831), Meubles et Objets de Goût, plate 11 (Epoque Consulat) dated 1802-1803)

This magnificent and unique guéridon table can be dated to around the end of the Consulat and beginning of the Empire period and undoubtedly represents an outstanding example of the oeuvre of François-Honoré-Georges Jacob-Desmalter due to the purity of its design and the superlative quality of the casting and chasing of the gilt-bronze.

The Hermitage Table:

The offered guéridon table is closely related to a table in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, of similar drum shape and with almost identical legs, eagles and plinth base, however with some variations; the absence of a pierced band near the top, scrolling foliage in gilt-bronze emanating from the legs, bronze feet formed from horizontal scrolled brackets instead of lion paws-see fig. 1. The Hermitage table is signed by Jacob Frères rue Meslée no. 76 and 77, on a metal label on the underside, which would lead to a definitive authorship of the offered table to the same maker in view of their close similarities-see fig. 2.  The Hermitage table, according to the Museum, belonged to Maximilian, 3rd Duke of  Leuchtenberg, the husband of  Grand Duchess Marie, the eldest the daughter of Czar Nicolas I of Russia.

The Design:

The design of the present table is based upon a drawing reproduced in the celebrated work of Pierre Antoine Leboux de la Mésangère (1761-1831) Meubles et Objets de Goût, plate 11, dated 1802/3-see fig. 3. This design which comprises common elements of the both the offered table and the Hermitage one, also presents variations from the latter-the design has a basket suspended from scrolling foliage which is lacking on both models. The absence of this basket excludes the conception of the present table as a work-table, as the one in the Hermitage was obviously originally conceived as such and this would also explain the form of the drum-shaped top on the offered table which was made purely to function as a guéridon. Furthermore, the top is not as elevated as on the Hermitage example and the absence of rinceaux from which to suspend the basket around the middle of a guéridon militates on the table having been adapted from a work table to a guéridon.

In the opinion of Jean Nérée Ronfort dated 1995, this guéridon is the oeuvre of François-Honoré-Georges Jacob-Desmalter (1770-1841), who had his own bronze workshop during the Empire period.

The Symbolism:

It is worth noting the symbolism of the eagles on the offered table, as in Antiquity, the eagle was the bird of Jupiter and ancient symbol of power and victory  represented on the standards of the Roman legions and associated with military victories. It is therefore fitting that the eagle, after a decree of 10th July 1804, stated that the arms of the Emperor Napoleon, `d'azur à l'aigle à l'antique d'or, empiétant un foudre du même'. Napoleon's eagle which was very different from traditional heraldic motifs took its inspiration from the eagle used by Charlemagne. After  Napoleon's coronation as Emperor, the eagle was placed at the top of all the military standards.   

Pierre de la Mésangère (1761-1831)

The designers of ornament were as pre-eminent as architects during the Consulat and Empire period and la Mésangère, was unusual as he was neither a designer nor an ornamentalist but a publisher at heart and took over the management of the Journal des Dames et des Modes in 1799. The periodical was in great demand in the world of Fashion and he published contemporaneously his Collection des Meubles et Objets de Goût  which appeared in March 1802 for the first time.  It was a seminal work and continued to be published for more than a third of a century until 1835. Some 400 plates came of the presses during this period which covered the dominance of the Empire style and his important publication had two purposes: to supply the cabinet-makers with up-to-date models and to keep the readers informed on the new ideas in furnishing. The publisher even included some designs of Percier and Fontaine from their Receuil de Décorations intérieures and published them in a  simplified form.

François-Honoré-Georges Jacob Desmalter (1770-1841)

He was the favourite cabinet-maker of Napoleon and belonged to a dynasty of leading cabinet-makers and was the son of the most celebrated seat furniture maker Georges Jacob and took over the family's workshop in 1796, together with his brother Georges and the firm became known as Jacob Frères and remained  in rue Mesaly or Meslée until 1825. He would have seen his father work on superlative objects such as the chairs for Marie-Antoinette's dairy at Rambouillet.   Amongst Jacob-Desmalter's first commissions, was the decoration and furnishing of the town house of General Bonaparte and his wife Josephine in the rue Chantereine and the surviving furniture illustrates the patriotic and symbolic tastes which were so characteristic of the Directoire period heralding the Empire style. His next major commission was for the Récamiers, important and influential French bankers. At about the same time the firm was commissioned to decorate and furnish Malamaison, by Percier and Fontaine, which was the country retreat of Josephine. The firm also provided furniture for Bonaparte's apartments at the Tuileries and also exhbited at the second and third public exhibitions at the `Products of French Industry' held in 1801 and 1802 in the courtyard of the Louvre and Jacob-Desmalter received a Gold Medal at the 1802 exhibition. Georges, his brother died in 1803 and then the firm continued for nine years under the directorship of his father and after that Jacob-Desmalter used his own personal stamp. It was during the Empire period that his reputation was established and his talent fully recognised, as it is recorded that in 1807, the firm employed 350 workmen. In 1809, he executed the malachite furniture at the Grand Trianon comprising two meubles d’appui, two candelabras and a vase supported by three large chimeras with the head of Hercules and a lion pelt. The latter after a design by Percier and Fontaine was modelled by Cartelier, had already been employed by Jacob-Desmalter for the throne of Napoleon at Fontainebleau-see fig. 4 - compare the legs of the throne with those on the present table.  Jacob was known to work with the outstanding bronziers of the day such as Thomire and Delafontaine. His work according to Grandjean, op. cit., `is esteemed not only on account of its stylistic homogeneity but because of its consistent high quality'.

A  written expertise of Jean Nérée Ronfort dated 9th August 1995 is available from the department on request.