A gilt-bronze mounted mahogany lit en bateau attributed to Jacob Frères and P. P.Thomire Empire, circa 1800/03

Comparative Literature
Guillaume Janneau, Lits de repos & Lits, Paris, 1977, p. 30, plate 48.
Denise Ledoux-Lebard, Le mobilier français du XIXe siècle, Paris, 1989, pp. 269 and 278.
Charles Percier and Pierre Fontaine, Empire stylebook of Interior Design, All 72 plates from the 'Receuil de décoration intérieures', New York, 1991, plate 25.

On account of their style and superb quality the sumptuous gilt-bronze mounts on the present lit en bateau can almost certainly be attributed to the celebrated bronzier Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751-1843). Thomire often provided mounts for François-Honoré-Georges Jacob, known as Jacob-Desmalter (1770-1841), who with his brother Georges II (1768-1803) ran the firm Jacob Frères from 1796 until the latter's death in1803. Jacob Frères are credited as having made a number of lits en bateau of nearly identical form to the present one, including a mahogany and ebony lit en bateau circa 1800-03, for Pauline Borghese at Château de Neuilly and another designed by Berthault, decorated with swan mounts (illustrated, op.cit. pp. 269 and 278). Another bed stamped Jacob R. Meslée of almost identical form was sold Sotheby's, Monaco, 3rd March 1990, lot 44. A closely related lit en bateau with almost identical foliage mounts attributed to Pierre-Philippe Thomire, previously in the Collection of the Duke of Padua in château de Courson, was sold Osenat, Fontainebleau, 1st February 2004, for €64.900.
A nearly identical bed to the one sold in 2004 is in the Musée des Arts Decoratifs in Paris (inventory numnber 11187).
A further lit en bateau with very closely related gilt-bronze mounts in the form of meandering foliate sprays is in the Château de Malmaison and illustrated by Janneau, op.cit., plate 48.
Percier and Fontaine illustrate a design for comparable foliate mounts on a bed made for Monsieur O. in Paris, op.cit., plate 25.