Salon of 4 Transition console armchairs by Georges Jacob - Paris 18th century

Very rare Transition style salon furniture composed of four lacquered beechwood armchairs stamped Georges Jacob.
Parisian work by Georges Jacob circa 1770, late Louis XV period.

“Georges JACOB was undoubtedly the greatest French chair maker of all time. No one has produced more, no one has produced better. Few have had the same sense of balance, grace, proportion and noble lines. Georges JACOB is a great artist.
Jean Nicolay - L'art et la manière des manières des maîtres ébénistes français au XVIIIe siècle.

Georges Jacob, the founder of the line, came from Burgundy and became a master seat joiner in 1765, after an apprenticeship with Louis Delanois, another great master of seat joinery in the mid-18th century. From 1773, he worked for the Garde Meuble de la Couronne, a collaboration that was only interrupted by the French Revolution. His clientele was of the highest order, including Queen Marie Antoinette, the King and royal family, the Comte de Provence, the Comtes d'Artois, the Princes de Condé, the Prince de Conti, the Duc de Penthièvre and foreign courts (such as the Prince of Galle, the Court of Sweden and the Elector of Bavaria).

Salon with four molded, carved and cream lacquered beech armchairs, with cabriolet racket backs and circular seats, in the Transition Louis XV - Louis XVI style.
Many of these console chairs were designed to furnish the residences of Louis XVI's younger brother, including, in addition to Bagatelle, the Palais du Temple, the châteaux of Saint-Germain and the Château de Maisons, while the more general term “à la d'Artois” refers to chairs with medallion backs and circular frames based on a model by Blanchard commissioned by the Prince.
A superb and very rare model with “inverted console” armrests and “console feet”, invented by Georges Jacob.
Armrests and legs carved with the same acanthus palmette scroll motif.
Connecting dice carved with a fleuron on the front and pastilles on the back.
Scrolls at the junction of the uprights with the small backrest.
Ornamentation of a rosette in a triangle where the armrests meet the backrest.
Circular belts hollowed out on the inside which, in addition to the console foot and rosette, indicate a design by Georges Jacob.
It's easy to see why these armchairs can be attributed to Jacob without even turning them over and distinguishing their stamps.
Seats by the master of this type are extremely rare on the market and often have prestigious provenances; they can be found in major international public or private collections, such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art for a seat (former Eleanor Elkins Widener Rice collection) that could be perfectly identical (see documentation) or the former Arturo Lopez collection (see documentation), most often in pairs, rarely in this particularly refined version, and much more rarely still in a suite of four as is the case here.
Very similar to the pair in the Musée Carnavalet, they still prevail over the latter in the presence of Jacob's characteristic fleuron (or rosette) and the stamping.

Although a little over 250 years old, they are presented to us today in remarkable original condition.
The seat shafts are not grooved, the belts are not reinforced (except for one), and the lacquer is original (worn and reworked).
They have been reupholstered by our upholsterer and covered with velvet from Maison Lelièvre in Paris.