A pair of Empire mahogany dressing tables
Solid mahogany and mahogany veneer on oak, replaced mirror panes, ormolu mountings, white marble tops. Rare pair of dressing tables with round swivel mirrors and single drawers resting on turned supports with X-form stretchers. One table stamped "JACOB FRERES RUE MESLEE" below the apron, the other "JACOB D. R. MESLEE". Two small breakages beneath one of the poles that hold the mirror. H 126, W 70.5, D 49.5 cm.
Paris, Jacob frères rue Meslée (1796-1803) and Jacob D. R. Meslée (1803-1813), around 1803.
These two identical dressing tables were not made at the same time. The workshop of the Jacob family has a chequered history. Georges Jacob and his workshop went bankrupt in 1796 after the Revolution. His two sons Georges II and François-Honoré-Georges re-founded it under the name Jacob frères and stamped their furniture JACOB.FRERES RUE.MESLEE. In 1803, the elder brother died, whereupon the younger François-Honoré-Georges founded a new company with his father called Jacob-Desmalter et Cie, named after the land they owned in Cheny. Father and son used the stamp JACOB.D.R.MESLEE from then on. Thus, one of the tables was made before the death of Georges II and the change of the company name - the other after.
Literature
Cf. Nouvel-Kammerer (ed.), Symbols of Power. Napoleon and the Art of the Empire Style 1800 - 1815, Paris 2007, cat. no. 21, for the toilette table of Empress Marie-Louise with a similar design.
Cf. Samoyault, Mobilier français Consulat et Empire, Paris 2009, fig. 399 ff.