Jacob Dynasty:
This was one George Jacob, Georges II, François Honoré Georges and Georges Alphonse were active successively from 1765 to 1847.
George JACOB (1739-1814):
Master in 1765, he set up vast workshops in rue de Cléry, then in 1775, 57 rue Meslée. He carried out commissions for the royal family in the Tuileries, for Queen Marie-Antoinette and the princes, brothers of the King. Directly influenced by Louis Delanois, with whom he made his apprenticeship, he made Louis XVI furniture, then Directoire furniture well ahead of his time (console legs, baluster-shaped armrests are his inventions). He stamps his furniture “G. Iacob”. On his seats, sculpture is queen. Inspired by antiquity, he creates seats in the antique style, known as Etruscan seats found in the paintings of the painter Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) and in the Queen’s Dairy in Rambouillet for example. The Revolution placed him in a difficult situation.
Georges II (1768-1803) and François-Honoré Georges JACOB DESMALTER (1770-1841), his two sons took over the workshop and joined forces on 18 April 1796 under the name Jacob Frères. The latter will become La Société Jacob-Desmalter et Cie on the death of George II on October 23rd 1803. Counting up to two hundred workers, they worked with native and exotic inlaid wood and gilding. The Jacob brothers will carry out commissions for personalities of the Consulate period: Joséphine Bonaparte for her residence on rue Chantereine in 1797, the Château de Malmaison, and Juliette Récamier’s room for her property on rue Mont-Blanc, for which they will work closely with the architects Percier & Fontaine. They will receive a gold medal at the Exhibition of Art and Industry Products.
Georges Alphonse JACOB (1799-1870):
Son of Georges II continues to work with “A” stamps. Jacob fils et Cie” until 1831, then from 1831 to the end of his career, in 1847 “Jacob”. His clientele is international and supplies furniture in light wood inlaid. His furniture is exhibited at the Industry’s product exhibitions of 1819, 1823 and 1827. But at the end of the 19th century, his furniture loses its supremacy.
