Jacob Desmalter - Imperial armchair - Rambouillet and Versailles brands - Empire period

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JACOB D. R. MESLEE for the Imperial Furniture Guard
Armchair in molded, carved, re-lacquered and re-championed beech
Doweled assemblies
Stamped on the front crossmember
Several stencilled numbers: “R 737”; an old, illegible label; “V 6331”; a woodcut inventory, probably “V 7205”.
Paris, around 1805.

This armchair stands out for its sobriety and the quality of its assembly. It is in fact a beech barrel, all of which is assembled by doweling. The four legs are saber, the belt slightly curved, the armrest supports in ringed columns. This seat is molded on four sides.

Orders from the Imperial Furniture Store
This is an interesting order model for abundantly furnishing imperial residences, the quantities ordered sometimes reaching several dozen! Although stamped by François-Honoré-Georges Jacob-Desmalter, it is not uncommon for models to be exchanged between colleagues such as Pierre-Benoît Marcion or Jean-Pierre Louis.
The order for this seat probably originated in the Trianon refurnishing campaign. The delivery records show a certain number of seats with four Etruscan legs. However, around 1806, the Garde-Meuble administration sought to give the Château de Rambouillet its former glory, lost in the throes of the Revolution. Consequently, numerous payments from Trianon and Saint-Cloud were made in order to make it a pleasant hunting residence for the Emperor.

19th century inventories
This seat is part of a set comprising 4 identical examples. The inventory drawn up in 1817, under Louis XVIII bears witness to this: "Four armchairs in wood and idem velvet" (painted wood, square shape, green Utrecht velvet, golden nails, striped braid) under the number "R 737" of which The location is given for the bedroom of apartment no. 6 on the first floor of the castle; a space reserved for distinguished guests…
Following the fall of Charles X, Rambouillet emptied itself of its furniture. The furnishings were almost complete in 1834, and this armchair, in a pair, was assigned to the royal estate of Versailles. Under the number “V 7205”, it joins the Hôtel du Grand Control, a flagship building of the Ancien Régime, built by Hardouin-Mansart. Before the Revolution, this place housed the residence of the General Controller of Finance. Under the July Monarchy, this mansion became the home of the architect of the Palace of Versailles: Frédéric Nepveu. The latter will shape the area to allow the creation of the “Museum of the History of France”. It is in this context that we find this seat in the 1840 inventory.
Finally, under the Second Empire, this armchair was assigned to the Macips Pavilion. It was assigned the number "V6331" during the 1855 inventory. Finally, it returned to the Garde-Meuble in Paris in 1875, and was probably part of the Domaine's sales at the turn of the century.

Rambouillet castle
Consecutively royal, imperial and presidential residence, it is today administered by the Center for National Monuments. The Count of Toulouse acquired the estate in 1706. He carried out major embellishment work that his son would continue, particularly for the gardens. We owe the latter the shell cottage, the hermitage and the Chinese kiosk.
The taste for hunting among the Bourbons pushed Louis XVI to buy this estate from his cousin, more convenient than the residence of Saint-Hubert. The king ordered the creation of vast outbuildings in the surrounding area. The estate was shunned by the queen, which did not prevent her husband from building a cottage and a dairy for her in the greatest secrecy in 1787. At the same period, the gardens were remodeled by Hubert Robert.
The castle was then left abandoned approximately between 1793 and 1804.
Napoleon I felt a particular attachment to the residence and tried to make complex compromises between the desired status of hunting residence and the imperatives of etiquette.
The residence continued to receive numerous embellishments, including under the Restoration. Although it is not preserved in the civil list of Louis-Philippe, it is part of it again under Napoleon III. A state reception and presidential hunting residence from the 1880s, numerous developments have significantly damaged the historic character of the residence...

Condition report: Total restoration. Seat stripped, relacquered, seat redone with horsehair. Superb embossed jade green velvet from Casal.
We offer a rechampis consistent with period creations as well as a velvet typical of the period.

To our knowledge, the Mobilier National does not retain a similar model, with four saber legs which is the least common production of all these castle armchairs whose decline

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